The year is 2014. Mac Miller has defied hip-hop norms as a successful, independent act whose sound has impressively evolved from easygoing frat-rap to psychedelic hip-hop. He is living in Los Angeles, burrowed in the hills of excess and fame. He’s high nearly every day, hooked on a slew of …
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With her seventh album as the Weather Station, singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman gets dangerously close to making the 2020s version of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark that so many modern indie artists dream of coming up with. It’s an album that beautifully mixes pop, folk, rock,jazz, and ambient music, taking on …
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“We all do things that we wish we hadn’t done,” Alex Kapranos purrs at the end of the new Franz Ferdinand album, but it sounds like his regrets are too few to mention. The Scottish mod rogues are back with their best album in 15 years, a resurgence for the …
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On the engagingly titled “Cuntology 101,” the U.K. duo Lambrini Girls offers a seminar on what it means to be, well, cunty. “Learning how to let go is cunty/Having cum on my shirt is cunty/Sensing boundaries is cunty/Respecting others is cunty,” they offer, over a danced-up electro-punk whirr that would’ve …
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Ringo always wanted to be a cowboy. He grew up in the toughest corner of Liverpool, dreaming of escaping to the Wild West, hoping to emigrate to Texas. He was the biggest country fan in the Beatles, the one who sang the Buck Owens classic “Act Naturally” as well as …
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It’s been a little over a year since Bad Bunny released his unabashed fifth album, 2023’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana. The rap-forward LP found the global superstar flaunting his lavish lifestyle, including a new Hollywood Hills ZIP code and supermodel girlfriend. Amidst the trap-drenched beats thumping …
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SZA knows how to make an entrance. She had the world fiending so hard for her new Lana — first she announced the album drop for Friday at midnight, then kept everyone chewing our fingernails while she took an extra 15 hours to give it the right finishing touches. But …
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On “Sticcy Situation,” off Snoop Dogg’s ambitious new album, Missionary, which is his second full-length collaboration with mentor Dr. Dre, the golden-voiced star proclaims, “Multi-platinum gangsta shit/Who did it before us?” And 31 years after dropping Doggystyle, his rebellious diamond-selling debut, he cuts right to the heart of his and …
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From Oasis and Aerosmith to Elvis Presley and William Shatner, artists of all stripes just love to cover the rock & roll ur-text of the Beatles. But only a select few succeed in honoring the source material, making it uniquely their own, and creating something worth hearing. Add Lucinda Williams …
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Rosé gets down to brass tacks at the outset of Rosie, her solo full-length debut: “Tell me that I’m special/ Tell me I look pretty,” the Blackpink member asks as the piano chords that open “Number One Girl” rise and fall, fueling the intensity of her request. As one-fourth of …
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