Music may be the glue of every NYC underground scene This Must Be the Place covers, but Jesse Rifkin’s primary interest is in the community held together by that glue.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s The Loveliest Time expands her B-Sides offerings by creating a compilation that distinguishes itself from its predecessor.
Eschewing male producers who didn’t necessarily see her creative vision in the past, Ralph also came out as a member of the LGBTQ community this year.
Sylvester’s voice – an otherworldly sonic boom of a voice that climbed to dizzying heights – was a significant force in queer pop culture in the 1970s.
Jessie Ware has continued her disco success with That! Feels Good!, which is somehow even more potent than its predecessor.
Britney Spears’ Blackout feels fresher than ever 15 years on. It captured the darkness of her personal life and cemented new dance music in the pop lexicon.
No group combined the rebellious, enterprising ambition of the punk movement with the grand and performative nature of major pop superstardom like Blondie did.
Beyoncé’s Renaissance repackages traditional marketing and 1990s-inspired dance music, creating the ultimate combination of streaming sensibilities and feel-good anthems.
While Renaissance occasionally sports more style than substance, Beyoncé emerges as the re-coronated Queen of Pop and the reigning regent of eclecticism.
Lizzo’s Special is as much a celebration of the Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook cosmos as it is an in-person, post-Covid bacchanal.
Special is such a disappointment because you can hear the better album Lizzo is capable of making, but she insists on cranking out one-size-fits-all empowerment jams.
The “future” in future funk is removed from any historical sense of time, existing in a digital future that can be forever extended – and always out of reach.
