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When was the last time Coldplay released a truly great album? Those for whom the question incites finger-pointing and maniacal laughter can close their browser tabs now. As for everyone else: Surely your pick is not 2015's color-splattered pop move A Head Full Of Dreams, which stands as this band's creative nadir. At the time I personally stumped for 2014's dark, dreary divorce album Ghost Stories,...
There was a time when Tinashe's momentum felt unstoppable. "2 On," the R&B singer and dancer's 2014 breakthrough single, was one of those hits so contagious that Drake couldn't stop himself from dropping an unofficial remix. Aquarius, the major-label debut album that followed, generated rave reviews. Despite the trendy Mustardwave pops and snaps of "2 On," the former child actress had carved out a...
People often talk about particular jazz labels having an aesthetic, a through-line that encompasses most if not all of their releases. Very few labels have been as convincingly tagged this way, in the public mind, as ECM. For five decades, they have been seen as the home for a particular sort of stately, reserved, starkly beautiful jazz that politely requests your focused attention — their CDs begin...
It's increasingly obvious to anyone paying attention that Facebook is not a politically neutral organization. The platform has recently made it clear that it won't take down political ads, whether or not they're false. Last month, there was leaked audio of Facebook chief executive talking in a meeting about how an Elizabeth Warren presidency would "suck for us." Yesterday, NBC News reported that Zuckerberg...
Apple Music has a show called 5 Best Songs where the DJ Matt Wilkinson asks guests about their favorite music. Tomorrow, Beck will release his new album Hyperspace, largely co-written and co-produced with Pharrell Williams. So by way of promoting the album, Beck is on the most recent 5 Best Songs, discussing music from the Velvet Underground, Prince, Aphex Twin, the Beach Boys, and Tame Impala. And...
The Floria Sigismondi-directed adaptation of Henry James' The Turn Of The Screw -- called The Turning -- is coming to theaters in January and it's getting what looks to be a pretty sick soundtrack to go along with it. Sigismondi has a long history of directing some pretty great music videos, so that might have something to do with it. She also directed the underrated 2010 biopic The Runaways. The...
The 2020 Grammy nominations are out, and there's a lot to discuss. Let's work our way through the big storylines. Lizzo Leads A Field Dominated By First-Time Nominees Lizzo's breakout year continues with an overall best eight nominations, including all four general field categories: Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, and Best New Artist. Her total is two more than fellow A-list...
Back in July, shortly before the release of Sleater-Kinney's new album The Center Won't Hold, longtime drummer Janet Weiss announced that she was leaving the band. At the time, Weiss made a statement explaining that the band was "heading in a new direction." In an Instagram comment shortly thereafter, her ex-bandmate Carrie Brownstein said, "what am I supposed to say? She left. We asked her to stay....
David Bazan is crying while driving. Many scenes in the new documentary Strange Negotiations find the once and future Pedro The Lion frontman alone, steering his sedan down endless highways between emotionally taxing house shows. In this one, he reaches his breaking point, despairing over the loneliness of his chosen path and the conflict between…
Over the course of this decade, Jenny Hval has built up a catalog of boundary-pushing, thought-provoking electronic music that’s rightfully earned her consistent acclaim and fascination. Two months ago, she released her latest collection, The Practice Of Love, the culmination of that decade’s worth of work. The immediate impact on first listen was hearing the…
For the sake of technical accuracy on their Bandcamp tags, Glass Beach identifies as a Los Angeles “post-emo” group. But ask the infectiously gleeful quartet where they live spiritually, sonically, and socially, it’s all the same answer: “online.” “Us, and people who are online as us, get information about the outside world from our Twitter…
Over the years, Brittney Parks has undergone her own personal apotheosis. It all started with the fiddle. She was mesmerized as a child after witnessing an Irish folk band performing in her hometown of Cincinnati. She begged her mom for a violin. Parks became mostly self-taught growing up, defining her style in church and warping…
Emily Yacina’s new song “Gleaming” is an upward rush of momentum. “Meet me here/ I’ll show you/ The same light/ I’m feeling,” she sings, her delivery breathless, words spilling out in an incantatory pulse. The track was originally supposed to be entirely instrumental, and it wasn’t until late in the process of making her new…
The legendary Liz Phair is releasing a memoir today, Horror Stories — you can read an excerpt from it here — and she’s also releasing a brand-new song, her first new track since 2010’s Funstyle, if you don’t count this Christmas original from 2014. “Good Side” finds her reuniting with producer Brad Wood, who she…
I am trying very hard to make this orange look like an orange. But after trying my best to bring my illustration of Adrianne Lenker’s snack to three-dimensional justice, I must concede that I have inadvertently drawn the sort of bowel movement that should make one hurriedly call their doctor.
We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.…
The music of Lower Dens has always been dense and to some extent difficult, even when cathartic or hypnotizing. Across their first two albums, 2010’s Twin-Hand Movement and 2012’s Nootropics, the band perfected a kind of shadowy then nervy rock sound — exemplified by the albums’ respective highlights, “I Get Nervous” and “Brains.” Then, on…
Britons have a complex relationship with the Monarchy. Though adored by older generations and millions around the world, the Royal Family are almost exclusively met with scorn and contempt from younger Brits, and especially those who are left-leaning and in the music community. That makes “Magic Of Meghan,” the debut single from southeast London four-piece…
We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.…
Of the many reasons artists have missed interviews — schedule conflicts, illness, feigned illness — childbirth is among the most reasonable. The original plan was to Skype with both members of the Oslo duo Konradsen, but vocalist and pianist Jenny Marie Sabel was unavailable due to the strong likelihood of induced labor. Fortunately, multi-instrumentalist Eirik…
Vagabon makes music for outcasts. Laetitia Tamko writes quietly luminous songs that help the listener feel less alone. Her work often meditates on how we find a sense of belonging within a community and what it means to feel truly at home. But it also grapples with what it feels like to be alienated, to…
It’s hard to believe Great Grandpa’s newest album is by, well, Great Grandpa. It’s a drastic musical shift, the kind that has you questioning if you accidentally put on a different band’s record or missed a transitional EP along the way. Four Of Arrows, the Seattle band’s sophomore full-length — due out this October via…
Caroline White has been releasing hushed reveries as Infinity Crush for the better part of the decade. The musician and poet’s songs are consistently revelatory in how much they do with so little. They are suggestive, her words have a precious, unfiltered intimacy. They’re loaded with imagery that takes on a kind of dream logic,…
