Few singer-songwriters in recent years have enjoyed a success story quite like Maggie Rogers. While Rogers was pursuing a degree at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, a 2016 master class…
Beyoncé has long subverted standards, marching comfortably to the beat of her own drum. Indeed, the spectacular drumlines at her historic 2018 Coachella performance, commemorated in the Netflix film, “Homecoming: A Film…
Lizzo storms into her fourth album, “Special,” wearing a wide grin, greeting her audience with, “Hi motherfucker, did you miss me?” She promptly updates us, “I’ve been home since 2020 /…
For his third solo album, “Harry’s House,” Harry Styles took inspiration from Japanese pop pioneer Haruomi Hosono, who released a record in 1973 titled “Hosono House.” While Styles staked out a…
In July 2005, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood premiered a piece titled “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” at the Ether Festival with the London Sinfonietta Orchestra and the Arab Orchestra of Nazareth. Greenwood,…
“United In Grief,” the opening number of Kendrick Lamar’s latest record, begins with a sung snippet, courtesy of singer-songwriter Sam Dew: “I hope you find some peace of mind in this lifetime.”…
“Dance Fever,” the latest album from UK indie giants Florence and the Machine, drew its titular inspiration from the phenomenon of choreomania, a mysterious “dancing plague” that took over Europe in…
On her debut album, 2012’s “Dejenme Llorar,” Mexican singer-songwriter Carla Morrison explored love and loss in Mexican pop-folk tunes, derived largely from regional traditions. Her lyricism and flair rapidly struck an international…
With more Academy of Country Music awards to her name than any artist in history, Miranda Lambert steadily continues to rack up superlatives, most recently with the 2022 distinction of Entertainer of…
For his latest album, “It’s Almost Dry,” Pusha T has split production duties between two of the most distinctive auteurs in hip-hop today. Pusha’s fellow Virginia Beach native, Pharrell WIlliams, who…
In “Goin On a Plane Today,” the opening number of his ninth album, “(Watch My Moves),” Kurt Vile sings,”My mind gone foggy, my memory’s unclear… Watch me shrinking back into a…
Rapper Vince Staples concluded the self-titled album that he released less than a year ago with a retrospective glance. The final track, “Mhm,” found him recalling, “‘Fore Corona, I was at Ramona…