Five years after the release of David Bowie‘s first masterpiece, Hunky Dory — which replaced the perception of Bowie as a one-hit space oddity with the idea Bowie as an ever-ch-ch-changing moon-age messiah — he offered up some characteristic mythmaking. In a 1976 Melody Maker interview, Bowie claimed Hunky Dory‘s …
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It makes sense that Eladio Carrión started out as a comedian known for his uncanny ability to impersonate any artist he came across. Now a rapper himself, he keeps leveraging that skill, shapeshifting and transforming his flow across unexpected beats, coming up with something a little different each time. The …
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From the Beatles to Odd Future, when a beloved, successful, and ceiling-shattering group parts ways, it always feels bittersweet. Since arriving in the early 2010s, Texas-bred alternative hip-hop crew Brockhampton have been one of rap’s most artistically and socially progressive groups. But considering their record-label woes, the 2018 sexual-assault allegations …
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“It’s been a long, strange year/ everyone is sad,” Natalie Mering notes near the end of her musical project Weyes Blood’s fifth album. That observation comes at the outset of “The Worst Is Done,” which finds Mering taking stock of recent history’s bleakness and casting a weary glance upon any …
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It took Guns N’ Roses less than a year to go from hard-rock paupers, targeted by L.A. street urchins with stuttering taunts of “Welcome to the jungle, you’re gonna die” (or, worse, “feel my serpentine?”), to become the Most Dangerous Band in the World. They were unprepared for fame. Their …
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Rauw Alejandro has been known to spin off in unexpected directions. The Puerto Rican star, recognized for his quick-footed, anti-gravity choreography, has danced his way through a dizzying mix of genres: Risque, racy raps on his two-part EP Trap Cake, thudding old-school reggaeton on Afrodisiaco. Last year’s Vice Versa was …
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Tu Historia, the eighth album from venerable Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas, finds her sounding at once reassuringly familiar and totally brand-new. Over the past 20 years, Venegas has seamlessly transitioned from Latina alterna-rock firebrand to pop songstress and rock en español icon, as evidenced by her show-closing profile on Netflix’s …
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Christine and the Queens‘ frontperson, Chris, has spent most of his life yearning for simplicity — to understand his own sexuality and gender but longing mostly for the simplest emotion: love. Unfortunately for Chris, yearning is what he does best. That anxious feeling is what makes his music so invigorating. …
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The magic of the original soundtrack album has been a bit lost in recent years —too often, they’re anchored by a few new tracks primed for the top of the charts and some pertinent oldies, then padded out by snippets of score and dialogue. But the soundtrack to Black Panther: …
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In 2006, a 36-year-old Jay-Z made his highly anticipated return to rap music after a brief yet celebrated “retirement.” On Kingdom Come, the self-proclaimed best rapper alive attempted to strike a balance between club anthems and mature reflections. Critical opinion was divided, and rap fans took aim at its closing …
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