Hip-Hop Matters: The Best Hip-Hop of April 2022
April’s best hip-hop contains swathes of brilliance from modern masters, cult legends, upstarts, and veterans, including Digga D, Vince Staples, and Pusha T.
Music Features
65 Years Ago Judy Garland Found Artistic Growth by Singing ‘Alone’
When Judy Garland went into the studio to record Alone, she moved away from shellacked showbiz happy talk to record a sad, wistful, and lonely masterpiece.
Jorge Drexler on Love in The Time of Coronavirus
An otolaryngologist by training, Oscar-winning, Madrid-based Jorge Drexler uses his new album to examine love through a variety of lenses.
Yoko Ono’s Greatest Work Is Aptly Represented on ‘Walking on Thin Ice’
Released in May 1992, Walking on Thin Ice is a great primer for the kind of esoteric, avant-garde pop Yoko Ono forged in the 1970s.
When a Concept Became a Problem: Reconsidering the Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
Humdrum, high and low, the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sounds like a swirling, strident loss of pre-modern innocence.
The Waterboys’ Mike Scott on the Delightfully Strange ‘All Souls Hill’
The Waterboy’s songs are often deemed religious, neopagan, or spiritual. Mike Scott’s inspiration behind 2021’s All Souls Hill might be more earthy.
Racializing Rock: The ’60s and the White Sounds of ‘Pet Sounds’
The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds is not a racist text, but its impact was racist because it further encoded rock as a white genre, perpetuating the institutionalized prejudice that relegated African Americans to the margins of rock.
Ranking the B-52s Albums
Seminal new wave band the B-52s have announced dates on their farewell tour. With that in mind, here’s a ranked list of the B-52s’ studio albums.
Is Rosalía’s ‘MOTOMAMI’ an Altermodern Art Piece?
Just as altermodern culture materializes “trajectories rather than destinations”, Rosalía’s MOTOMAMI concerns the freedom to create and explore pathways.
High Pulp’s Bobby Granfelt on the Jazz Band’s Drive to Thrive with ‘Pursuit of Ends’
High Pulp frontman Bobby Granfelt chats about the DIY jazz collective’s history and the motive behind their striking new record, Pursuit of Ends.
DYLYN Soars with Flying Colors Finding Beauty in “Bring on the Blues”
Alt-rocker DYLYN returns with the gorgeous title track of a splendid six-song EP that signals she’s here to stay. She discusses her music and premieres “Bring on the Blues”.