Album Reviews

In the first song on I Need A New War, Craig Finn takes up the sweep of an American life in a handful of lines — guy meets girl, maybe at a Dead show; she’s in recovery; they move to Montana. Things get “druggy” and fall apart; he pieces together …

From the Five Stairsteps to the Jackson 5, the Andrews Sisters to Haim, the Osborne Brothers to the Brothers Osborne, American pop history is rife with sibling groups whose close harmony channeled both genetic advantage and built-in backstory. After years of woodshedding in a once artist-friendly town — New York …

Tom Morello understands sick beats, activist rhymes, and weaponized noise. Matching rappers and rockers with EDM producers,The Atlas Undergroundbrings all the above in the spirit of the early ‘00s, when mash-up maestros like Freelance Hellraiser and Soulwax reframed the possible in pop. In 2018, of course, these styles are inextricably …

You don’t name your band Fucked Up to maintain the status quo, and for nearly the past two decades the Toronto collective have been challenging perceptions of what gravely-voiced punk rock could be. Their latest release, Dose Your Dreams, is a bit like their take on either the Who’sTommy, Husker …

PEOPLE is the name of an artist collective and web platform, co-founded by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner, that grew out of the 2016Michelberger Music series in Berlin. The idea,as explained on the site, is “to establish an independent and nurturing space in which to make …

It’s easy to feel charmed by Troye Sivan. The gentle lilt of his voice warmly hugs the gentle synth-pop beats he opts for in his songs. OnBloom, Sivan’s sophomore album, he adds a touch more vigor and nuance to the loveliest qualities of his debut albumBlue Neighbourhood. The tender naivety …

When Lorde tookMitskiMiyawaki out on herMelodramatour this year as an opening act, it was a perfect match: Two smart, intense women addressing heartache, class issues, and other emotional shitstorms in miniaturist detail and at maximalist scale, albeit with different tools. Some fans may’ve been surprised at how easilyMitski’s music translated …

Travis Scott has some of the most outsized and ambitious artistic impulses in modern rap. His album covers come courtesy of fashion icon Nick Knight, famed Rolling Stone illustrator Ralph Steadman and, on his latest, candy-coated photographer David LaChappelle. His fashion-forward eye has produced collaboration with Helmut Lang. His recent …

Last year’s self-titled LP recastDirtyProjectorsas Dave Longstreth’s one-man-avant-pop-band. This suggested two possible blueprints going forward — the other branded on 2009’sBitte Orcaby the gorgeously ping-ponging vocals of his former bandmates Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian. ForLamp Lit Prose, Longstreth melds both strategies in a flood of ideas and magnificent vocal …

Xtina is, hands down, one of the greatest vocalists of her generation. And she has spent the better part of two decades figuring out what exactly to do with that voice. There was the bubblegum of her self-titled 1999 debut and her transition into R&B-infused, low-rise jean’d adulthood. Then came …