Music Reviews

Music & Culture

Hip-Hop Meets Disco On The Electrifying Soundtrack To 'The Get Down'

1:29pm August 29, 2016

by Ken Tucker

A new drama series on Netflix chronicles the rise of early hip-hop music in the late '70s. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the show's soundtrack is dense, complex and delightful.

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Music & Culture

Britney's Back: Spears Returns With Ninth Studio Album, 'Glory'

4:29pm August 26, 2016

by Tom Moon

Tom Moon reviews the new album from Britney Spears, Glory. This is Spears' ninth studio album.

Beatrice Mancini, Stefano Abbati and Margherita Buy in Mia Madre.

Arts

'Mia Madre' Weaves Memory, Fantasy And Film Into A Poignant Rumination On Loss

5:00pm August 25, 2016

by Mark Jenkins

Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti's latest is a charming, heartfelt and slyly satirical meditation on cinema — which exists at the crossroads of fantasy and reality — and the loss of a parent.

Music & Culture

New Releases Capture 'Inimitable' Tenor Saxophonist In His Neglected '70s Prime

3:23pm August 25, 2016

by Kevin Whitehead

As one of the very first bebop tenor saxophonists, Teddy Edwards mixed awesome technique with irresistibly slinky phrases. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews two reissues, Inimitable and Feelin's.

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Music & Culture

First Listen: James Vincent McMorrow, 'We Move'

9:36am August 25, 2016

by Andy Battaglia

A dewy Irishman with a falsetto-flecked voice, McMorrow gives himself an impressive makeover on a stylistically adventurous new album.

Music & Culture

First Listen: Y La Bamba, 'Ojos Del Sol'

7:00am August 25, 2016

by Felix Contreras

On the band's new album, Luz Elena Mendoza's voice is fully enmeshed in the arrangements, which gives her bicultural storytelling an almost otherworldly feel.

Music & Culture

First Listen: Eluvium, 'False Readings On'

7:00am August 25, 2016

by Andy Beta

On its new album, Matthew Cooper's ambient-music project suggests that noise and beauty are interdependent, making room for celestial voices and jet-engine roars alike.

The Frightnrs' new album, Nothing More To Say, comes out Sept. 2.

Music & Culture

First Listen: The Frightnrs, 'Nothing More To Say'

7:00am August 25, 2016

by Oliver Wang

Singer Dan Klein died of ALS earlier this summer, but at least his rocksteady band was able to see its collective vision through on this one sublime album.

As Frankie Reyes, Los Angeles-based musician Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker flips Latin standards into something ghostly and new.

Music & Culture

Simple Idea, Spooky Result: Latin American Ballads Get A Ghostly Makeover

4:31pm August 24, 2016

by Oliver Wang

Frankie Reyes is a Los Angeles-based artist who remakes classic Mexican and other Spanish-language ballads and waltzes using a vintage synthesizer. His new album is called Boleros Valses y Mas.

Music & Culture

'King of Highlife Anthology' Finally Does Justice To African Bandleader Mensah

1:41pm August 24, 2016

by Milo Miles

E. T. Mensah, who died 20 years ago, played highlife, an offshoot of jazz that for years was the most popular style of music in southern Africa. Milo Miles reviews a new anthology of Mensah's music.

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