Having embraced adulthood with her band Paramore, in her solo debut Hayley Williams advances to full self-actualization.
Lucas Fagen
Lucas Fagen's favorite artform is popular music, and that means popular music—bland corporate trash and faceless functional product in addition to critically respectable touchstones and obscure dregs of arcana. He writes reviews for Hyperallergic arguing this preference.
Posted inMusic
Pop Blasts Away
Head-banging new music by 100 Gecs, Amnesia Scanner, Haru Nemuri, and Machine Girl.
Posted inMusic
The Two Sides of Contemporary Hip-Hop
The question of genre is a prevalent one in hip-hop: should it stick to its bare bones or incorporate other styles?
Posted inMusic
Bob Dylan’s Collage Artistry
Always a master thief, in recent years Dylan has become a collage artist as well.
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The Limits of a Rapper’s Comedy
Lunging for the most obvious jokes on Find the Beat, Blueface is desperate to be heard and understood.
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Reflections of America in Rap
Four new rap releases reflect the divided state of the nation.
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Fiona Apple’s Joyful Racket
Every Fiona Apple album has been sharper and more abrasive than the last, while remaining true to her characteristic hybrid of folk singer-songwriter conventions and vaudevillian musical comedy.
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The Percussive Side of Electronica
The four electronic albums reviewed below speak to the importance of rhythm — or maybe just drums.
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Poppy Captures the Chaos of Pop
By committing to chaos in itself, Poppy captures a spirit of play, a sense that anything is possible.
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In a Time of Crisis, the Beat Goes On
Some people turn to relaxing music in a crisis. Others need chaos to drown out everything else. I need both, preferably at the same time.
Posted inMusic
Selena Gomez Gets Into Her Groove
Gomez’s songs fit standard teenpop/R&B codes while excising the genre’s usual false cheer to achieve a cold minimalism.