Pop Spotlight

Ibiza may be best known for nightlife, but away from the endless raves and debaucherous parties, the island’s natural beauty can be something to get lost in. In October 2021, Los Angeles musicians Eddie Chacon and John […]

The collaborative album has a storied place in hip-hop. It’s a celebration of two artists’ creative synergies, typically honed in prior team-ups that became hits and/or fan favorites. But sometimes, it can be an opportunity […]

Welcome to Tyler, the Creator’s The Estate Sale, where everything is out of your budget. DJ Drama returns as host, hyping up Tyler like a proud uncle greeting you at the finish line with Gatorade and grapes. Though […]

After 20 years, it’s hard to stop calling the New Pornographers a power-pop supergroup, even if neither is really true at this point. Dan Bejar and Neko Case have ceded creative control almost entirely to […]

The acoustic guitar and the piano are chummy enough in popular recordings, but there’s little concert music written for the duo. Without the magic of compression, how could a mere six or 12 hand-stirred strings, […]

On a first spin, Brooklyn trio Scree’s debut, Jasmine on a Night in July, scans as a promising little electric guitar record. Ryan El-Solh’s subtle, trebly strings touch almost every corner, whether opening the fractured waltz “Beautiful […]

Since the mid 1980s, when 14-year-old rapper Roxanne Shanté’s diss track “Roxanne’s Revenge” sent the New York rap world into a frenzy, teenage rappers have been prone to blowing up fast without trying all that hard. […]

Growing up in Lublin, in the east of Poland, Piotr Kurek could never quite decide what kind of music he wanted to make. First he played drums in a garage-rock band; then he banged out gabber […]

“I sing in Catalan in some of my songs because it’s my most private language and I want to keep it alive,” says Gisela Fullà-Silvestre, aka NOIA. The Brooklyn-based Barcelona native is the daughter of activist parents (her […]

Since forming almost three decades ago in pre-dotcom San Francisco, Deerhoof have been some of indie rock’s most effective ambassadors for the power of anarchic creativity. A sense of mischievous delight is never far from the […]

Larry June raps like he’s guiding a meditation, his voice rarely rising above a soothing monotone. In another timeline, the prolific San Francisco rapper might have been a self-help expert, using the power of mindfulness […]

Elton John has said that Honky Château did for him what Revolver did for the Beatles: It pried open the gilded gates, lifting him “onto a higher plane” as an artist. In 1972, when Honky Château went to No. 1, ending the Rolling […]