It’s hard to find an album so ambitious in its musicality that also extends an olive branch of accessibility to the more pop-minded. It’s even harder to imagine that kind of album, simultaneously steeped in…
Grizzly Bear, a once Brooklyn-based indie outfit, has changed locales to Los Angeles for its first new album since 2012’s “Shields.” The change must have done them good as their new project, “Painted…
It’s never an easy task to make a pop comeback. It’s particularly difficult for the now 30-year-old singer Kesha, who, in recent years, has been embroiled in negativity due to her lawsuit against a…
Long Island-native turned Angelino Jenny O. is the musical embodiment of two generations. Sonically, she sounds like a California dream dipped in whatever acid was being passed around at Woodstock (not the brown acid). Thematically…
Michael Angelakos is sick of the music industry, literally. As the founder and sole proprietor of the indie-electro project Passion Pit, he’s spent the past decade of his life pushing his music through the…
Anyone who has spent time skimming Youtube’s comments section knows how dark, twisted and fickle of a mistress the internet can be. It can get your band discovered and hype you up until you’re big…
Vic Mensa has been slowly but surely carving out his place in hip-hop. From a guest spot on Kanye West’s “Life of Pablo” album alongside Sia to the dance heavy verses on Flume’s “Lose…
Recently, Kentucky-based band Cage the Elephant set off on a stripped-down tour showcasing their now extensive catalogue of down-home rock n’ roll. Lead singer Matt Shultz and the boys, along with an orchestra, stopped…
There’s a lot to unpack with Tyler, the Creator’s new album. With a pre-release date leak and a ton of subsequent speculation about the California rapper’s sexual orientation, “Flower Boy” was primed for…
Lana Del Rey continues to be a baroque pop star who has a way about her that demands our collective attention. Her first step onto the national scene came from 2011’s “Video Games,” which the…
When assessing the music of Foster the People, it’s impossible not to acknowledge the pernicious edge they give their indie pop songs. After all, this is a band whose breakout, “Pumped Up Kicks,” describes…
From a short-lived fling with reality titan Khloe Kardashian to jumping on tracks with prime hitmakers like Drake or even Jennifer Lopez to raise his stock, French Montana has always flourished in good company.
While the twenty-one-year-old DJ known as Mura Masa follows in the footsteps of fellow British DJ acts like Disclosure and Jamie XX, this Guernsey-island native manages to stay fresh on his debut self-titled…
Coldplay‘s new five-track EP “Kaleidoscope” contains a remix of the song “Hypnotised” that serves as a perfect microcosm for what the band is all about. With looping piano melodies, a toy xylophone, swelling…
In a pop music world run by computer synths, drum pads and glass shattering vocals, London-based Oh Wonder have carved out a niche rife with live instrumentation and…
When Danielle, Este and Alana Haim’s 2013 debut “Days Are Gone” found its way to the forefront of everyone’s personal rotation, it was the architecture behind each carefully crafted slice of pop paradise that made…
“Boo Boo” is Chaz Bear’s (formerly Bundick) first solo effort since 2015’s “What For?” Returning for his fifth LP under his stage name Toro Y Moi, “Boo Boo” finds Bear returning to his…
At its best, the genre of dream pop drops the listener in an immersive atmosphere that matches the emotional content of each piece. Love is felt through shimmering synth arpeggios and kick drum heartbeats; hatred…
In 1905 Picasso painted “Garçon à la Pipe,” a modest rendition of a boy with an indifferent expression clutching a smoking-pipe in his left hand. Ninety-nine years later, in 2004, the painting sold for $104.2…
Few artists have a legacy as impressive as the iconic rapper Jay Z, rounding out what has arguably become one of the biggest months in his life with the release of his thirteenth studio…
Even after giving fans political rap classics like “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” and “Fear of a Black Planet,” it appears that Public Enemy still isn’t done giving back.
There’s much to be said about Long Beach rapper Vince Staples’ future place in the hip-hop hall of fame. When he came to prominence as a quasi-member of…
No one has things figured out quite like DJ Khaled. The man has almost as many hit singles under his belt as his Snapchat has meme-fodder, yet the…
What’s in a name? In the case of Imagine Dragons’ third album “Evolve,” it’s tempting to guess that the band is going to…
Wilco has always been two bands in one, half noise savant provocateurs and half winsome twang troubadours. But right before they released 2007’s “Sky Blue Sky,” Jeff Tweedy lamented, “I…
If you can, think back to this time a year ago. It was nice, wasn’t it? Obama was still President, the Cleveland Cavaliers were coming back from down 3-1 to defeat the Warriors…
It is no secret that Lorde’s unique voice and perspective are unusually addictive — her debut ‘Pure Heroine’ proved just as much. But since her 2013 debut, the…
Atmospheric electro-pop has become English trio London Grammar’s modus operandi. This, combined with their affinity for minimalistic soundscapes is what propelled them…
If the 2009 release of “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” marked Phoenix‘s bombastic introduction to the rock landscape, and their 2011 album “Bankrupt!…
The headlines surrounding Katy Perry’s fifth studio album, “Witness,” have been all but positive. Following…