Music
Wendy's Serves Up a Beefy Mixtape
The fast food chain's mixtape We Beefin? explores an uncharted outreach strategy.
Music
Test 2018 posts
Four Bands on Sex, Politics, and the Weather
New albums by Rhye, Physically Sick, Toni Braxton, and Johnny Jewel share a warped relationship to their ostensible themes.
Test 2018 posts
A K-Pop Flash in the Darkness
As with any deceased musician, there’s the temptation to speculate how much Jonghyun’s real-life suffering informed the music.
Music
The Soaring Audio-Visual Art of Andrew Bird’s Live Show
With Echolocations, the folk musician and indie rocker has made site-specific performances a part of his live tour.
Test 2018 posts
William Eggleston’s First Album Is Colored by Dream-Like Improvisations
Eggleston often cites Bach as his musical hero, and it shows.
Music
Electronica Against Trump
Whether as respite, inspiration, distraction, or candy, music carries political utility simply by tapping the social value of pleasure.
Test 2018 posts
Oceans of Sound: Jlin, Relax World, Slowdive, Thundercat
The best background music is also the best full-immersion music.
Test 2018 posts
Pop Fixations: St Vincent, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Portugal the Man
Three of these four albums count among 2017’s best, and they all share the same producer.
Test 2018 posts
Shimmer and Melancholy in SZA's 'Ctrl'
The songs on Ctrl occupy a space where insecurities over sex, romance, and gender are credibly illuminated, coexisting as they do with music committed to functionalism and the pleasure principle.
Music
Anatomy of a Christmas Song
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and kitsch is in the air.
Music
The Quintessential Millennial Romance Album
Khalid, a 19-year-old vocal prodigy, looks at millennial culture and doesn’t see hedonism; it’s just life.
Music
Reveling in the Beauty of Emo-Rap
Critics overstate the extent to which Uzi and other new rappers have absorbed the influence of emo, which lately seems to have become a buzzword for vulnerability and interiority.