To Ride Into ‘Paradise’: Lana Del Rey’s EP at 10
What’s most striking about Lana Del Rey’s Paradise EP and its music videos, are the ways they cement her transgressive and hallucinatory aesthetic.
Pop Past
Cher Predicted Her Comeback with the Underrated ‘It’s a Man’s World’
‘It’s a Man’s World’ is one of the least characteristically Cher albums in the singer’s discography in that it’s surprisingly restrained and subtle.
Madonna Returned to Her Roots on ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’
Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor is a self-contained dance record, an unqualified triumph, and a study of dance music from the 1970s to the 2000s.
The Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ Outraged the Adults But Turned on the Kids
Magical Mystery Tour was an innovative hybrid if never quite adequately realized. As a chapter in the life of the Beatles, it continues to exert fascination.
One Direction’s ‘Take Me Home’ at 10: Patriarchy with a Pretty Face
One Direction’s Take Me Home proved that masculinity is not just based on toughness, stoicism, or any of the qualities traditionally associated with it.
Rage, Rage, Against the Dying of Rage Against the Machine
How were Rage Against the Machine so far ahead of their time, not just as political bellwethers but with a sound reaching past genres to create something entirely new?
Spice Girls Looked to ‘Forever’ to Extend Their Pop Dominance
Forever was released in 2000 and saw the Spice Girls – Mel B, Emma Bunton, Melanie C, and Victoria Beckham – enter the new millennium on shaky ground.
Joni Mitchell Went Back to the Land on ‘For the Roses’ 50 Years Ago
In 1972, Joni Mitchell traded the hubbub of the big city for nature’s quiet solitude. There, she wrote an album of unparalleled earthy wonder, For the Roses.
Parliament’s Peak: ‘Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome’ Turns 45
The climactic album in Parliament’s space opera about Starchild, Dr. Funkenstein, and Sir Nose d’Voidoffunk, Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome, remains their best work.
Jonn Penney on Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s Pulse-Pounding Mad-sterpiece at 30
It’s difficult to describe the adrenal-gland rush Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s Are You Normal? still provides 30 years later – like a WWII fighter strafing helpless civilians below.
Never Mind the Sex Pistols: ‘Never Mind the Bullocks’ at 45
The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks is a solid album of the punk era, but it neither reflects the most explosive music of the era nor the most creative.
Tori Amos’ ‘Scarlet’s Walk’ Travels Across Land and Time
In the aftermath of 11 September 2001, the USA was searching for its identity. So, too, was Tori Amos. With creative freedom, Amos wrote Scarlet’s Walk.
