Lauv broke through in the late 2010s with “I Like Me Better,” a crushed-out electropop song with spare instrumentation and a hushed vocal that shrouded his confessions of vulnerability in extreme-close-up intimacy. Since the release of that single, the singer-songwriter—real name Ari Leff—has established himself as a front-line reporter for …
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Five years ago, DJ and producer Calvin Harris released Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1, an All-Star Weekend for pop-EDM: There was Frank Ocean teaming up with Migos on the breezy “Slide,” and Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams being flanked by Big Sean on the hiccuping “Feels.” It was part flex …
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King Princess broke through in the late 2010s with “1950,” a melancholic ballad that evoked deeply hued Fifties movies as it quivered with unrequited desire. In the short time since, Mikaela Mullaney Straus’ conversational lyrics, husky voice, and disarming honesty have helped make her one of Gen Z’s leading queer …
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Beyoncé is the dark-mode version of the pop megastar — an upgrade that has now become the norm. The Houston luminary is sleeker, cooler, and Blacker, making everything about the way we viewed things a hot-minute ago seem bland, primitive, and flat-out draining. Indeed, the 28-time Grammy winner may be …
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The stark cover of Maggie Rogers’ second album makes a statement: Gone are the twilight hues and soft focus of her 2019 debut,Heard It in a Past Life,and their suggestion of a young artist working her way through her own thrilling ascendance. That album capped off a several-year process of …
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Two years ago, Mobile, Alabama rapper Flo Milli dazzled listeners with her bubbly cadence and dexterous flows on her debut mixtape, Ho, Why Is You Here? Her debut album, You Still Here, Ho?, brings more of the same. There are a few important upgrades: the rapper lands cameos from the …
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“I can take five years off ‘cause my shit is timeless,” claims Joey Bada$$ on “The Baddest,” the opener to his third official album, 2000. The Brooklyn rapper takes pains to assert that he’s only leveled up since. No, he doesn’t mention his breakout acting performance in the second season …
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“I don’t ask myself for nothing anymore/My peace is freedom from the masses,” Jack White declares onEntering Heaven Alive, his second new record of the year. As statements of purpose go, this one is hardly breaking news: Over the last two-plus decades, especially since the dissolution of the White Stripes, …
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“‘Cause somebody’s gonna figure me out / It’s what I am, it’s what I was, It’s what I wanna become,” Beach Bunny’s Lili Trifilio sings with resignation on “Entropy,” the opener of the band’s striking sophomore album. The line has a double meaning: She yearns for the liberation that will …
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There is no reason to believe that Lizzo intended to make a political album with Special. These 12 songs are a sonic bouquet of soul, R&B, hip-hop, and pop, about the radical joy of facing down your past and loving yourself anyway. The album takes us on an intensely vulnerable …
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