Music Reviews

In their work as Fever Ray, artist Karin Dreijer has used eerie, experimental pop music to excavate love's more complicated or marginalized incarnations.

Music & Culture

Fever Ray's 'Radical Romantics' explores love in all of its freaky, complicated forms

5:01am March 10, 2023

by Marissa Lorusso

The experimental pop artist's new album is interested in love not as a destination but as an ongoing process, in all of its bravado, vulnerability and experimentation.

Missy Mazzoli's new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, features the composer's orchestral compositions.

Music & Culture

Missy Mazzoli is a symphonic composer with a photographer's eye

4:42pm March 03, 2023

by Tom Huizenga

On her new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, the vibrant, young composer coaxes unusual sounds from a symphony orchestra.

Not only does Paramore speak to the apathy of the times without sweeping grief under the rug, but This Is Why finds a new equilibrium among its members.

Music & Culture

On 'This Is Why,' Paramore emerges from our collective fever dream

11:10am March 02, 2023

by Clarissa Brooks

For a world hell-bent on erasing the memory of the last three years, Paramore approaches hard times with a refreshing sense of self.

Kelela's emotional remove paired with the ambiguity created by her vocal performance shifts this album from narrative-telling to mood-building.

Music & Culture

The meditative, ambient calm of Kelela's 'Raven'

12:00pm February 22, 2023

by Vrinda Jagota

If the singer was taking herself apart before, she is now presenting a unified and independent version of herself, all while actively maintaining a sense of distance from the audience.

Music & Culture

Bob Dylan's 'Time Out Of Mind' remains eerie and vital in a newly released version

2:56pm February 16, 2023

by Ken Tucker

Columbia Records' new release provides an extensive look at Dylan's 1997's Grammy-winning album. This package of five CDs offer a wealth of new ways to experience some of Dylan's most moving music.

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Liv.e's turntablist approach warps the listener's sense of reality, letting reveries and hypotheticals bleed into the horizon without interrupting the perception of time and space.

Music & Culture

Intrusive thoughts and mixmaster madness in Liv.e's 'Girl in the Half Pearl'

6:27pm February 15, 2023

by Teresa Xie

The Dallas-born, LA-based artist's shape-shifting 2020 debut, Couldn't Wait to Tell You, emulated a series of journal entries. Her sophomore album taps the energy of a drug-fueled club night.

Caroline Polachek's new album, Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, comes at a particularly breathless point in the adventurous pop songwriter's career.

Music & Culture

Caroline Polachek ponders 'Desire' at pop's outer limits

4:57pm February 14, 2023

by Sophie Kemp

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is a natural next step in the adventurous songwriter's series of evolutions, one that embraces ridiculousness and beckons pop toward a rigorous, maximalist sound.

Billie Eilish in the video for "No Time to Die."

The 2022 Oscars' Best Original Song Nominees, Cruelly Ranked

4:34pm February 07, 2023

by Stephen Thompson

This year, Billie Eilish's Bond theme tries to fend off Beyoncé, Van Morrison, perennial candidate Diane Warren and word-of-mouth juggernaut Encanto.

Music & Culture

Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis and Shirley Scott heat things up in their 'Cookbook' sessions

1:17pm February 02, 2023

by Kevin Whitehead

Tenor saxophonist Davis and organist Scott had one of the great jazz partnerships in the late 1950s. A new anthology focuses on their Cookbook series of albums.

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Music & Culture

Dazy's exhilarating 'OUTOFBODY' sustains its quality all the way through

2:14pm January 23, 2023

by Ken Tucker

Virginia-based musician James Goodson — aka Dazy — sings most often in a voice that's high and urgent. His version of power pop is noisy, ragged, full of feedback and clatter — and irresistible.

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