Pop Spotlight

KMRU is not the call sign of a radio station, though it could very well be. The calendar of this imaginary broadcaster would vary in format and genre. Shows would change frequently: evolve, morph, disappear. […]

Arepa Mixtape, the new record from MJ Nebreda, seems designed to leave blue denim stains on basement walls. The Peruvian-Venezuelan producer and singer’s newest release is a clubby reggaeton thrill, one that revels in the […]

Shone a Rainbow Light On, by the new instrumental folk trio Setting, evokes the dark, infinite expanse of the night sky with its shimmering stars. The joint project of multi-instrumentalists Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly, and […]

Backwoodz Studioz engineer Willie Green has said he wants people to have a “physical reaction” when they listen to one of the label’s records. Last year, Green and Armand Hammer’s Elucid assembled a crew of […]

There is music that feels like it was born out of a white-hot spark of inspiration, and there is music that feels like it has come together gradually, like accrued wisdom; the music that Jack […]

Nothing Lasts Forever may seem like a peculiar choice of an album title for Teenage Fanclub, a group devoted to preserving the sound and sensibility of the guitar-pop explosion of the mid-1960s. Six-string traditionalists even […]

Rachel Brown keeps their foot on the gas pedal. In addition to making experimental art-rock as one half of Water From Your Eyes, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter has uploaded over 80 solo releases to Bandcamp as […]

Daniel Lopatin is hung up on the past: how it shapes us, and how we shape it in turn; how the songs on the radio of your parents’ minivan can frame your perception of the world, […]

Earlier this year, Jorja Smith showed up unannounced to a Birmingham club to perform her new song “Little Things” shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowd, radiating effortless joy in her Juicy Couture tracksuit and sunglasses. The song […]

Tyler Childers knows how the house of country music can be divided against itself. Since his 2011 debut, the Kentucky songwriter has roamed beyond the conventional divisions of the genre, flirting not just with Sturgill […]

At this point, ShittyBoyz are a well-oiled sports car with LEDs on the chassis and Supreme stickers embossed on the spoiler. Since they first gained traction through their single “No Hook 3” in 2018, emcees […]

Mary J. Blige wasn’t ready for a greatest hits moment just yet. By 2005, she was coming off her sixth studio album, Love & Life, an exuberant but untruthful Diddy-helmed affair that Blige later called […]