Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘Inseparable’ Resonates in Our Times
Simone de Beauvoir’s Inseparable reveals the devastating consequences of succumbing to conventions at the expense of one’s own autonomy and well-being.
PopMatters Picks
Alessia Cara’s ‘In the Meantime’ Is a Spellbinding and Necessary Body of Work
Creating her best work with In the Meantime, Alessia Cara proves that any process of healing is never black or white and doesn’t exist on a straight line.
‘Encore’ Is a Fantastic Swan Song for Wanda Jackson
What makes Wanda Jackson’s Encore work as a fresh-sounding record and eschews moldy nostalgia is that Joan Jett finds modern rock in rockabilly.
Why Hasn’t Daphne Gottlieb Won a Lambda Literary Award?
As always, Daphne Gottlieb’s excellent Saint 1001 will please all of her readers – hetero and queer. Does that make her work “not queer enough” for Lambda?
The Body and BIG|BRAVE Conjure Dark Folk Magic on Captivating ‘Leaving None But Small Birds’
The Body and BIG|BRAVE’s Leaving None But Small Birds is a rich, elemental, and engrossing slice of doom-laden American folk music.
Sam Johnson’s ‘Along the Dark Edges of Everything’ Is an Auspicious Debut Album
Sam Johnson led Boston punks Choke Up but now delivers a stirring collection of Americana exploring darkness and light on Along the Dark Edges of Everything.
Jana Rush’s ‘Painful Enlightenment’ Exists on Footwork’s Outer Edges
Jana Rush’s new album addresses mental health issues and exists gingerly on footwork’s outer edges, suggesting the genre without quite hardening into it.
Jordan Rakei’s Thrilling ‘What We Call Life’ Is Destined to Be a Classic
Jordan Rakei has a gorgeous voice that’s soulful and thrilling, and his latest album What We Call Life is easily one of the best of the year.
Nick Lowe’s ‘The Convincer’ Gets the Deluxe Edition Treatment
Nick Lowe’s 2001 album, The Convincer, is a late-period masterpiece and a textbook example of a gracefully maturing artist. It’s now a deluxe reissue.
Classism Rolls Through Classic Film ‘A Place in the Sun’ Like a Noirish Fog
A lyrical ode to Hollywood beauties Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, the An American Tragedy-inspired A Place in the Sun casts a long noirish shadow.
The Beths’ ‘Auckland, New Zealand, 2020’ Documents a Liberating Concert
The Beths’ new live album, Auckland, New Zealand, 2020, features possibly the most exhilarating music to yet come out of the COVID darkness.