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Music
'Long Hot Summers' Is a Lavish, Long-Overdue Boxed Set from the Style Council
Paul Weller's misunderstood, underappreciated '80s soul-pop outfit the Style Council are the subject of a multi-disc collection that's perfect for the uninitiated and a great nostalgia trip for those who heard it all the first time.
30 Oct 2020
Music
Ane Brun's 'After the Great Storm' Features Some of Her Best Songs
The irresolution and unease that pervade Ane Brun's After the Great Storm perfectly mirror the anxiety and social isolation that have engulfed this post-pandemic era.
30 Oct 2020
Music
The Mountain Goats Find New Sonic Inspiration on 'Getting Into Knives'
John Darnielle explores new sounds on his 19th studio album as the Mountain Goats—and creates his best record in years with Getting Into Knives.
30 Oct 2020
Music
Johnny Nash Refused to Remember His Place
Johnny Nash, part rock era crooner, part Motown, and part reggae, was too polite for the more militant wing of the Civil Rights movement, but he also suffered at the hands of a racist music industry that wouldn't market him as a Black heartthrob. Through it all he was himself, as he continuously refused to "remember his place".
29 Oct 2020
Music
In the Tempest's Eye: An Interview with Surfer Blood
Surfer Blood's 2010 debut put them on the map, but their critical sizzle soon faded. After a 2017 comeback of sorts, the group's new record finds them expanding their sonic by revisiting their hometown with a surprising degree of reverence.
29 Oct 2020
Music
The 100 Best Albums of the 2000s: 80-61
In this next segment of PopMatters' look back on the music of the 2000s, we examine works by British electronic pioneers, Americana legends, and Armenian metal provocateurs.
29 Oct 2020
Music
John Hollenbeck Completes a Trilogy with 'Songs You Like a Lot'
The third (and final?) collaboration between a brilliant jazz composer/arranger, the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, vocalists Kate McGarry and Theo Bleckman, and the post-1950 American pop song. So great that it shivers with joy.
29 Oct 2020
Music
Matthew Murphy's Post-Wombats Project Sounds a Lot Like the Wombats (And It's a Good Thing)
While UK anxiety-pop auteurs the Wombats are currently hibernating, frontman Matthew "Murph" Murphy goes it alone with a new band, a mess of deprecating new earworms, and revived energy.
29 Oct 2020
Music
The Return of the Rentals After Six Years Away
The Rentals release a space-themed album, Q36, with one absolute gem of a song.
29 Oct 2020
Music
Jazz Composer Maria Schneider Takes on the "Data Lords" in Song
Grammy-winning jazz composer Maria Schneider released Data Lords partly as a reaction to her outrage that streaming music services are harvesting the data of listeners even as they pay musicians so little that creativity is at risk. She speaks with us about the project.
28 Oct 2020
Music
'Wildflowers & All the Rest' Is Tom Petty's Masterpiece
Wildflowers is a masterpiece because Tom Petty was a good enough songwriter by that point to communicate exactly what was on his mind in the most devastating way possible.
28 Oct 2020
Music
The 100 Best Albums of the 2000s: 100-81
PopMatters' best albums of the 2000s begin with a series of records that span epic metal, ornate indie folk, and a terrifying work of electronic music.
28 Oct 2020
Music
Artemis Is the Latest Jazz Supergroup
A Blue Note supergroup happens to be made up of women, exclusively. Artemis is an inconsistent outing, but it dazzles just often enough.
28 Oct 2020
Music
15 Overlooked and Underrated Albums of the 1990s
With every "Best of the '90s" retrospective comes a predictable list of entries. Here are 15 albums that are often overlooked as worthy of placing in these lists, and are too often underrated as some of the best records from the decade.
27 Oct 2020
Music
The Pogues' 'The BBC Sessions 1984-1986' Honors Working-Class Heroes
The Pogues' BBC Sessions 1984-1986 is a welcome chapter in the musical story of these working-class heroes, who reminded listeners of the beauty and dignity of the strong, sooty backs upon which our industrialized world was built.
27 Oct 2020
Music
1979's 'This Heat' Remains a Lodestone for Avant-Rock Adventure
On their self-titled debut, available for the first time on digital formats, This Heat delivered an all-time classic stitched together from several years of experiments.
27 Oct 2020
Music
Mary Halvorson Creates Cacophony to Aestheticize on 'Artlessly Falling'
Mary Halvorson's Artlessly Falling is a challenging album with tracks comprised of improvisational fragments more than based on compositional theory. Halvorson uses the various elements to aestheticize the confusing world around her.
27 Oct 2020
Music
20 Songs From the 1990s That Time Forgot
Rather than listening to Spotify's latest playlist, give the tunes from this reminiscence of lost '90s singles a spin.
26 Oct 2020
Music
Clipping Take a Stab at Horrorcore with the Fiery 'Visions of Bodies Being Burned'
Clipping's latest album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned, is a terrifying, razor-sharp sequel to their previous ode to the horror film genre.
26 Oct 2020
Music
Aalok Bala Revels in Nature and Contradiction on EP 'Sacred Mirror'
Electronic musician Aalok Bala knows the night is not a simple mirror, "silver and exact"; it phases and echoes back, alive, sacred.
26 Oct 2020
Music
Call Super's New LP Is a Digital Biosphere of Insectoid and Otherworldly Sounds
Call Super's Every Mouth Teeth Missing is like its own digital biosphere, rife with the sounds of the forest and the sounds of the studio alike.
26 Oct 2020
Music
Flowers for Hermes: An Interview with Performing Activist André De Shields
From creating the title role in The Wiz to winning an Emmy for Ain't Misbehavin', André De Shields reflects on his roles in more than four decades of iconic musicals, including the GRAMMY and Tony Award-winning Hadestown.
23 Oct 2020
Music
Magick Mountain Are Having a Party But Is the Audience Invited?
Garage rockers Magick Mountain debut with Weird Feelings, an album big on fuzz but light on hooks.
26 Oct 2020
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