Tag Archives: music-album-reviews

Kaytranada makes music designed for club systems that can still translate to people who never go out. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in Montreal, his style is rooted in beat maestros like J Dilla, Madlib, and Flying Lotus. But the warmth of his music is less dusty-analog (a la …

Upon announcing Wishbone earlier this year, Conan Gray described the experience of these songs pouring out of him over the last two years. His latest was written mostly alone while on tour and became “an egregiously niche soundtrack” to his own life and for the friends he let hear it …

Before she dropped one of the year’s catchiest singles, “Sue Me,” Audrey Hobert cut her teeth writing for established pop stars. The singer-songwriter worked with her pal Gracie Abrams on “That’s So True,” “Risk,” and other highlights from the singer’s 2024 album, The Secret of Us. More than a year …

Hedonism can be a tricky topic in pop music. Indulgence can tip over into self-indulgence all too easily; holding back can result in a timidity that makes a song sound at odds with its subject. On her third album, the boundary-busting singer Amaarae has figured out the ideal leavening agent …

Since emerging as a hyperactive, scaffolding-scaling rapper in the early 2010s, MGK — formerly Machine Gun Kelly, born Colson Baker — has forged his own path through the pop-cultural consciousness. He’s feuded with Eminem; he’s engaged in egregious red-carpet PDA with his onetime flame Megan Fox; he’s acted in movies …

Depending on how tapped in of a hip-hop head you are, the following statement is either a fact of life or a revelation: Roc Marciano is one of the most impactful MCs of his generation. Since 2010’s MarcBerg, he’s been a catalyst of a new indie rap scene, dropping albums …

Baptist preacher and blues musician the Rev. Robert Jones Sr. once told an interviewer that “the sacred and the secular grew up right next to each other,” backing his claim with Psalm 30:5: “Weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning.” Such is the sentiment behind Pressing …

At 34 years old and with 12 years in the rap industry, JID finds himself matriculating from a student of the game to a leader. As he does so, the title of his fourth album, God Does Like Ugly, suggests he’s looking to the ultimate one. Despite the enormous successes …

Earlier this week, a tweet from a Young Thug parody account clowned Gunna’s new album, The Last Wun, by proclaiming, “Nobody wunna hear that shit.” The message went viral as sundry accounts spread disinformation that it was from Thugger himself. It served as a reminder that no matter how much …

The economy might be slowing down, but they’re still firing on all cylinders at the Black Keys‘ retro-rock factory. “Time don’t slow/It’s passing you by/No matter how we try,”Dan Auerbach intones on the smooth-rolling title track from No Rain, No Flowers, the band’s 13th album. If anything, Auerbach and drummer …