Music
Tom Petty R.I.P.
For Tom Petty, rock 'n' roll means playing a good show for the crowd every night, every week, every month, indefinitely.
Lucas Fagen
Music
LCD Soundsystem Looks in the Mirror, Again
LCD Soundsystem's American Dream is a passably punkoid rock album, fiery in places, elsewhere clunky.
Music
Where Body Meets Machine
The music of Japanese Breakfast’s Soft Sounds from Another Planet trembles, alive with possibility.
Music
Rappers Rap Big Statements: Tyler the Creator, Vince Staples, Playboi Carti, Logic
Each artist's new album inhabits its own idiosyncratic sonic universe.
Music
Arcade Fire Gives Up on Life
Didn’t U2 already make these albums in the ‘90s?
Music
K-Pop Conquers the World
I.U., Day6, Ignito, and Lovelyz release new albums that run from exhausting to simply perfect.
Music
Kendrick Lamar Goes Back to Bangers
Tonally, Damn is Lamar’s definitive album, refining his craft down to its quintessence.
Music
Fifty Years of Wandering in Sgt. Pepper Land
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is better than a merely great rock album — it’s a glorious exemplar of goofy fluffery.
Music
Synthesizer Gloss and Bubblefunk Guitar
With their new album After Laughter, Paramore’s rebel yells have morphed into breezy hooks.
Music
Trapped by Tropes: Spoon, The New Pornographers, Alt-J, Charly Bliss
New albums by four indie-rock bands recycle and repurpose decades-old sounds, sometimes striking out and sometimes succeeding.
Music
Twelve Reasons Why the Chainsmokers Are Failing at Love
Such is the appeal of the blank slate.
Music
The Intentional Fallacy Is Evil: Festival Anthems, Fifty Shades Darker, Workout Motivation, 35 Hits from the ‘70s & ‘80s
With any number of noncanonical, shelf-filling compilations released on the market every day, the failure to review them makes sense, as they're rarely any good — but rarely doesn’t mean never.