Music Reviews
John Cale Collaborates with Contemporary Artists on ‘MERCY’
John Cale enlists Weyes Blood, Sylvan Esso, and Animal Collective to create a dark, unsettling new LP, MERCY, combining darkness with beauty on a knife edge.
Best New Songs
Music Features
Warm and Cool: Thoughts on Television’s Tom Verlaine (1949-2023)
Tom Verlaine’s death symbolizes the continued denouement of a certain period of New York City history, a time when the word “bohemian” still held some meaning.
Film
Why Disney’s Splash Mountain Has Finally Gone South
The Disney Theme Parks are dismantling the decades-long ride Splash Mountain. It will be resurrected as Tiana’s Bijour Adventure. Why has the Song of the South-inspired ride finally gone South?
Pop Past Film
Books
In ‘How Far the Light Reaches’ Ocean Science and Memoir Make Magic
How Far the Light Reaches weaves struggles with identity – gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity, and body image – with the immense diversity of marine life, revealing new ways to think about ourselves.
Pop Past Books
Television
Post-Apocalyptic ‘The Last of Us’ Begs the Question – Do We Ever Learn?
The characters in Craig Mazin’s hit series, The Last of Us, are just like the rest of us – violent, tyrannical, and on the verge of being irredeemable. Yet we hope for them, still.
Pop Past TV
Interviews
Lists
Hip-Hop Matters: The Best Hip-Hop of January 2023
The best hip-hop of January focuses on albums from underground veterans, viral upstarts, and hyper-productive modern masters.