20. Lee Jones – Down Into Light [Independent] If One Grain saw Jones tinkering with a more subdued approach, Down Into Light takes things a Continue Reading
Music Dose
Taylor Swift Has Written the Best Music of Her Career with 'evermore' and 'folklore'
For so long, Taylor Swift has been the girl who sang her heart out about her string of celebrity boyfriends, seemingly to their eventual detriment. Continue Reading
Hip-Hop Gets A Bold New Release “In Ya Face” By TwoCeez
The rapper from Las Vegas known in the industry as TwoCeez brings a bold new sound to the urban scene with his latest drop, “In Continue Reading
Dirty Harry Moves Fast & Strong With Yet Another Sophisticated Drop Titled “Shake Back”
Dirty Harry, straight outta his base in Broward, Florida, has been dropping multiple sounds this year, building a solid reputation for himself with songs like Continue Reading
The 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2020
Susan Alcorn – Pedernal (Relative Pitch) By now, creative music folks know Susan Alcorn for her feat in bringing the pedal steel guitar to the Continue Reading
The Avalanches Say 'We Will Always Love You'
We Will Always Love You begins with what sounds like a teen girl in the throes of a breakup. “I will always love you,” she Continue Reading
Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez, and Jack DeJohnette Are 'Live at Ronnie Scott's'
Pianist Bill Evans stands today as one of the two most influential jazz musicians on his instrument after Bud Powell. McCoy Tyner is the other Continue Reading
Darren Jessee Marches to His Own Beat on Dynamic New Solo Record
In a different era, Darren Jessee’s career would seem perfectly normal. As things stand, it’s something of an anomaly. He’s best known as the drummer Continue Reading
'The Other Side of Madness' Is the Most Obscure Charles Manson Film
The Tate-LaBianca murders, commonly called the Charles Manson murders, have inspired countless films, some direct and some indirectly based on those events of August 1969. Continue Reading
The Best Books of 2020: Fiction
How many times, how many ways, could we tell the force and effect of the cultural-political winds throughout the years not by simply reading the Continue Reading
Rare Monk Releases Second LP Single “Statistic Vandals”
Portland-based Rare Monk is set to release their sophomore album, ‘Never Really Over’, in early 2021. Written and recorded leading up to the write-off that Continue Reading
Eggshells Share Moody Second LP Single “Expectations”
Ahead of their forthcoming album, Seattle-based experimental pop outfit Eggshells (Peter & Benjamin Verdoes and Sera Han) shares the second single titled Expectations. It’s a moody Continue Reading
Josh Gilligan Looks Inward On Existential “Where Can I Go”
Where Can I Go is the latest offering from Nashville-based Josh Gilligan and arrives at the end of a tumultuous and uncertain year. Inspired by Continue Reading
The 15 Best Pop Albums of 2020
15. Love Fame Tragedy – Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave [Good Soldier] Matthew “Murph” Murphy of the Wombats somehow finds time to eat and sleep, Continue Reading
The Best Books of 2020: Non-Fiction
Anyone familiar with PopMatters knows that, but for our playful moments (well, even within our playful moments) we put great emphasis on the matters of Continue Reading
He's the Leader: An Interview with Aretha's "Main Man" Fonzi Thornton
December 6, 2015: Fonzi Thornton is standing onstage at the Kennedy Center. The Queen of Soul holds court at the piano. It’s the ultimate manifestation Continue Reading
Fox Academy Release Video For “Hornet”
Since discovering Fox Academy earlier this year, I’ve obsessively listened to them. September saw the release of their latest lo-fi offering, ‘Rabbit’, and now Michael Continue Reading
The 20 Best Metal Albums of 2020
20. Black Curse – Endless Wound (Sepulchral Voice) In 2015 members of acclaimed acts Primitive Man, Khemmis, and Blood Incantation discussed their love for the Continue Reading
Jesu's Justin Broadrick Discusses Parenting, Anxiety, and How Nostalgia Can Be Heavy
We tend to think of beauty and harshness, sensitivity and anger as opposites. While it’s understandable that language hews towards a dichotomous model for sorting Continue Reading
The Passion of Diego Armando Maradona
There are some who confer beatitude – or, at the very least, that quality that the Argentine fabulist Jorge Luis Borges called everness – simply Continue Reading