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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
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
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
Books
'People of the City' Is an Unrelenting Critique of Colonial Ideology and Praxis
Cyprian Ekwensi's People of the City is a vivid tale of class struggle and identity reclamation in the shadows of colonialism's reign.
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
Film
'The Edge of Democracy' and Parallels of Political Crises
Academy Award-nominated documentary The Edge of Democracy, now streaming on Netflix, lays bare the political parallels of the rise of Bolsonaro's Brazil with Trump's America.
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
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
Film
Delightful 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' Is Good Escapism
Now streaming on Amazon Prime, Bharat Nalluri's 2008 romantic comedy, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, provides pleasant respite in these times of doom and gloom.
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
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
Music
Laura Veirs Talks to Herself on 'My Echo'
The thematic connections between these 10 Laura Veirs songs and our current situation are somewhat coincidental, or maybe just the result of kismet or karmic or something in the zeitgeist.
23 Oct 2020
Music
Every Song on the Phoenix Foundation's 'Friend Ship' Is a Stand-Out
Friend Ship is the Phoenix Foundation's most personal work and also their most engaging since their 2010 classic, Buffalo.
23 Oct 2020
Music
Kevin Morby Gets Back to Basics on 'Sundowner'
On Sundowner, Kevin Morby sings of valleys, broken stars, pale nights, and the midwestern American sun. Most of the time, he's alone with his guitar and a haunting mellotron.
23 Oct 2020
Music
Lydia Loveless Creates Her Most Personal Album with 'Daughter'
Given the turmoil of the era, you might expect Lydia Loveless to lean into the anger, amplifying the electric guitar side of her cowpunk. Instead, she created a personal record with a full range of moods, still full of her typical wit.
23 Oct 2020
Film
Bill Murray and Rashida Jones Add Another Shot to 'On the Rocks'
Sofia Coppola's domestic malaise comedy On the Rocks doesn't drown in its sorrows -- it simply pours another round, to which we raise our glass.
22 Oct 2020
Music
British Jazz and Soul Artists Interpret the Classics on '​Blue Note Re:imagined'
Blue Note Re:imagined provides an entrance for new audiences to hear what's going on in British jazz today as well as to go back to the past and enjoy old glories.
22 Oct 2020
Music
​Patrick Cowley Remade Funk and Disco on 'Some Funkettes'
Patrick Cowley's Some Funkettes sports instrumental renditions from between 1975-1977 of songs previously made popular by Donna Summer, Herbie Hancock, the Temptations, and others.
22 Oct 2020
Music
Dustin Laurenzi's Natural Language Digs Deep Into the Jazz Quartet Format with 'A Time and a Place'
Restless tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi runs his four-piece combo through some thrilling jazz excursions on a fascinating new album, A Time and a Place.
22 Oct 2020
Music
CF Watkins Embraces a Cool, Sophisticated Twang on 'Babygirl'
CF Watkins has pulled off the unique trick of creating an album that is imbued with the warmth of the American South as well as the urban sophistication of New York.
21 Oct 2020
Music
Helena Deland Suggests Imagination Is More Rewarding Than Reality on 'Something New'
Canadian singer-songwriter Helena Deland's first full-length release Someone New reveals her considerable creative talents.
21 Oct 2020
Music
Floodlights' 'From a View' Is Classicist Antipodal Indie Guitar Pop
Aussie indie rockers, Floodlights' debut From a View is a very cleanly, crisply-produced and mixed collection of shambolic, do-it-yourself indie guitar music.
21 Oct 2020
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