Talking Heads’ ‘Speaking in Tongues’ at 40
Speaking in Tongues captures Talking Heads at the zenith of their funk freakout and just before a big gray suit would change everything. It’s an art-pop funk masterpiece.
Pop Past
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Living Colour’s ‘Vivid’ Turns 35: An Interview with Vernon Reid
What better way to celebrate Living Colour’s landmark album Vivid on its 35th birthday than talking to the band’s guitarist and primary songwriter, Vernon Reid.
Memories of Basia’s ‘The Sweetest Illusion’ 29 Years Later
Basia’s The Sweetest Illusion speaks to my family’s migration from Poland to France, the US, and the UK. Like Basia, I’ve picked up various cultural ephemera along the way.
Laura Nyro’s Springtime Gem ‘Nested’ at 45
Recorded while pregnant with her only child, Laura Nyro’s Nested is an unabashedly feminist and feminine work of laid-back, springtime bliss.
A Man Out of Time: On Scott Walker’s ‘Scott 2’
Scott Walker is a funhouse version of David Bowie. He carved out his own space in music, one almost stubbornly unfashionable but also indispensable in the way one-of-a-kind things often are.
Tool’s Undertow, 1990s Culture Wars, and the Rehabilitation of Gen-X
After Tool whapped us upside the head with Undertow, you knew you’d never listen to that hairband boom-bap with a straight face ever again.
Songs of Innocence & Experience: Rise Against’s ‘Revolutions Per Minute’ at 20
Rise Against’s masterpiece Revolutions Per Minute is a vital work about the loss of innocence in a fraught time and a call to arms to fight in a new one.
Linkin Park’s ‘Meteora’ at 20: Vulnerable Angst for the Nu-Millennium
With Meteora 20 years ago, Linkin Park perfected their genre-bending nu-metal sound and outfitted it with a relatable rage that won the world over.
A Lost Revolution? 35 Years of ‘Tracy Chapman’
Today’s world needs a revolution. If Tracy Chapman teaches us anything, it’s that we need fundamental change to reckon with the issues she writes about.
Fact or Fiction: Joni Mitchell’s Debut ‘Song to a Seagull’ at 55
Joni Mitchell’s debut Song to a Seagull is painted with broad brushstrokes she would draw from in different shades throughout her career.
Storm de Hirsch’s Utterly Unclassifiable Feature Film ‘Goodbye in the Mirror’
Thematically and stylistically, Storm de Hirsch’s Goodbye in the Mirror is a bizarre amalgam of films by Varda, Cassavetes, Akerman, Wishman, and a dozen other directors working across mainstream, independent, and avant-garde contexts.
Black Flag’s ‘Damaged’ and the Hardcore Hope of “Rise Above”
Black Flag’s Damaged is a valuable document of the past as well as a prophetic testimony to the values of present and future hardcore punk music.
