Jehnny Beth‘s voice is made for chaos. With Savages, the noisy English punk group she fronted last decade, her vocals sounded defiantly pretty and powerful as they fought to rise above the group’s shadowy guitar carnage. And with John and Jehn — the dramatic, lo-fi duo she formed with her …
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High Off Life is the first Future album since January 2019 — an eternity by his standards. It’s been a rare breather for the hardest-working rapper in the solar system, the Atlanta trap legend with a voice full of the Auto-Tune blues and a head full of astronaut status. Future …
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Margaret Glaspy, Devotion **** Caroline Rose, Superstar, ***1/2 Margaret Glaspy’s second album begins with a brief jolt of vocoder that recalls the statement-making opening to “Oh, What a World,” a highlight from Kacey Musgraves’ 2018 album Golden Hour. Musgraves’ synth-country blockbuster provided a template for how roots-based songwriters can strive …
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Imagine how intimidating it must be to sing with Bob Dylan for the first time. Now think of how Dylan must have felt singing alongside Johnny Cash in 1969 when the pair united for a loose recording session in Nashville. Cash was nine years Dylan’s senior, and had put out …
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A R.I.C.O. charge dating back to a 2016 arrest still looms over rapper Maxo Kream’s head like a guillotine, but he’s never been more committed to shining a light on the facts of his life. His superb major label debut Brandon Banks is sprawling autobiography overflowing with dense, unflinching, granular …
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Mark Ronson first branded himself as a nostalgia alchemist with Amy Winehouse, updating mid-century R&B with a rare-groove-fanatic’s ear for detail. Where super-producers like Diplo might make serviceable magic with anyone, Ronson’s classicism generally requires the wearer to animate it. Winehouse was an ideal match. To a lesser extent, so …
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After Nipsey Hussle died, YG spoke at his memorial at the Staples Center, called him “black motherfucking Jesus” during an emotional Coachella set, and delayed the release of his own album. Their friendship was a close one that transcended gang ties; they spoke truth to power on the defining political …
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Stella Donnelly spools out the kind of cuddle-core guitar pop that traditionally goes best with cardigan sweaters and shy glances in the dustiest recesses of the local used bookstore. But the Australian singer-guitarist is hardly the retiring type. “Your personality traits don’t count/If you put your dick in someone’s face/And …
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Avril Lavigne’s first record since the beginning of Barack Obama’s second term (in other words, seemingly centuries ago) finds everyone’s favorite arrested-development case emerging from a physically and emotionally debilitating time. She divorced husband number two, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, and was diagnosed with Lyme disease so severe that she was …
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