Mavis Staples Finds the Beauty and Sadness in Life
Mavis Staples wraps her vast musical experience in honeyed tones. A sweetness comes across even as she sings about war and injustice, as well as joy and happiness.
PopMatters Picks
PopMatters picks the best pop culture for your enjoyment, including music, film, TV, books, games, comics, and more.
Post-Rock Icons Tortoise Return with Transportive LP
Tortoise’s Touch is a cinematic record that is profoundly human and entirely spectral. It’s a world unto itself, filled with beautiful landmarks and perplexing questions.
Paul St. Hilaire Takes Dub Techno to Dark, Majestic Depths
Listening to Paul St. Hilaire’s new LP makes you feel like you’re submerged 10,000 feet underwater, yet you don’t mind—all you want to do is dive deeper into the murk.
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MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of November 2025
In November’s best metal, Yellow Eyes are in their finest moment, Barren Path rise from the ashes of Gridlink, and Blut Aus Nord navigate dreamscapes.
‘Peter Hujar’s Day’ Finds and Makes Meaning in the Mundane
Ben Whishaw achieves something close to dialectical mesmerism in Peter Hujar’s Day; his performance is simultaneously monumental and mundane.
Aaron Parks Looks Back and Points Forward with Gorgeous LP
The music is beautiful in jazz pianist Aaron Parks’ new album, but the truth of By All Means is more wonderful and complicated than that.
Travis Laplante Creates Beautiful String Quartets
Working with the acclaimed JACK Quartet, the multitalented Travis Laplante unleashes compositions of intensity and beauty on String Quartets.
Sessa Harnesses Soulful Sparks on Gorgeous LP
Sessa makes magic. Refreshing musical subtleties and emotional complexities make Peqeuna Vertigem de Amor worth repeat listens.
David Garland Eloquently Navigates Loss on ‘The Spark’
David Garland’s The Spark may be an expression of loss, but it also overflows with kindness, positivity, and the endless curiosity of a truly original artist. Â
Bob Dylan Rings in His Ears
Music theorist Steven Rings helps readers understand Bob Dylan the performer, not the lyricist or songwriter, in a welcome and indispensable addition to Dylan scholarship.
Milo J Shows Off the Beauty of Argentine Folk
Milo J’s La Vida Era Más Corta is a display of youth inserting itself into an ancient landscape with more pride in its history than anxiety about modernizing it.
Three Japanese Horror Classics Haunted by Women’s Agony
If there’s an undercurrent throughout the Japanese horror in Daiei Gothic Vol. 2, it’s how women’s suffering is so embedded in Japanese folklore.