Pop Spotlight

The world according to Sabrina Teitelbaum can be brutal. It is populated by dirtbag men, wayward friends, and the constant lure of mind-numbing substances. “Ur just doing ur best and life is like ‘hehe I’m […]

At some point in the last 15 years, Metallica started sounding like themselves again. Certain hardcore fans might say it began with the Rick Rubin-produced Death Magnetic; the more skeptical among us started caring again eight years […]

Life after Graduation humbled Kanye West. Struggling with invasive tabloid coverage amid the death of his mother and a broken engagement, he mused, “Do I still got time to grow?/Things ain’t always set in stone.” Daniel Caesar would later […]

In the fall of 2013, the Treasury Department issued the first new $100 bill design in nearly two decades. The Series 2009A was a radical change mostly because it was, well, blue. These bills present […]

Desire Marea’s healing powers don’t vanish when he steps off stage, and now he has the credentials to prove it. After the release of his eponymous debut, a record of otherworldly club music suffused with erotic […]

The repeat reveler learns that partygoing is as much a skill as an activity. At some mundane but critical point—having a kid, dropping a phone into a bar toilet, turning 30, falling asleep in a […]

When Nathan Fake emerged in the early 2000s, he was part of a small, upstart crew making splotchy, rough-hewn dance music, a volatile amalgam of techno, trance, and IDM that sounded little like anything else in […]

Ben Sloan is a percussionist whose touch is so light and musical that it melts the border between beat and melody. In his collaborations with other artists, from the National and Moses Sumney to producers like Mouse on […]

Even before Daft Punk announced their retirement in 2021, fresh updates from the duo were often old news: the release of bonus tracks, archival concert footage, album reissues. It was a welcome surprise, then, when Thomas Bangalter […]

Ambient music is in crisis. Passive listening is no longer an alternative or fringe idea but the model on which the entire streaming industry is built. YouTube radio stations guarantee hours of chilled-out, challenge-free audio, and albums […]

Dionne Warwick had a rocky start at Scepter Records. As a child in New Jersey, she sang with her family’s gospel band, which also included her aunt, Cissy Houston; as a teenager, she recorded back-up […]

In 2017, on the opening night of his European tour, the British trip-hop veteran Tricky quickly needed someone to fill in on vocals. A promoter suggested Marta Złakowska, who was then working at a bar in […]