The Kesha of today is and isn’t the same as the Ke$ha of 2010, whose debut album Animal featured six Billboard-topping singles, including “TiK…
Jethro Tull’s long-awaited return with 2022’s The Zealot Gene — their first album in two decades — was something of a small triumph. It…
The National are tired and worn out — that’s the explicit subject of First Two Pages of Frankenstein’s best song, “Tropic Morning News,” but…
The music on sister duo Aly & AJ’s last album, 2021’s A Touch of the Beat, ranged from fireplace-warm pop-rock (“Listen!!!”) to tense synthpop…
In May 2022, Andy Fletcher — the keyboard player and one of the founding members of the prestigious British synth-pop/electronic rock group Depeche Mode…
The real story with Endless Summer Vacation might be that this is the album where pop’s forever fickle princess finally finds her sound. In…
“It’s a cracked-screen world,” sings Damon Albarn on Cracker Island, the eighth studio album from everyone’s favorite cartoon band. Since 2001, Damon Albarn and…
Country music has a dark history of songs about killing your lover. Men want to kill their wives for cheating. Women want to kill…
The Loneliest Time is another undeniable treat from one of pop’s greatest stars. Three years after her last bright-eyed pop album, Carly Rae Jepsen returns with…
Midnights is stuck somewhere between Taylor Swift’s classic pop textures and recent dreamy minimalism, to disappointing ends. As an unabashedly pop record, Taylor Swift’s…
Entering Heaven Alive is Jack White’s most symphonic release in roughly a decade, while also a contender for his least compelling. Jack White’s in love;…
Emails I Can’t Send is a sonically unfocused record that lacks successful production choices, but it also delivers one of the year’s top pop singles. …
Special is an undeniably imbalanced record, but it’s saved by the strength of its intimate back-half and b-sides. “Hiii, motherfucker, did you miss me?”…
Renaissance doesn’t rise to the heights of more personal records like Beyoncé and Lemonade, but it’s complex deep house influence still makes a persuasive case for…
Post Malone’s latest is an anemic, pointless exercise that leverages Top 40-approved styles to lazy, uninspired ends. Few may have guessed that Austin Richard…
Gold Rush Kid finds George Ezra co-opting TikTok music-making trends to abysmal effect. George Ezra, with his signature deep baritone and radio-friendly pop sensibilities,…
Cruel Country can occasionally lapse into tedious shapelessness, but it’s low-key, easygoing charms feel largely organic and earned. For a while, it seemed like…
Dance Fever doesn’t deliver much danciness, but it does reflect an appealingly intimate pivot for Welch and co. After a four-year gap, Florence +…