Pop Spotlight

Taylor Swift emerged in 2006 as a 16-year-old wunderkind with a gift for articulating all the intimacies and humiliations of falling in love. But throughout her early career, her image was predicated on her youthful […]

In the 13 years that Canada’s Freak Heat Waves have been making music, they have channeled a welter of influences: post-punk, shoegaze, dub, goth, Detroit techno, Japanese synth pop, German prog. Drop the needle at […]

Listening to a Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon mixtape has the same episodic feeling as reading the latest issue of your favorite comic book. It’s just nice to hear what nuggets of hip-hop history he mines (“I’ma […]

As Downtown Kayoto, Chiko Chinyadza offers a listening experience akin to an all-you-can-eat buffet with a time limit: You are having it all and you are having it all right now. Fuzzy guitars, sadboi rap, […]

Julie Byrne became a shared secret among music obsessives with 2014’s Rooms With Walls and Windows, a beguiling compilation of two earlier cassettes that blurred the edges of folk and ambient in the manner of […]

In the early 2000s, Luny Tunes had the future of reggaeton in the palm of their hands. Mas Flow 2, the Dominican American production duo’s 2005 compilation album, spawned a series of classics. The scandalizing […]

Over nearly three decades, Swedish quartet Little Dragon has preserved a refined sense of style. Collectively, bassist Fredrik Wallin, keyboardist Håkan Wirenstrand, drummer Erik Bodin, and singer-songwriter Yukimi Nagano put a light spin on easygoing […]

In the years since Anohni’s crushing warning of “4 Degrees,” the global temperature has become perilously close to the point of no return. We just experienced what were likely the hottest days in recorded history. […]

Eliza Rose’s 2022 single “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)” was a serious contender for last year’s song of the summer: a throwback house banger made for boisterous crowd sing-alongs, with generations of rave nostalgia baked […]

Whether you’re aware of it or not, you are probably a heavy consumer of library music. Any time you watch reality TV, commercials, a YouTube documentary, or anything that requires background music, many of those […]

More than once, Linda Ronstadt has recounted the blunt welcome she received when she left her sleepy hometown of Tucson, Arizona for Los Angeles in 1964. “Honey, in this town, there are four sexes: women, […]

When Lil Uzi Vert dropped the Pink Tape trailer in late June, announcing their first full-length project since 2020’s Eternal Atake, it was an open question where they were headed. They have a famously wacky […]