It’s a wish-you-had-gills type of humid September day in Nashville, but Lucinda Williams is comfortably out of the soup, sitting at the kitchen table of Ray Kennedy’s Room & Board Studio telling tales about life on the road to a gang of touring lifers including Tommy Stinson and Jesse Malin. …
Read More »From Janelle Monáe to Miley, Inside 2023's Best Albums So Far
There’s been so much good music in the first half of this year so far that Rolling Stone included no fewer than 85 albums in our recent best-of list. In the latest episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we spotlight some of the most notable albums, from Paramore …
Read More »Thunder, Napkin Scribbles, and Key Changes: How Raye Made 'Escapism' a Smash Hit
It’s ironic how Raye‘s hardest song to sing is also the one she has to perform the most. “People are like, ‘She sounds so out of breath.’ I’m like shut the fuck up! Where do I breathe?” she tells Rolling Stone with a laugh about her smash hit “Escapism.” “Tell …
Read More »Dear Idiots, Please Stop Throwing Things at the Stage
What is going on here? Why are idiot fans throwing stuff during live shows? It’s reached a crisis point in the past couple weeks—a disturbing and loathsome epidemic of fan aggression against performers. On Wednesday, Kelsea Ballerini got hit in the face when a concertgoer threw a bracelet at her—just …
Read More »Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Uzi Vert, Tainy and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week
Welcome to ourweekly rundownofthe best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Olivia Rodrigo returns with a biting single, Lil Uzi Vert leans into his metal influences, and Tainy enlists all of the best of reggaeton for a star-studded debut. Olivia …
Read More »Ringo Starr: The Beatles Would 'Never' Fake John Lennon's Voice with AI
When Paul McCartney announced the Beatles were releasing one final song later this year, with vocals extracted from a John Lennon demo via a machine-learning tool, the press jumped on a narrative of an “AI Beatles song.” Confused fans feared they were about to hear an AI-generated Lennon. But the …
Read More »Everything We Know About Olivia Rodrigo's New Album 'Guts'
When Olivia Rodrigo announced her highly anticipated sophomore album Guts, promised Sept. 8, fans acted accordingly. In the way the singer-songwriter encapsulated her coming-of-age heartbreak intoSourin 2021, we were ready to throw ourselves into her (and our) next chapter of emotional angst — whether in our teens, twenties, thirties, and …
Read More »Rap Pioneer Melle Mel Charged With Felony Domestic Violence
Melle Mel, a member of the pioneering hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, was arrested in Los Angeles on Monday, shortly after attending the 2023 BET Awards. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, he was charged with felony domestic violence. Born Melvin Glover, the artist was …
Read More »Nothing Young Thug Says Would Change People's Opinion About Gunna
Young Thug’s new album Business is Business dropped last week, and, as usual with an A-list rap release, the music isn’t the only thing making headlines. Thug’s third studio album, which debuted at number 2 on the charts, is his first full-length release while incarcerated and awaiting trial on the …
Read More »Bluegrass Lost Two Pioneers in Mere Days: Why Bobby Osborne and Jesse McReynolds Matter
In the span of less than a week, the bluegrass community was rocked to its core: Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne, two pioneering voices and musicians of the “high, lonesome sound,” died within mere days of each other. McReynolds died June 23 at 93, while four days later, Osborne died …
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