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.
Music Features
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Big Dada Kane: An Interview with Poet-Rapper Malik Ameer Crumpler
Bestriding boundaries between hip-hop, poetry, and surrealism, poet-musician Malik Ameer Crumpler forges a strange and compelling work that is utterly and uniquely his own.
Still Drowning: Marillion’s Searing ‘Clutching at Straws’ Turns 35
Fish-era Marillion’s swan-song masterpiece Clutching at Straws is a hung-over eulogy to the twin nightmares of stardom and addiction.
Kazakhstan’s Men Seni Suyemin Wants to Rewrite the Electrorock Rulebook
Moving from Kazakhstan to Russia to pursue her electro dreams, Minona Volandova’s Men Seni Suyemin project harbors surprising influences from Foals to Gorillaz.
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Liza Minnelli Tried to Recreate the Magic of Cabaret with ‘New York, New York’
New York, New York is the kind of album that Liza Minnelli would excel at because it leaned into her old-fashioned tendencies instead of turning away from them.