Rock fiends everywhere mourned last fall when the Montreal art-punk quartet Ought announced they were calling it quits. The news abruptly ended one of the past decade’s most adventurous indie runs, with the righteous fury of gems like 2014’s More Than Any Other Day and 2015’s Sun Coming Down. Enter …
Read More »
Obongjayar, a London-based, Nigeria-born music maker influenced by afrobeat, soul and hip-hop, is thinking about things from the inside-out on his recent single “Tinko Tinko (Don’t Play Me For A Fool).” After a quick and romantic EP with popular Afrobeats producer Sarz last year, Obongjayar’s upcoming debut album, Some Nights …
Read More »
Oh, you sweet innocent little lamb — you’re mad about who won Album of the Year at the Grammys. Never change. Here’s the thing: Can you name the last six Album of the Year winners off the top of your head, without looking it up? No, you can’t, because you …
Read More »
Even the most ardent Grammy haters would have to admit that the ceremony at least has an ethos: The alternate-universe vision of current popular music it presents is almost its own radio format, where almost everything is more classicist, melodic, and live-instrument-driven than our unfiltered real world. (The choices for …
Read More »
Four years since we last heard from them, South Korean superstars Big Bang are back with a new song, “Still Life.” Big Bang originally made their debut in 2006 and rose to the top of Korean music charts shortly after, making them one of the country’s best-selling boy bands at …
Read More »
For Jennifer Lopez, a November 2014 performance in Macau wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary. She’d have to sing (here, to a backing track) for 40 minutes, accompanied by six to eight dancers; the contract stipulated she’d be furnished with “first-class” sound and lights. No recording or taping of the …
Read More »
Here he comes now, sauntering down the sidewalk in L.A.’s Westchester neighborhood, a few blocks from LAX — iced coffee in hand, friend by his side, and a Whitney Houston song on his mind. “I’m saving all my love for youuuu,” he hum-sings with effortless soul and a soft smile, …
Read More »
As a young drummer, Taylor Hawkins worshipped the Police. “My brother handed me a copy of Zenyatta Mondatta,” Hawkins told the BBC in 2019. “This was 1982. He goes, ‘If you want to be good, you have to play it like this guy.’ My two first major inspirations — probably …
Read More »
Harry Styles has dropped his hotly anticipated new song “As It Was.” It’s the lead single and video from his upcoming third album, Harry’s House, due May 20 — the first music he’s released since his 2019 blockbuster, Fine Line. It’s one of the most emotionally powerful songs he’s ever …
Read More »
“I’m still takin’ my shit/Parking my whip/Now I’m adjusting my fit,” raps Richmond, Virginia’s Fly Anakin on “No Dough,” a breakneck 90-second tour through everything that makes him a deeply exciting MC. Pitted with an adventurous, funk-pumped Madlib beat, Anakin raps in a high-pitched cadence, sort of like AZ if …
Read More »