The 50 Best Albums of 2022 So Far
The 50 best albums of 2022 offer sublime music as major artists return with new albums and brilliant new sounds bubble up from the underground and worldwide.
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At Gorillaz Live 2022 (Berlin) We Dance at the End of the World Party
Modern life is rubbish and the world might really be ending but as Gorillaz’ “Dirty Harry” says, all we want to do is dance at the End of the World Party.
The Fight for Reproductive Rights in Road Narratives and Comedies
Abortion road narratives and comedies variously expose and destabilize the anti-abortion regime’s misogynist, classist, heterosexist, and racist underpinnings.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of June 2022
PopMatters jazz critic Will Layman rounds up the best new jazz albums of recent vintage, including some thoughts on Paul McCartney and Ron Carter.
‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’ and the Nerve-Wracking Nature of Nothingness in 1950s White America
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet impresses me not for its alleged blandness but for its ingenious minimalism, its meta-structure, and its nerve-wracking nature of nothingness.
Punk Wouldn’t Have Spread So Far Without the Sh*t Media
Simultaneously inside and outside by either choice or circumstance, punk has always had paradoxical – sometimes hostile – relations with TV, radio, and the internet.
Nancy Mounir Mines Music from Egypt’s Past to Write Its Profound Musical Future
Sampling recordings over a century old, Egyptian composer Nancy Mounir delivers an album where the past and present converse to help write the future.
The High Price of Gay Life in Washington, D.C.
James Kirchick’s riveting history of gay life in Washington, D.C. is a Cold War epic of hypocrisy, surveillance, and survival.
Pink Turns to Blonde: Trixie Mattel on the Dual Nature of Her New Records
Trixie Mattel discusses her new double album, the drive to stay authentic in drag, and the ways her superstar persona affects her real life.
Nine Inch Nails in Manchester Screams Catharsis – We Scream Back
Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails is better than ever and back in Europe to remind us of the mess we’re in and to give a much-needed cathartic release.
James Taylor’s Cult of Sadness on ‘JT’ at 45
The autobiographical songwriting that carried James Taylor to international pop stardom laid a blueprint for songwriters today to blend their romantic and public endeavors through confessional writing.