On a new Sigur Rós album, warmth and light push through the darkness
ÁTTA, the band's first album in 10 years, sports an orchestra of strings, high-flying vocalism and its signature bittersweet melodies.
Music Reviews
Where to start with country music weirdos Souled American? The end
Out of print, odd and obscure, Souled American's esoteric take on country music is now available digitally for the first time. We asked composer Sarah Hennies to pick a place to begin.
Meshell Ndegeocello opens the lid on her self-contained world
The artist's first album as a lead for Blue Note grew from a jarring realignment in her personal life. On The Omnichord Real Book, she finds ways to embrace jazz without taking on its baggage.
Aja Monet's debut album fuses art and advocacy, poet and performer
The poet's first recording with a band, when the poems do what they do, lends an emphatic new authority to her words, which she delivers with a hypnotist's composure.
Jason Isbell and Rodney Crowell stretch their boundaries on two new albums
Where Isbell's Weathervanes sounds like a new attempt to describe the world around him, Crowell's Chicago Sessions has the aura of an old pro who's realized he has a few more life-lessons to share.
Janelle Monáe wants you ... to enter the 'Pleasure' zone
There's almost nobody better at creating complex musical worlds, but on her new album The Age of Pleasure, Janelle Monáe's aim is to stop thinking. Or at least start thinking about feeling.
With 'Fountain Baby,' Amaarae redefines herself as a pop auteur
By training her eyes on multiple targets, the singer challenges listeners to widen their points of view, compelling them to place her in spaces she's found belonging, not where she's been assigned.
Foo Fighters' 'But Here We Are' is heavy, in every sense of the word
These songs ache with loss, even as they explode in full-bore rock mayhem, and that loss extends beyond the deaths of loved ones.
Shirley Collins is an English folk song's bridge between now and then
On Archangel Hill, memories of the English countryside, Collins' family and friends are embedded in each song, just out of reach for the listener but vivid as sunshine in her mind.
Wolf Eyes still mirrors and mutates reality
Dreams in Splattered Lines refines the long-running noise band's approach to cinematic horror: still gross and grueling, but painted in thicker strokes of neon gloom.