Music Reviews

'Let The Rhythm Lead' Brings Jackson Browne And Friends To Haiti

4:20pm February 12, 2020

by Banning Eyre

In 2016, Jackson Browne went to Haiti to donate recording equipment to a local music studio. The songs recorded there since became a new album: Let The Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit, Vol. 1.

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From vocal delivery to melodic hooks, from lyrics to production: Kevin Parker has elevated his craft on The Slow Rush.

Music & Culture

Review: On 'The Slow Rush,' Tame Impala Masks Inner Turmoil With Sonic Euphoria

12:00pm February 12, 2020

by Tom Moon

Kevin Parker's fourth album as the leader of Australian rock band Tame Impala comes after a five-year gap. It's music that comes wrapped in its own bubble, far from the cascading miseries on the news.

Music & Culture

Jazz Guitarist Jeff Parker Crosses Musical Genres On 'Suite For Max Brown'

1:50pm February 10, 2020

by Kevin Whitehead

Parker's breezy new album, which mixes live music with vintage synthesizers, draws on R&B, early hip-hop, droning electronica, jazz-funk, Afropop and flailing '60s-rock solos.

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Music & Culture

Destroyer Turns Nightmares Into Dreams With The Moody Album, 'Have We Met'

3:40pm February 05, 2020

by Ken Tucker

Led by New Pornographers member Dan Bejar, the band takes inspiration from The Twilight Zone and Edgar Allan Poe to evoke a distressed intensity on its new record.

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Yasiin Bey at Paris Fashion Week in January 2019.

Music & Culture

The Paradox Of Yasiin Bey's 'Negus,' A Rap Album Trapped In An Art Museum

11:31am February 05, 2020

by Mano Sundaresan

The latest album by the rapper formerly known as Mos Def will be heard by very few people — a fact that represents everything fascinating and frustrating about his last decade.

The autobiographical tale of Squirrel Flower's en caul birth, her emergence into the world floating in an amniotic sac, gives her first full-length album its name.

Music & Culture

Squirrel Flower's Debut Finds The Beauty In Transient Things

10:37am February 05, 2020

by Cyrena Touros

Both in sound and scope, I Was Born Swimming centers on impermanence and solitude.

Marlena Shaw's music combines the devotional passion, the harmonic inventiveness and the spirit-led improvisation that we hear in both the gospel and jazz idioms.

Music & Culture

The Overlooked Activist Power Of Marlena Shaw

6:39am February 05, 2020

As part of NPR's "One-Hit Wonders/Second-Best Songs," Vanderbilt professor Emily Lordi recommends "Woman of the Ghetto" by Marlena Shaw. She's known mostly for her 1969 hit, "California Soul."

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Once a young prodigy, Joey Alexander emerges as a full-blown jazz star on his new album Warna, writes NPR's Tom Moon.

Music & Culture

On 'Warna,' Joey Alexander Transforms From Child Prodigy To Jazz Fixture

5:08pm February 04, 2020

by Tom Moon

Piano prodigy Joey Alexander is a fixture of the jazz world at the age of 16 and his new album shows how his sound has matured and grown into graceful original compositions.

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Music & Culture

Andy Shauf Takes Risks On A Refreshing New Concept Album, 'Neon Skyline'

2:11pm January 29, 2020

by Ken Tucker

The Canadian singer-songwriter wrote, produced and performed all 11 songs on his new album, presenting himself as a lonely first-person narrator pining over an ex-girlfriend.

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Frances Quinlan's Likewise comes out Jan. 31 via Saddle Creek.

Music & Culture

Frances Quinlan Follows Her First Spark Of Creation

2:31pm January 28, 2020

by Marissa Lorusso

While members of Hop Along appear on her solo debut, Likewise is decidedly Frances Quinlan's vision. Her voice and unique, meandering melodies sit at the forefront of an inquisitive record.