When Peso Pluma announced his album Éxodo in his historic Rolling Stone cover story earlier this year, he promised to reveal a “darker side” of himself and explore a part of his artistry he hadn’t touched on his excellent 2023 breakthrough, Génesis. “There’s going to be a lot of things …
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Crash begins with Kehlani Parrish tumbling through watery depths. “I’m kind of crazy,” they sing as a backing chorus trills lightly in a reflection of asphyxia. When they hit the ocean’s floor, the beat switches on “GrooveTheory” into a slow, sinuous cut, the kind that will be familiar to fans …
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The genius of David Bowie didn’t lie so much in how he reinvented his personae but in how he concealed their formations from the world. During the space of about a presidential term, Bowie went from Marc Bolan’s personal mime to a coffeehouse space oddity before settling on Ziggy Stardust, …
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People have been clamoring and clowning about the whereabouts of Normani’s debut album for a pop-music eternity. The singer made that noise sound pretty fucking silly when she recently reflected that part of the delay was due to her parents’ simultaneous cancer diagnoses. Normani first announced that her solo debut …
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“I have got some questions/Filed with discontent,” Cola singer-guitarist Tim Darcy informs us on the Montreal post-punk band’s second album. Cola have their own fun little take on modern alienation. Laying bright, bracing guitars over taut, tetchy, minimalist drums and bass, their sound brings to mind Wire and the very …
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John Cale is on a formidable hot streak in his 80s. When the Welsh avant-garde legend released Mercy last year, it was his first album in a decade. But he’s already produced another gem with POPtical Illusion, a masterful tribute to his bleak imagination. Six decades into his career, Cale …
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The title One Hand Clapping, taken from a Japanese kōan, tells you nearly everything you need to know about Paul McCartney and Wings‘ 1974 Abbey Road sessions: These performances are an event rarely seen and heard even less often. For years, you’ve had to imagine what didn’t leak out from …
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Like many loving mothers, Témìládè Openiyi’s mom prophesied that her daughter would be extraordinary. She had imagined her baby girl on a more traditional path (college, office job) as she reared her, but when Témìládè – whose name means “The crown is mine” in Yoruba – decided instead to remake …
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Who doesn’t wanna dance with Charli XCX? The U.K. star has been pop’s party girl since her debut, writing high-octane hits for other artists, like Icona Pop’s “I Love It” and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” while saving her most extreme and wildest avant-garde impulses for her own excellent LPs, most recently …
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A crowded bar, copious drinking, a strummed guitar and a chorus that will make even abstainers want to shout along: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has it all, which explains why it’s vying for summer-mainstay status with Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” and Post Malone and Morgan …
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