“As exciting as watching trees sprout” is decidedly a pejorative idiom. Still, it’s somehow the perfect way to describe these elegiac bops. Indeed, Devonté Hynes, on his fifth studio LP as Blood Orange, manages to make life’s contemplative moments seem urgent, celestial, and rehabilitative. No actual trees sprout on the …
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It’s not easy to be a convincing humorist in pop music. By design, lyrics are always meant to be a little quirky but few pop stars have mastered the art of hamming it up quite like Sabrina Carpenter. On Man’s Best Friend, Carpenter is in break-up mode the only way …
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Last year, Earl Sweatshirt’s verse on “Words2LiveBy” went viral, as some fans were perplexed to hear him rapping on such an uptempo beat. He’s become known for rhyming in hushed tones over melancholy production, a sound that’s birthed an entire wing of like-minded indie rappers. But that’s just one part …
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Hayley Williams has always been bold — from her brightly-hued hair dye to her kickass attitude as the lead singer of Paramore. When it comes to music, the singer is equally unafraid. She belts her heart out and spits brutally honest lyrics across the band’s discography and her own solo …
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“Another good idea/I saved the messages you sent the night you tried to sleep with her/Happy new year,” Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson — a.k.a. the Irish singer-songwriter CMAT — coos at the outset of “Tree Six Foive,” a barn-dance kiss-off from her third album Euro-Country. It offers a neat encapsulation of …
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Since she first captured country music’s attention with her debut album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, nearly a decade ago, Margo Price has been one of the genre’s most prolific songwriters, with a passionate, independent spirit that channels the outlaw legends of the past. With this in mind, after a few albums …
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For the better part of the past two years, Zach Top has been proving that the early success he found on TikTok is no fluke. The Sunnyside, Washington, country singer, songwriter, and guitarist first turned heads online with his bluegrass videos. Still, after moving to Nashville in 2021, he quickly …
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Past the pain and grandeur that accompany growth can sometimes come the realization that you might end up exactly where you started. The Auckland, New Zealand-based four piece the Beths reckon with this conundrum on their fourth studio album, Straight Line Was a Lie, which adds a more introspective tone …
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Last year, Ghostface Killah told Rolling Stone that he was disappointed by the rap landscape, lamenting, “A lot of stuff be regular darts.” He added, “I don’t hear niggas doing storytelling no more.” His thoughts went viral, even becoming the catalyst for an additional conversation with Stephen A. Smith. While …
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East Atlanta rapper Young Nudy makes street-rap albums intended to soundtrack all-night gaming sessions and riding ‘round town, smoked out with nothing to do. He has a few important qualities that elevate him among the street-rap chaff: his cousin is platinum-certified star 21 Savage, and he has a strong ear …
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