Nashville was once famously called a ‘ten year town,’ because that’s about how long an artist has to make it there. Maggie Rose has been at it longer than that. Along the way, she struggled to break through in mainstream country music by submitting herself to the machine: playing CMA …
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Rosie Tucker sure knows how to grab your attention with an opening line: “I hope no one had to piss in a bottle at work to get me the thing I ordered on the internet.” That’s just one of the anti-capitalist zingers in the brilliantly titled “All My Exes Live …
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Fans of Marcus King might get a bit of a surprise when they throw on his new record. The South Carolina native built his success on his double-barrel growl of a voice and roiling, capacious guitar crunch, which placed him squarely in the Southern jam-band tradition. King’s last LP, 2022’s …
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On their latest album, American Primitive, the Old 97’s have sandwiched songs about assessing their life choices and serial monogamy with reminders that the world is a doomed and hopeless place and that if you’ve found even a modicum of joy, then that day is a triumph. On the first …
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Hempstead, Long Island-born MC Roc Marciano has frequently referenced his stage name with his project titles: Marcberg, Marci Beaucoup, Marcielago, to name a few. His new release is Marciology, which dropped with a mystery comic-derived album cover that ominously mentions “a cult…..” Of course, more than a decade and 11 …
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Vampire Weekend’s recordings have frequently been characterized by a kind of tidiness, a clean fusion of Ezra Koenig’s pop songwriting smarts and the group’s instrumental economy. The band’s new album Only God Was Above Us offers something different, pivoting away from the brighter, jammier aspects of 2019’s Father of the …
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For their 12th album, the Black Keys have reset their clock with a project they’d first considered almost 20 years ago. In the early 2000s, when Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were first hustling their way out of Akron, Ohio, they toured as an opener for Beck. They hit it …
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From the start of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé makes it clear this ain’t your typical country album. Opening epic “Ameriican Requiem” is part gospel, part-Queen, part-Buffalo Springfield as the artist lays out both her intentions and lineage. “Used to say I spoke ‘Too country’/And the rejection came, said I wasn’t ‘country …
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When we last left Sheryl Crow, five years ago, she’d essentially retired from making albums. With its all-star cast, from Willie Nelson and Neil Young through St. Vincent and Jason Isbell, her 2019 LP Threads truly felt like a retirement party attended by all her musician pals; all that was …
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SiR’s stately croon exudes grown-and-sexy. The Inglewood, California, R&B singer-songwriter’s style is careful and studied, influenced by the timelessness of Stevie Wonder and John Mayer’s sensitive edge. His 2019 release, Chasing Summer, was a gauzy yarn that still holds up in the field of modern R&B. With its bounce and …
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