Pop Spotlight

Shabaka’s Flute Fantasias Shabaka – Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its GraceImpulse! When tomorrow’s jazz historians are pondering our current era in their rent-controlled spaceships, they’ll see a state of the music divided into two schools, […]

Lana Del Rey, Maggie Rogers, boygenius Team for All Things Go Festival Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget MeCapitol Records It would have been easy for Maggie Rogers to embrace the fully-formed pop star trap that […]

The Enchanting Pain of Blake Rose How far would you need to be to risk total high school humiliation? For Australian native Blake Rose, it was 3,428 miles: the distance between Perth, his hometown, and […]

Leyla McCalla Explores Matters of the Heart on Sun Without the Heat Leyla McCalla – Sun Without the Heat Anti- Records Leyla McCalla, erstwhile Carolina Chocolate Drop and occasional Our Native Daughter, is on a search: […]

Phoenix Unveils New Album and Song Featuring Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us(Columbia Records) Vampire Weekend have been thinking about mortality.  Only God Was Above Us takes its title […]

Gustaf’s Package Pt. 2 Gets Under the Skin Gustaf – Package Pt. 2Royal Mountain Records New York no-wave group Gustaf use their rowdy, thorny songs to poke and prod the irritating and ridiculous questions about […]

Vegyn Finds a Way to Cruise Around Life’s Potholes Vegyn – The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good IntentionsPLZ Make It Ruins Vegyn’s latest album, The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions, […]

Khruangbin Releasing Five Live Albums Before End of Year Khruangbin – A LA SALADead Oceans Khruangbin have given rock scholars plenty to deconstruct. A lovely, ingenious aberration, the Houston trio made reverb-soaked guitar instrumentals a […]

Gary Clark Jr. Snags Stevie Wonder, George Clinton For New LP Gary Clark Jr. – JPEG RawWarner When he emerged in the early 2010s, Gary Clark Jr. was anointed a genuine guitar god—he even earned […]

Bolis Pupul Floats Through a Fog of Grief on Letter to Yu Bolis Pupul – Letter to YuDeewee Mothers are often the keepers of culture. As the people traditionally tasked with preparing meals, planning social […]

10 Tours That Changed the World Butthole Surfers – Psychic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac/Live PCPPEP/Rembrandt PussyhorseMatador Butthole Surfers weren’t originally called Butthole Surfers. As the story goes: Back in the very early 1980s, when the […]

Sierra Ferrell’s Americana Rollercoaster Sierra Ferrell – Trail of FlowersRounder “I’ve been American dreaming, but I never seem to get no rest,” Sierra Ferrell sings on the opener from her fourth album, Trail of Flowers, […]

Mannequin Pussy’s Multi-Generational Anger (and Horniness) Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven (Epitaph) “Oh, what’s wrong with dreaming of burning it all down?” sings Marisa “Missy” Dabice on “Nothing Like,” as a heavily phased guitar […]

Review: Cakes da Killa’s Hedonism Brings Lust and Rage to the Dance Floor For over a decade, Cakes da Killa has pioneered New York’s queer rap spaces, pairing hip-house beats that grind and grate with […]

The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s Tierra Whack – World Wide Whack (Interscope)Philadelphia rhymesayer Tierra Whack can still pack a cheeky punch via bite-sized songs. She showcased that skill on her 2018 debut mixtape, […]

The 50 Best Songs of 2002 Justin Timberlake – Everything I Thought It Was (RCA)  When did Justin Timberlake lose his mojo? Was it during that six-month stretch between The 20/20 Experience (a first-class prestige-pop […]