Johnny Cash’s ‘American IV’: A Farewell to the Man in Black
Johnny Cash’s American IV: The Man Comes Around was the final album released while alive, and contains some of Cash’s best and most crucial work.
Pop Past
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Revisiting Cotton Mather’s Classic ‘Kontiki’ 25 Years on with Robert Harrison
Cotton Mather’s Kontiki sports almost relentless invention, vitality, toughness, brightness, and irrepressible exuberance—a powder keg full of the joy of making music.
Carly Simon’s ‘No Secrets’ Created the Bond We Feel with Singer-Songwriter Music
Carly Simon’s No Secrets established what’s known as the “Carly Simon Principle”: the bond we feel with singer-songwriter music and how fans map their own meaning onto popular songs.
The 10 Best Warren Zevon Lyrics
With Warren Zevon’s acerbic, graceful, and macabre wit still lingering long after his death, we look back on his most lasting lyrical contributions.
The 10 Best Nirvana Songs
Nirvana’s songs melded heavy riffs, captivating pop hooks, dynamic verse/chorus shifts, and soul-scarred catharsis into the most notable rock of the 1990s.
Ellen McIlwaine Made Music For ‘We the People’ 50 Years Ago
By combining multiple styles, playing techniques, and cultural influences, Ellen McIlwaine challenged notions of genre classification and embraced music as a “universal language”.
The Crowning Glory of Chicago’s Blues King Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters’ Hard Again is his best studio album. It’s a glowing monument to him and to what electric Chicago blues can be at its very best.
David Duchovny’s Mystery Novella ‘The Reservoir’ Drifts Between Fact and Hallucination
David Duchovny’s novella The Reservoir drifts into the murky depths of the fever dream state of isolation and dislocation.
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Jeff Heiskell Discusses the Judybats’ Exquisite ‘Pain Makes You Beautiful’ at 30
Brisk, dreamy, achingly plaintive: Rarely has such a ghostly character been maintained so steadily, and so well, as on the Judybats’ ephemeral masterpiece.
Through the Eye of a Needle: The Unlikely Success of Son House’s ‘Father of Folk Blues’
Son House is the most important Delta blues rediscovery of the 1960s, and his Father of Folk Blues LP is the best blues rediscovery studio album.
The Day the Specials Kicked Their Doc Martens Against the Door
The ska revival kicked to life by the Specials blended previous subcultural styles in their own Cuisinart: Kingston, Jamaica, Mod, Skinhead and Jamaican rude-boy.
Dream-Pop Heaven: Jeff Runnings on For Against’s Landmark ‘Coalesced’ at 20
For Against’s Coalesced is an undeniably mature work, softer and less angular than prior efforts, and a culmination of everything they were aiming to accomplish.
