Set My Heart on Fire Immediately finds Perfume Genius making both his body and heart vulnerable, creating a profound intimacy from his preoccupations with fragility. Michael Hadreas can seem obsessed with thoughts of his own death, whether those manifest as the immediate release resulting from…
Waxahatchee’s latest succeeds according to her familiar attention to emotional precision and in pivoting to a more Americana-leaning sound. After 2017’s dark and brooding Out in the Storm it feels good to have a warm sounding record from Katie Crutchfield’s Waxahatchee project. Saint Cloud…
Tame Impala’s latest does nothing to change the narrative that Parker’s emulation of other bands borders on unintentional parody. Kevin Parker is often praised for his ability to take a sound that audiences are familiar with and contort it into something that’s somehow different,…
Jessie Ware’s latest does exactly what pop should do — it innovates and bears beautiful reassurance. Jessie Ware nearly called it quits after 2017’s Glasshouse, an album that resulted in an exhausting tour cycle, middling reviews, and slumping sales. Subsequent pressure to push past…
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters might be her greatest yet: a confrontation of trauma and exhibition of musical excellence. Eight largely reclusive years later and Fiona Apple has delivered her Idler Wheel follow-up. The creation process was a long one, with recording of her new…
After recent collaborative albums, Punisher shows Phoebe Bridgers to be a complex and preternaturally formed artist in her own right. At this point, Phoebe Bridgers seems unstoppable. While Punisher is only her second solo studio album, she’s been busy since her 2017 debut Stranger…
Yves Tumor’s latest realizes an androgynous vision of rock ‘n roll and continues their morphology as an artist. It’s hard to imagine an artist reinventing themselves while so successfully achieving a unified goal and message, but this is what Yves Tumor accomplishes on each…
Heavy Light sets the bleak landscape of contemporary society to the sounds of bubblegum pop. Meg Remy understands human struggle. On Heavy Light, the newest U.S. Girls record, she sings a catalog of challenges she’s faced. Tracks like “Born to Lose” (“And I don’t understand…
Haim’s latest represents their most cohesive artistic vision yet and a grand promise of continued evolution. “Goodbye for now” were the words that the Haim sisters posted to their individual Instagram accounts in early 2019, though the subtext was more promise than goodbye. Was…
