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MetalMatters: The Best New Heavy Metal Albums of January 2021

Wardruna investigate Scandinavian folk dimensions, the Body forge an assault of extravagant noise and distortion, and Portrayal of Guilt eloquently cross over between hardcore and extreme metal.

Music

MetalMatters: The Best New Heavy Metal Albums of January 2021

Wardruna investigate Scandinavian folk dimensions, the Body forge an assault of extravagant noise and distortion, and Portrayal of Guilt eloquently cross over between hardcore and extreme metal.

10cc's Kevin Godley on Crowdsourcing and Going Solo After All These Years

Having long moved on from his days in 10cc, Kevin Godley took decades to unleash a solo record. He solicited songs from random people and tells us how he's in good contact with Gotye and how he can't stand happy music.

Shame Are an Unstoppable Force on 'Drunk Tank Pink'

Shame's Drunk Tank Pink emphasizes something that's become even rarer than a rock star: a legitimately exciting band.

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne on Worry, Freetime, and His Band's New "Head" Trip

Wayne Coyne: "I think you're hearing music that says, 'I'm concerned. I don't know how this is going to go and I'm scared. I don't know what to do.' I think that's just the nature of a lot of Flaming Lips music and I think it's the nature of a lot of people's states of mind right now."

Rhye's 'Home' Is Ambitious in Approach

Home is an ambitious effort and contains some of the most exciting music released by Rhye.

Post-rocker Chris Brokaw Is Onto Something with 'Puritan'

Chris Brokaw's Puritan continues to make an excellent argument for the songwriter's inclusion among the heavy hitters of post-rock.

Film

Actress Nina Hoss on the Art of Performance

Nina Hoss plays the lead character, Lisa, in Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond's My Little Sister (Schwesterlein). In this interview with PopMatters, she discusses her intimate relationship with the camera and the joy she's found in giving up control.

On Jean-Luc Godard's Game of Despair, 'Pierrot le fou'

Pierrot le fou is filled with cars, guns, cash, and books, but Godard is more interested in what exists between these "definite things", namely the thoughts inhabiting empty space.

Star Wars Alternate Endings That Give Padmé Dignity

In the Star Wars trilogy, Anakin has most of his limbs severed and is thrown into a raging river of lava by his best friend, and Padmé? Padmé dies of a broken heart?



Books

Vuillard's 'The War of the Poor' and Historical Storytelling

Éric Vuillard's engaging The War of the Poor takes a literary approach that is more art than history, but that is a wonderful way to convey important historical events and their long reach into our troubled times.

Amanda Gorman's History Lesson: An Inaugural Poem in the Shadow of White Supremacy

From the onset, Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb", dissolves the ideology that a presidential inauguration announces the new and deracinates the present from the past.

Visual Culture's Power Over You

Visual culture is not just ubiquitous, it's also a potent force.

Television

'City So Real' and the Politics of a Modern Metropolis

One of the crowning achievements of City So Real is that it shows that the fight for racial justice in Chicago became adopted by people of all identities thanks to the tireless work of organizers.

The Artless Losers: Trump and Monty Python's Black Knight

Are we meant to admire those who, like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, just won't concede defeat?

Why Racially Diverse British Period Dramas Matter

To this day, the history of people of color in England is often erased from dominant cultural narratives. Fictions, however, can collectively shift cultural narratives; we need stories to counter stories.



Recent
Books

Vuillard's 'The War of the Poor' and Historical Storytelling

Éric Vuillard's engaging The War of the Poor takes a literary approach that is more art than history, but that is a wonderful way to convey important historical events and their long reach into our troubled times.

Film

Actress Nina Hoss on the Art of Performance

Nina Hoss plays the lead character, Lisa, in Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond's My Little Sister (Schwesterlein). In this interview with PopMatters, she discusses her intimate relationship with the camera and the joy she's found in giving up control.

Music

10cc's Kevin Godley on Crowdsourcing and Going Solo After All These Years

Having long moved on from his days in 10cc, Kevin Godley took decades to unleash a solo record. He solicited songs from random people and tells us how he's in good contact with Gotye and how he can't stand happy music.

Music

MetalMatters: The Best New Heavy Metal Albums of January 2021

Wardruna investigate Scandinavian folk dimensions, the Body forge an assault of extravagant noise and distortion, and Portrayal of Guilt eloquently cross over between hardcore and extreme metal.

Television

'City So Real' and the Politics of a Modern Metropolis

One of the crowning achievements of City So Real is that it shows that the fight for racial justice in Chicago became adopted by people of all identities thanks to the tireless work of organizers.

Music

Shame Are an Unstoppable Force on 'Drunk Tank Pink'

Shame's Drunk Tank Pink emphasizes something that's become even rarer than a rock star: a legitimately exciting band.

Mixed Media

SZNS Say Women Don't Have to "Behave"

SZNS are a rising Los Angeles women-fronted pop quartet with a new electropop banger celebrating female empowerment.

Music

Paul McCartney Goes Back to the Home Studio for 'McCartney III'

Pop's premiere one-man-band Paul McCartney makes the ultimate lockdown album in McCartney II.

Music

Post-rocker Chris Brokaw Is Onto Something with 'Puritan'

Chris Brokaw's Puritan continues to make an excellent argument for the songwriter's inclusion among the heavy hitters of post-rock.

Music

Buzzcocks Beat the Bootleggers with 'Late for the Train'

Buzzcocks' Late for the Train features concert recordings and radio sessions from the second age of punk rock's most resilient romantics.

Music

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne on Worry, Freetime, and His Band's New "Head" Trip

Wayne Coyne: "I think you're hearing music that says, 'I'm concerned. I don't know how this is going to go and I'm scared. I don't know what to do.' I think that's just the nature of a lot of Flaming Lips music and I think it's the nature of a lot of people's states of mind right now."

Music

Rhye's 'Home' Is Ambitious in Approach

Home is an ambitious effort and contains some of the most exciting music released by Rhye.

Culture

Amanda Gorman's History Lesson: An Inaugural Poem in the Shadow of White Supremacy

From the onset, Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb", dissolves the ideology that a presidential inauguration announces the new and deracinates the present from the past.

Film

On Jean-Luc Godard's Game of Despair, 'Pierrot le fou'

Pierrot le fou is filled with cars, guns, cash, and books, but Godard is more interested in what exists between these "definite things", namely the thoughts inhabiting empty space.

Mixed Media

ISLE Combine the Electronic and Organic on "Lone Wolf"

Dutch indietronica duo ISLE share their latest single, "Lone Wolf", a dreamy orchestral pop number.

Books

Visual Culture's Power Over You

Visual culture is not just ubiquitous, it's also a potent force.

Music

Sleaford Mods' 'Spare Ribs' Offers a Rich and Welcome Catharsis

Sleaford Mods' 11th studio album runs a glorious gamut from righteous anger to poignant introspection in a masterpiece of incisive cultural commentary and fully realized artistic vision.

Culture

The Artless Losers: Trump and Monty Python's Black Knight

Are we meant to admire those who, like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, just won't concede defeat?


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