PopMatters Picks: the best new cultural offerings
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Books
Phuc Tran's Existential Trip of a Memoir, 'Sigh, Gone'
Phuc Tran's smart, tough memoir, Sigh, Gone, might launch a broken down kid to read 150 great books—for free, at the local library.
01 Apr 2020
Music
Jennah Barry Offers Up a Warm, Sublime Collection of Memorable Tunes on 'Holiday'
Canadian indie folkster Jennah Barry returns with her long-awaited sophomore album, Holiday, which takes on a looser, more relaxed approach.
01 Apr 2020
Music
Circles Around the Sun Shoot for the Stars on New Album
Jamrockers Circles Around the Sun's self-titled third album finds the band transcending darkness after losing their founder in 2019 to chart a groovy new course.
31 Mar 2020
Music
Bob Dylan's "Murder Most Foul" Is His First New Song Since the Nobel Laureate
Bob Dylan's "Murder Most Foul" is a 17-minute story song about JFK's assassination and a suitable audio dispatch from and for the end times.
30 Mar 2020
Music
Rustin Man's 'Clockdust' Is Woozy Psych-Folk of Arresting and Fathomless Beauty
Arriving less than a year after Drift Code, Rustin Man consolidates a rich vein of form with the sepia-toned Clockdust, an autumnal record rendered generous and exquisite by each song's emotional weight.
30 Mar 2020
Music
Basia Bulat Asks 'Are You in Love?'
Are You In Love? continues Basia Bulat's work with Jim James with equally excellent results but a slightly different theme about love in general.
30 Mar 2020
Music
Experimental Rock's Trees Speak Summon Kosmische Sensations on 'Ohms'
On their inspiring second album, Ohms, Arizona avant-garde collective Trees Speak invoke the best of expansive electronica through motorik repetitions across a sprawling masterwork.
30 Mar 2020
Music
Dua Lipa Makes Kitschy Cool on 'Future Nostalgia'
Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia is near immaculate meta-pop that refuses to forego tight songwriting for nostalgic bells and whistles, helmed by a singer is exponentially more aware of what she's capable of.
27 Mar 2020
Books
When You Discover Your Father Had an Affair with Frida Kahlo...
The story of one of Frida Kahlo's short affairs, captured in Marc Petitjean's excellent book, The Heart, offers an inspired glimpse into the surreal Parisian art scene of 1939.
26 Mar 2020
Music
Sea Wolf's 'Through a Dark Wood' Is an Honest Portrayal of Emotional Struggle
Sea Wolf's Through the Dark Wood holds space for psychological transformation. Alex Brown Church's masterful illustrations of vulnerability and adversity affirm grief as a step towards growth.
26 Mar 2020
Music
The Weeknd's 'After Hours' Sets Cinematic Vignettes of Hollywood and Las Vegas Nights
The Weeknd's After Hours naturally weaves together cinematic vignettes of debauched Hollywood and Las Vegas nights, following a new filmic tie to Uncut Gems and a prior decade of character building.
26 Mar 2020
Music
Pearl Jam Liberate Themselves From the Past on 'Gigaton'
Gigaton sounds like Pearl Jam convincingly doing their very best to not sound like Pearl Jam. Liberated from their past and their expectations, the band have freed themselves to take some long overdue risks.
26 Mar 2020
Music
Greece's Evritiki Zygia Hypnotize with Thracian Psychedelic Folk on 'Ormenion'
Evritiki Zygia's Ormenion has a ferocity that speaks to the tenacity of old traditions as well as to a progressive spirit. It's nothing short of hypnotic.
25 Mar 2020
Music
Lilly Hiatt Offers 'Walking Proof' of Her Many Talents
Every track on Lilly Hiatt's Walking Proof shines with imaginative playing, spirited vocals, and sensitive, literate lyrics. It's truly a kick ass record.
25 Mar 2020
Music
Waxahatchee Takes a Turn for the Country on 'Saint Cloud'
Katie Crutchfield's latest as Waxahatchee is a high point in an already impressive career. Saint Cloud finds an artist operating at the top of her game to produce a thrilling and inspirational work.
25 Mar 2020
Music
Childish Gambino's '3.15.20' Captures the Tumultuous Contemporary Moment
As society contends with sickness, anger, and fear, Donald Glover remedies the malignancy while fueling the anguish. 3.15.20 signals an important shift for Childish Gambino and secures the album's spot as one of the best of the year.
24 Mar 2020
Music
Four Tet's 'Sixteen Oceans' Explores a Rich Sound Palette
Four Tet's 10th album, Sixteen Oceans, begins on the dancefloor, travels to the woods, and ends becalmed, invoking, and bestowing peace and tranquility.
24 Mar 2020
Music
Adam Lambert Gets Nostalgic on 'Velvet'
On his first album in five years, Adam Lambert finds his groove by moving in the right direction. Velvet feels effortless and natural, from the funk and disco beats to the synth and soft rock influences.
24 Mar 2020
Music
Myrkur's 'Folkesange' Makes a Case for the Power of Traditional Songcraft
Neo-folk/black metal artist Myrkur bolsters her impressive discography with yet another distinctive and enthralling album that draws on other music while remaining uniquely her own.
23 Mar 2020
Books
Queer Love and Art in the Time of Nazis: 'Never Anyone But You'
Never Anyone But You is an inspiring tale of surrealists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, who defied homophobia, Nazis, and gender norms while pushing the boundaries of art and love.
20 Mar 2020
Music
Mute Duo Dazzle with the Ambient, Country-Tinged 'Lapse in Passage'
Mute Duo's second full-length album, Lapse in Passage, is dark, multilayered, and uncommonly beautiful. It's like David Lynch baked in the Texas heat. It's the soundtrack to a Cormac McCarthy-inspired fever dream.
20 Mar 2020
Music
Quarterly's 'Pomegranate' is a Small Treasure of Charm and Warmth
Brooklyn-based duo Quarterly combine elements of folk and classical on the intimate, calm, and unique Pomegranate.
20 Mar 2020
Music
Sam Sparro's 'Boombox Eternal' Is the Melodic Throwback We Need Right Now
Sam Sparro's Boombox Eternal is Jam & Lewis, Nile Rodgers, and Quincy Jones all nodding in unison. It is Day-Glo colors and endless mists of hairspray.
Evan Sawdey
20 Mar 2020
Music
Brian and Roger Eno's 'Mixing Colours' Is a Celebration of Contemplative Slowness
Brian and Roger Eno's Deutsche Grammophon debut, Mixing Colours, represents a refreshing antithesis of today's harsh and accelerated times.
19 Mar 2020
Film
A Fix of Fantasy: Reviving the Wondrous Films of Karel Zeman
The imaginative filmmaker Karel Zeman influenced many artists including Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, fellow Czech Jan Švankmajer, the Brothers Quay, and animator Lawrence Jordan's recycling of classic 19th Century imagery.
18 Mar 2020
Music
False Heads' 'It's All There But You're Dreaming' Is One of 2020's Best British Rock Albums
False Heads' It's All There But You're Dreaming is the sound of a modern rock band expertly knitting chaos, beauty, and noise together.
18 Mar 2020
Music
'Piano Duets' Asserts Ella Fitzgerald's Interpretive Greatness
Though called "The First Lady of Song", Ella Fitzgerald is more lauded for her spectacular vocal sound than for her interpretations of lyrics, but a new reissue should help correct that understanding of her art.
18 Mar 2020
Music
JOYFULTALK Fires Off the Sound of Brightness and Ambition on 'A Separation of Being'
Canadian musician, composer, and instrument maker, JOYFULTALK produces his third LP, A Separation of Being, which overflows with cohesion and light.
18 Mar 2020
Music
Afrofuturists ONIPA Offer Uplifting, High-Energy Music via 'We No Be Machine'
London-based Afrofuturist band, ONIPA frame discussions of humanity within a pan-African sonic context on their brilliant debut, We No Be Machine.
17 Mar 2020
Music
Los Campesinos! 'Romance Is Boring' Holds Up a Decade Later
The three albums Los Campesinos! released after their debut showed who the band really were: angrier, artier, and more thoughtful than we initially thought. Romance Is Boring holds up in its notable decade-on reissue release.
16 Mar 2020
Music
Agnes Obel's Chamber Pop Hits a New Peak on 'Myopia'
Agnes Obel's Myopia is delicate and personal, employing treated vocals and piano to plow depths of sorrow and interrogate dark storms of the soul.
16 Mar 2020
Music
Magnetic Ghost's 'Pixels' Is Andy Larson's Most Majestic and Profound Music
Magnetic Ghost's Pixels is absolutely masterful stuff from a sound-sculptor sitting at the intersection of post-rock, post-classical, and strains of ambient music.
13 Mar 2020
Music
Sam Doores Creates Dreamy New Orleans Music By Way of Berlin
The new solo album by the Deslondes' Sam Doores is a beguiling brew of old rock 'n' roll and New Orleans R&B, with a hint of Berlin experimentalism.
13 Mar 2020
Books
'Miss Iceland' Is a Brilliant Novel of Sexism, Homophobia, and the Writing Life
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir's Miss Iceland Is at once a poetic, light-hearted narrative and a sharply edged social critique that is caustic and righteous in its portrayal of the enduring nature of sexism, misogyny and homophobia.
12 Mar 2020
Music
Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, Swans Alums Are Human Impact and They're Mad As Hell
Imagine an orgy scored by rusty industrial equipment blasting New York City noise-rock, something like Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, or Swans in their wicked primes. That's the noise-rock supergroup, Human Impact.
12 Mar 2020
Music
Pantha Du Prince Creates an Electronic 'Conference of Trees'
Pantha Du Prince's Conference of Trees is a bold project that benefits from the creator's focused vision as he invites the listener to piece together imagined conversations between trees.
11 Mar 2020
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