First Listen: Nina Diaz, 'The Beat Is Dead'
The new solo album from the Girl In A Coma frontwoman is a fiercely brave, song-by-song journey through her experiences of addiction and recovery.
Music Reviews
First Listen: Mannequin Pussy, 'Romantic'
Mannequin Pussy knows — and sounds like — the hell that is heartbreak, veering in short bursts between syrupy sweet pop and charred-walls-of-sound punk.
First Listen: Lara Downes, 'America Again'
Hear the pianist's portrait of America in a smartly programmed, wide-ranging anthology of solo piano works by composers past and present; male and female; straight and gay; white, black and Latino.
First Listen: TOY, 'Clear Shot'
The British band's third full-length is proof of just how vivid and inviting psychedelic music can be in the 21st century.
First Listen: Aaron Lee Tasjan, 'Silver Tears'
The Americana innovator invites listeners into a shiny dreamscape that's both deeply informed by musical history and uniquely his own.
First Listen: Michael Mayer, '&'
One of global techno's boldface names pushes himself into new territories on a collaboration album stocked with dance-music's leading lights.
New Album Offers A Varied Introduction To 'Queen of Gospel' Mahalia Jackson
In the 1940s and '50s, Jackson was the most famous gospel singer in the world. A new record, Moving On Up A Little Higher, presents never-released tracks from that era. Critic Milo Miles has a review.
From Slavic Soul Party!, A Match Made In High-Concept Heaven
The latest album from the Brooklyn-based Balkan party band is a rearrangement of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's Far East Suite.
Wadada Leo Smith Celebrates The Centennial Of America's National Parks
Five decades after Smith began recording, the trumpeter and composer is having his moment. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews America's National Parks, recorded by Smith's Golden Quintet.
First Listen: Leonard Cohen, 'You Want It Darker'
The particular darkness that defines Cohen's 14th studio album is nearly inescapable, and found everywhere. It's a thick blanket of grim.