Deceit, despite its jokey title, is not a happy album. I recall my father saying to me once that he couldn’t express how it felt Continue Reading
Music Dose
Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers Bio 'Somewhere You Feel Free' Feels Constrained
If one wants to write a book about a rock ‘n’ roll band, there are only two ways to do it: give new information that Continue Reading
Pianist Holly Bowling Discusses Grateful Dead, Jazz, and Jam Bands
There isn’t a logical explanation for the persistence—or, really, the swelling—of interest in music of the Grateful Dead in 2020. The Dead’s visionary and spiritual Continue Reading
Jacking-in to Kathryn Bigelow's Lost Classic 'Strange Days'
When Strange Days released in the US in the fall of 1995, the internet and the idea of digital connectivity was new enough that forward-thinking Continue Reading
This Heat Remade the Rock Song Template on 1980's "Health and Efficiency"
Given the shadowy avant-gardism of their self-titled debut a year earlier, it may come as a bit of a surprise to find how bright This Continue Reading
Ariana Grande 's 'Positions' Is Pure Pop Sugar
Ariana Grande’s Positions is a perfect pop album in a very conservative sense of the term. The songs average under three minutes. Innovation is on Continue Reading
Jennifer Castle Quietly Observes 'Monarch Season'
The most distinctive aspect of Canadian singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle’s latest release, Monarch Season, is its stillness. Castle sings and plays guitar and piano quietly on Continue Reading
Rosie Darling Introduces Herself to Manic World Whilst Wishing and "Coping"
In the midst of a global pandemic, 22-year-old singer-songwriter Rosie Darling seems to be faring just fine as she sets the stage for the next Continue Reading
Yann Brassard Released An Extra Groovy Single Without Any Instrumentals But His Mouth – “Overnight”
Following his previous pop releases – two French tracks, “Mission Commando” and “Dangereuse”, Yann Brassard is now back with a brand new release in English, Continue Reading
Postcolonial Re-imaginings in Mambèty's 'Touki Bouki'
The French New Wave finally made its way to Africa in the late 1960s, thanks in part to the French postcolonial presence on the African Continue Reading
Jim White Invites Us to a 'Misfit's Jubilee'
The weird and wonderful Jim White is as much a performance artist as he is a musician. He deftly combines different pop styles in juxtaposition Continue Reading
LÉON's 'Apart' Is Her Most Directly Personal Work
“I know I’m better off solo / Shouldn’t have to be this hard,” sings LÉON on her second album Apart, the follow-up to her 2019 Continue Reading
The 100 Best Albums of the 2000s: 20-1
20. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It in People [Arts & Crafts/Paper Bag] The diffidently-sung “Anthem for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” will reach you, even if Continue Reading
The 100 Best Albums of the 2000s: 40-21
40. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning [Saddle Creek] Released in 2005 alongside the stylistically opposed Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, I’m Wide Awake, Continue Reading
When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Eras (excerpt)
Excerpted from When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Eras by Claudrena N. Harold (footnotes omitted). Copyright 2020 by the Board of Continue Reading
Old School Politicking Gets Powerful Punk Backing on Dead End America's 'Crush the Machine'
A standard-issue modern music gripe, subject of a ton of clickbait articles, is, “why are there no protest songs anymore?” The answers vary, but the Continue Reading
Adulkt Life Feature Huggy Bear Vocalist on 'Book of Curses'
Adulkt Life are a new punk band helmed by music veterans. Vocalist Chris Rowley fulfilled that same role in the early 1990s riot grrl act Continue Reading
'The Great Dismal' Is Nothing's Sharpest and Most Consistent album
That Nothing’s new album would be called The Great Dismal is probably the least surprising thing that has happened all year. The title seems almost Continue Reading
Moira Smiley and VOCO's "The Call" Says Stay Strong in Shared Humanity (premiere)
Solemnity rings through the breathtakingly wordless introduction to “The Call”, the new a cappella single taken from Moira Smiley and VOCO’s upcoming album In Our Continue Reading
Iller Instinct: An Interview with Hip-Hop Artists Ill Scholars
The two first met at a Roots show and in no time did they begin exchanging beats and rhymes. MC Mattic and producer Johnny Madwreck Continue Reading