Emotion Propels Jemima Coulter’s ‘Grace After a Party’ to Stunning Depths
Grace After a Party is a bold and confident debut introducing Jemima Coulter as an artist who straddles the line between the experimental and the accessible.
PopMatters Picks
Beyoncé’s Dance Pop ‘Renaissance’ Marks a New Era of Empowerment and Accessibility
Beyoncé’s Renaissance repackages traditional marketing and 1990s-inspired dance music, creating the ultimate combination of streaming sensibilities and feel-good anthems.
Maggie Rogers Gives Into Herself on ‘Surrender’
Maggie Rogers’ sophomore LP Surrender heads in an alt-pop/rock direction and tackles ambition in all its glorious ability to make or break ourselves.
Lera Lynn Hits a Career High with ‘Something More Than Love’
Lera Lynn’s ability to balance some of her most personal lyrical matter with a newfound pop ebullience comes through resoundingly on Something More Than Love.
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MetalMatters: The Best Heavy Metal Albums of July 2022
In the best heavy metal of July, Ashenspire’s weaponized avant-garde black metal thrills while Chat Pile relish reality with noise, sludge, and no wave applications.
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Hip-Hop Matters: The Best Hip-Hop of July 2022
This month in the best hip-hop has everything from deconstructing the genre by younger generations to the return of revered scene leaders.
ODESZA’s Superb ‘The Last Goodbye’ Performs Great Emotional Work
ODESZA’s The Last Goodbye is impressively diverse and wide-ranging; there are moments of elysian pop, broody angst, thrilling dance, and smart wit.
Ibrahim Maalouf and Angélique Kidjo Celebrate the Return of the ‘Queen of Sheba’
Ibrahim Maalouf and Angelique Kidjo reinvent the Solomon-Sheba legend as a cross-cultural story with contemporary resonance on Queen of Sheba.
‘Confetti in a Coalmine’ Is Matt DeMello’s Joyful Explosion Amidst a World Falling Apart
Experimentalist Matt DeMello throws his ample talents and wide-ranging tastes into a blender for ‘Confetti in a Coalmine’ which is full of chaotic, dense mirth.
Isotope 217’s ‘The Unstable Molecule’ Still Sounds Like the Future 25 Years Later
The Unstable Molecule is unstable in all the right ways. Isotope 217 play modern jazz, post-rock, and funk but never fully commit to these genres within any given bar.
Ella Fitzgerald Live at the Hollywood Bowl in 1958 Rediscovered
Ella Fitzgerald mixed styles in a unique way while sticking to the work of one songwriter at a time. This recording shows how she could masterfully do this with a live orchestra.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin Shows That Beethoven’s Symphonies Remain Open to Reinterpretation
Beethoven’s symphonies remain open to reinterpretation, as Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe demonstrate.
