Music
pop
Rina Sawayama explores pop and pain in ‘Hold the Girl’
“Hold the Girl” has the pop star quality, catchiness, and creativity of any truly great album.
brendon urie
‘Viva Las Vengeance’: Forgettable but fun
The album’s songs feel forgettable, but could become more impactful once Urie takes the album on tour.
concert
The house concert: an undying part of music culture
As recorded music became more widespread, we slowly entered the age of large arena concerts, and house concerts fell out of favor. Recently, however, the house concert scene has been seeing a resurgence, primarily in the United States.
pop punk
Is Pop Punk Cool Again?
Pop punk’s revival has been ushered in by both mainstream artists and alternative rock groups, both of whom have a mix of old and new artists in the genre pushing pop punk back into popularity.
Bronco
Orville Peck subverts country music conventions with “Bronco”
In this new “bro-country” movement, subversion is completely lost, which is why someone like Orville Peck, with the first two chapters of his latest album “Bronco,” is so important for this era of country music.
mitski
Out of a two-year hiatus, Mitski explores relationships in ‘Laurel Hell’
“Laurel Hell” takes an axe to the typical idea of love songs and gives us a deeper, realer, more melancholic take on the gray areas of struggling through a relationship.
growing up
Grace Conheady’s “Hello, Goodbye, and In Between” is an elegy for those in limbo
While you can just sit and let the instrumentals envelop you in a hazy fog of sound and be perfectly content with the album, focusing on the lyrics adds extra depth that is perfect background fodder for a good cry.
Liv on the Edge
Liv on the Edge: Spotify Wrapped, 2021, and me
All of these moments, which slipped through my fingers like tiny grains of sand, are accounted for in my Spotify Wrapped playlist.
Music
Aminé emerges from quarantine with ‘TWOPOINTFIVE,’ his most exciting experiment yet
Aminé takes hyperpop and smoothens out its rough edges — what results is a sugary pop rap record that translates his eccentricity into music.
Music
Silk Sonic’s timeless sound outlives critics’ questions of its authenticity
Silk Sonic manages to bring nostalgia for a beloved era of music, whilst perfectly balancing a carefree self-awareness of its parody with serious artistry.
