First Listen: Angelique Kidjo, 'Remain In Light'
Talking Heads' classic Afrobeat-inspired album gets the cover treatment by the Beninese star.
Music Reviews
First Listen: YOB, 'Our Raw Heart'
After a near-death experience, the doom metal trio's sprawling gravity and thunderous majesty takes an introspective turn.
First Listen: Kadhja Bonet, 'Childqueen'
The classically trained Bonet plays nearly every instrument on this shapeshifting R&B marvel.
First Listen: River Whyless, 'Kindness, A Rebel'
The folk-rock band's ambitious new album confront tribalism, fear, anger and violence.
Saxophonist Jon Irabagon Plays With Heart On 'Dr. Quixotic's Traveling Exotics'
Irabagon brings an infectious sense of fun to music-making, even when the playing is dead serious — as is the case on his "mildly subversive" new album.
Tsembla's 'Penumbra' Illuminates The Edges Of Shadows
Finnish musician Marja Ahti combines her own Japanese field recordings with whistling synths and cut-up electronics for some music most tranquil.
First Listen: Liz Vice, 'Save Me'
On her second album, the gospel and soul singer makes temperate use of dramatic gestures.
First Listen: Natalie Prass, 'The Future And The Past'
On her sophomore release The Future and The Past, the heartbreak of Prass' 2015 self-titled debut is still there in spades, but the narrative — as well as the music itself — is somehow grander yet.
First Listen: Neko Case, 'Hell-On'
A quarter-century into Case's career, her words still feel intensely personal and utterly oblique, as if she's whispering her darkest secrets in Sanskrit.
Courtney Barnett's New Album Blends Forceful Guitar With Lyrical Complexity
Barnett sings about fame, feminism and self-doubt on her new album, Tell Me How You Really Feel. Ken Tucker says the songs are like "inner monologues, shaped and sharpened for public consumption."