Bright Eyes’ 2005 Albums Speak to Our Individual and Collective Discontent
Bright Eyes brought their expansive and messy vision to life 20 years ago with two albums that captivated listeners then as they surely will now.
Music Features
MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of December 2024
In December’s best metal, Blackdeath explore off-kilter black metal, Misanthropy open gateways in death metal, and An Axis of Perdition make a return.
Lambrini Girls’ “God’s Country” Rejects PJ Harvey’s Melancholic England
Unlike PJ Harvey’s sad voice singing about the polluted Thames and England, for the Lambrini Girls, there is no mythic past when these symbols were great.
Poster Children Discuss 1995’s Brilliant LP ‘Junior Citizen’ at 30
Poster Children‘s Junior Citizen remains a refreshing, barely-polished masterpiece, like garish, late-night anime on steroids. The group discuss the album.
Trumpism and Contemporary Christian Music’s Civil War
With the invasion of TWP, or Trump Worship Music, Trumpism is generating a civil war amongst Contemporary Christian Music fans and artists.
15 Awe-inspiring Rock Guitar Solos You Might Not Know
Guitar solos are an intrinsic highlight of rock history. Here we turn over some stones to discover 15 performances lacking the plaudits they deserve.
Hüsker Dü’s ‘New Day Rising’ Still Sparkles at 40
Hüsker Dü’s New Day Rising provided equal parts muscular intensity and melody as the band laid the groundwork for the future of alternative music.
Music/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2024
The 30 Best Polish Albums of 2024
The best Polish albums featured intriguing new projects, greater stylistic diversity, along with superb post-punk and diffusion jazz.
5 Great Books That Reinvent Music Criticism
This is by no means a comprehensive survey of contemporary music criticism, but these five books all point a way forward for the field.
Alice Ivy’s New Music Is Gorgeous with Organic Sounds
In trading sample-packs for organic instruments and whistles, Australia’s Alice Ivy returns after four years with an album that moves out of the clubs and into real stardom.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2024
The 80 Best Albums of 2024
The best albums of 2024 challenged orthodoxies, blended and created new genres, and spanned a vast range of musical styles and traditions, while looking forward.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2024
The 15 Best Brazilian Pop Albums of 2024
In Brazilian pop, it’s hard not to connect the best music released in 2024 with the themes that dominated politics, culture, and social media discussions.