Music
James Blake Grows Up
Assume Form is Blake’s first album to acknowledge his status as a pop presence, but it also feels like an attempt to broaden his range, to correct the way he became associated with generic melancholy.
Music
Music
The Odd Comforts of Alternative Rock
Traditionalism often enables quiet triumphs. Or loud triumphs, if you turn the volume up.
Music
Turning Inward with Robyn, Gazelle Twin, Rosalia, and Low
Four introspective new albums depict the outside world in microcosm.
Music
Bhad Bhabie's Fear of Fame
Bhad Bhabie is our era’s perfect musical antihero: a teenager forced into the spotlight, learning to rap as a survival mechanism.
Music
Janelle Monáe's Political Sex
Monáe’s Dirty Computer is an ambitious, politically outspoken, all-encompassing pop-R&B statement album.
Music
The Pistol Annies, Alone and Together
Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley are so consistent and prolific, independently and in their supertrio, they elicit hyperbole.
Music
A Compilation of Commercial Christmas Jingles
Enjoy these Christmas recordings while you can, for humming these tunes is forbidden after the new year.
Music
The Protest Music We’ve Been Waiting For
New albums from Superchunk, Noname, Blood Orange, and Tune-Yards strike a blow for the resistance.
Music
How Much Dylan Do We Need?
The Bootleg series once served a useful function, but it has long since tipped over into decadence.
Music
The Latin Invasion in Pop
Thanks to the growing popularity of Latin trap music, Latin pop is having a heyday in the United States.
Music
Yoko Ono Sings As If Our Lives Depended on It
With Warzone, the artist revisits some of her older anthems, whose themes are more timely than ever.
Music
How to Construct a K-Pop Thrill
With the exception of Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” the American market has been tough for Korean record labels to crack, until now.