In His Best Tough Guy Voice, Machine Gun Kelly Fires Back at Eminem on ‘Binge’
Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly has quite a name to live up to, and seems to expend a lot of energy doing just that. He recently became embroiled…
Prince’s ‘Piano and a Microphone 1983’ Offers an Intimate, Barebones Look Into His Genius
Some artists make their name on being multi-instrumentalists, and it’s easy to get caught up in that, envisioning them as a sort of jack of all trades. Sure, they deserve credit for the…
Christine and the Queens Plays With Gender Identity on Androgynous Masterpiece ‘Chris’
Jamie Morga
Let’s be honest. “Gender” is really an ambiguous term. When you’re small, and told things like “Blue is for boys,” and “Pink is for girls,” it makes people latch on to ideas that…
Aphex Twin Tinkers, Tweaks and Triumphs on Delightfully Disorienting ‘Collapse EP’
Popular music derives much of its power from its predictability — the epic bass drop that you can sense coming for three minutes, the seeping, anthemic chorus whose inevitabile imminence packs stadiums of…
Willie Nelson Puts the Twang Into Frank Sinatra Classics on ‘My Way’
Willie Nelson is a country icon, embodying everything rustic and down-home, in terms of not only country, but also rock ‘n’ roll, as he famously united the hippies and the isolated,…
6lack Shows Heart on Moody and Mature Sophomore Album ‘East Atlanta Love Letter’
6lack, whose name is pronounced “Black,” grew up in Atlanta, battle rapping since an early age with the likes of Young Thug. Having honed his skills on the mic for years, he ventured…
Noname’s ‘Room 25’ Is an Incisive Survey of Society
Chicago rapper and poet Noname came to prominence in the slam poetry scene, and makes incisive and articulate music in the longstanding tradition of artists dating back to…
Carrie Underwood Tackles Heartache, Healing and the Heartland on Sixth Album ‘Cry Pretty’
The main thing that truly stands out about Carrie Underwood,” putting her in a category of her own, is how over-the-top her singing is. Country music, or anything…
Paul Simon Covers Paul Simon on Retrospective Revisioning ‘In the Blue Light’
Frank Okenfels
Paul Simon announced his retirement from performing earlier this year, after a musical career spanning five decades. The time is ripe for a retrospective, of sorts, and Simon’s latest release,…
Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Raise Vibration’ Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Soul With No Filler
Lenny Kravitz is like a rockstar written for fiction, a caricature of sorts. His music seems assembled from all the common denominators of “rock.” His guitar playing is almost exclusively…
Paul McCartney’s ‘Egypt Station’ Is Ambitious, Awkward and Awesome
Mary McCartney
The most iconic artists inevitably find themselves playing a dangerous game. When you’ve soundtracked millions of lives, and literally changed the course of history, any later artistic forays are typically met with a…
Eminem Unleashes His Fury Full Force on ‘Kamikaze’
Craig McDean
In 1999, when Eminem showed up on MTV with peroxide hair and a white t-shirt, taking jabs at celebrities in a voice that didn’t beg for street cred…
Troye Sivan’s ‘Bloom’ Packs a Queer Pop Punch
Australian singer Troye Sivan is the most millenial of pop stars, representing the fruition of several era-defining trends with his catapult to fame as a child star, and…
Interpol Return With Literary Post-Punk Album ‘Marauder’
Jamie James Medina
Interpol arrived with a slew of other bands riding the heavily post punk-informed indie rock wave that came into full swing in the mid aughts. Other main players — The…