Pop Spotlight

John Hollenbeck likes to blur the distinctions between the knotty virtuosity of jazz and the broad appeal of pop. Formed in the 1990s, his best-known project, the Claudia Quintet, emulates certain tenets of rock bands—the ensemble’s […]

To borrow a colloquialism from one of their songs, Oozing Wound are living embodiments of the hippie speedball: headbangers both frenetic and spaced out, as if constantly slurping black coffee and ripping bongs. No matter which particular […]

But Dylan, predictably, wasn’t settling in. He couldn’t work this close to his home and his family, which, by now, included six children and multiple grandchildren. They decamped instead to Criteria Studio in Miami, a […]

Referencing worship music, “Jesus, take the wheel,” and the big guy himself, Samia half-commits to a God-fearing country album. Nashville has been her adopted home for the past couple years and everyone knows that when […]

Since their 2006 debut, Fucked Up have fearlessly merged the ferocity of hardcore punk and the grandiosity of prog-rock. Anchoring their ever-evolving sound is Damian Abraham’s throat-rending bark, barreling through immaculately layered rock riffage laden […]

Fear, anger, and alienation have long been the dominant emotions in Ruhail Qaisar’s music. His early solo releases and live sets—under the now defunct moniker SISTER—married the blackened death metal of his short-lived band Vajravarah with […]

Nas follows “Destroy & Rebuild” with “The Flyest,” a charmingly overproduced AZ duet that functions as a victory lap but is, frustratingly, betrayed by the filler that comes next. Stillmatic’s original pressing included “Braveheart Party,” a […]

It’s awards season, so I’d like to nominate Sam Smith for 2022’s Best Celebrity Cameo in a Magazine Profile. The publication was New York Magazine; the subject was Joel Kim Booster, the writer and star of last year’s […]

White Reaper have been one album away from their big break for a while. Since the early 2010s, they’ve paid their dues as a punk-adjacent band with indie rock credibility, a glorified Iron Maiden T-shirt […]

We Are Scientists were never the center of the zeitgeist. The California band arrived in New York City just as the post-millennial party was winding down; they released their debut album in 2005, by which point […]

In 2021, Memphis rappers Aleza, Glorilla, K Carbon, Slimeroni, and Gloss Up dropped a string of Hitkidd-produced posse cuts that were sparks for the already thriving local rap circuit. They were addictive and electric, like trying to hang with that […]

As long as he can create how he wants, Oddisee has been content to exist on rap’s fringes. The Brooklyn-via-Washington, D.C. rapper-producer has treated his independent music career like a small business long before that became […]