Ho, Why Is You Here? is a flex-heavy, club-ready mixtape from a rapper of uncommon confidence, even for the hip hop world. Fresh to the hip…
Nas is washed – King’s Disease confirms it. Nas is, for lack of a better term, washed; this isn’t to clown on the man who’s certainly earned…
Wunna is Gunna’s masterpiece, one that finds the low-ceiling rapper maximizing his particular hip hop style. Wunna is a masterpiece — or, to be more accurate,…
6ix9ine It was always kinda unlikely that Tekashi 6ix9ine would be able to maintain interest for more than a couple album cycles, and indeed, 2020…
Much like its main character, Another Round is a film firmly situated somewhere between thrill and disappointment. The 19th-century French poet, Charles Baudelaire once wrote, “You…
Nomadland’s delicate attention to storytelling tradition unfortunately gives way to conventionality in the film’s back half, displacing its early promise. Having just taken the top…
Black Bear is a challenging diptych study of life and art, and the blurred, impenetrable intersection of the two. In the debate between mimesis and anti-mimesis,…
Few debut albums have, since their initial release date, so easily defined themselves as a milestone and game-changer for a genre in the way of…
While not up to the standard set by T-Swift’s best writing, folklore still manages to remind that she is as keen an emotional observer as ever.…
Good to Know is a celebration of JoJo’s confidence and artistic independence, marking a new course after her career’s detours. Best known for the prodigious vocal…
My Agenda mashes and distorts disparate musical genres and sociopolitical potency into exhilarating, oddball earworms. Dorian Electra has seemingly done the impossible — well, at least…
The results come out a bit mixed, but there’s no denying the pleasure of witness MGK’s complete artistic freedom in the form of pop-punk idol…
The Ascension is expectedly deep and rich, but it still offers surprises in Stevens’ biting, moodier voice and more pared down arrangements. What exactly is Sufjan…
Sufjan Stevens What exactly is Sufjan Stevens ascending on his latest album? Celebrity? Corporate attention? This current political moment? God? All that and more, quite…
While perhaps slightly more superficial than a typical Morris, My Psychedelic Love Story is still another successful entry in the director’s continuing interrogation of late-1960s America.…
Mosul nails its action spectacle and kinetic foundation, but it is ultimately only able to conceive of its subject matter in war movie clichés. Yet another…
With Lovers Rock, McQueen mostly turns down his directorial affectations and let’s the film’s beauty and joy act as guide. Steve McQueen has always been a…
Superintelligence undermines its innocuous silliness and any potential rom-com aspirations with needlessly complicated stakes and a fixation on its own high concept. There’s a genuinely charming…
Barwick’s latest is still welcomingly adventurous but the artist’s slight pivots make for diminishing returns here. For an artist who’s been heavily characterized by certain…
Gold Record isn’t Bill Callahan’s greatest sonic effort, but it represents a thematic, emotional maturation for the artist. Nobody broods quite like Bill Callahan. From his…
Whole New Mess might be a reinterpretation of old material but its intimate, melancholic shift poignantly reflects 2020’s somber mood. Angel Olsen is back, this time…