Pop Spotlight

KMRU’s 2020 album Peel was a formidable addition to the long list of great electronic albums released on the Editions Mego label. The shadowy six-track release established the Nairobi-born, Berlin-based artist (aka Joseph Kamaru) as one […]

Without hearing their music, it would be reasonable to assume MSPAINT is a hardcore band. The Hattiesburg, Mississippi quartet spent the past three years opening for the likes of Soul Glo, Militarie Gun, and Gel with a fervor that […]

Sometimes it seems like Justin Morris wishes he were an eagle. Planes and birds of prey soar above Radial Gate, the Durham, North Carolina folk musician’s second album as Sluice. From the ground, Morris sings of dirt […]

For years, each new album signaled the pronouncement of a new, more mature Miley Cyrus, and a host of new visual metaphors for said maturity: an asymmetrical haircut, an acoustic guitar, a branded condom, another asymmetrical haircut. […]

New York is always dying, pricing out longtime residents and shuttering beloved haunts. One recent casualty is the iconic Pyramid Club, an East Village night spot that hosted RuPaul, Madonna, and Lydia Lunch in the 1980s and early […]

If Nia Archives is shouldering the weight of expectations, then she’s not letting it show. Over the past 18 months, the Bradford-born, London-based producer has scooped up pretty much every UK industry accolade available to her […]

What is it about a scratchy radio broadcast, encountered out of context, that captivates the senses? Woven into the ambient fabric of a song (this is a nice example, and of course this, and this, and even this), […]

Mach-Hommy isn’t just looking to control his narrative; he keeps it under lock and key. Very little about the Haitian-American rapper’s life is public knowledge, and whatever specifics he offers in songs and interviews usually […]

In the learned vocabulary of pop music, staccato means happy and languorous, sustained notes signify sad. It’s the “Getting Better” vs. “She’s Leaving Home” binary established long ago by McCartney and co. But to wilfully defy […]

Sleaford Mods don’t make music about how terrible things are in hopes that they will get better. Over the past decade, Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson have channeled public discontent and everyday malaise in the […]

For Godcaster, everything has to be magnified or it’s not worth examining. Every aspect of the Brooklyn collective seems designed to overstimulate: their six eclectic members, their out-of-breath, cosmological lyrics, and their commitment to song […]