#10. Lil Nas X – ‘Montero’ Lil Nas X is a one in a million kind of artist, in that he elevates the game for everyone whether you like him or not. Tracks like “Montero (Call Me By My Name” and “Scoop” featuring Ms. Doja Cat show us why Lil Nas X is here to… Read more
Photo Credit: Jack Bridgland With Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Or SIMBI, for short), Britain’s Simbiatu Ajikawo – A.K.A. Little Simz – provided not just the best album of 2021, but also an instant hip-hop classic. One that deserves to hold the same prestige held by the likes of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly and Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation. Effortlessly blending together… Read more
#10. Amyl & The Sniffers – ‘Comfort to Me’ Amyl and her boys can do no wrong in my eyes. These 21st-century sharpie delinquents make music to crack 40’s and have a drink, even if you don’t do that anymore. Comfort to Me, The Sniffer’s second full-length album, shows some growth from their debut, touches a… Read more
*Honorable Mentions*: Lord Huron– ‘Long Lost’ // The Weather Station– ‘Ignorance’ // IDLES –‘CRAWLER’ // Arlo Parks – ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams‘ // Genesis Owusu – ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ // Mdou Moctar – ‘Afrique Victime‘ // Billie Eilish – ‘Happier Than Ever‘ & Doja Cat – ‘Planet Her‘ #10. Silk Sonic – ‘An Evening with… Read more
#10. H.E.R. – ‘Back of my Mind’ R&B vocalist, rapper, and guitar virtuoso are not a trio of hats which are typically worn on the same head, at least not until Back of My Mind, the spectacular twenty-track debut album by Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, better known as H.E.R. (that’s pronounced “her” – make note of that, as… Read more
#10. Sam Fender – ‘Seventeen Going Under’ Much of Sam Fender’s first album was inspired by discussions the Geordie singer had at the bar, but when lockdown made that impossible, he was forced to look inwards. As a result, the politicking of his first album is largely (though not entirely) replaced by an introspective look… Read more
Photo Credit: Collages via Billboard Most people will tell you that the only success that translates financially is “success.” In music, certainly, it’s thought to be almost entirely mathematical: the more records an artist has sold, the more “successful” they are (of course, in recent decades the number of downloads and streams would also have… Read more
Photo Credit: MTV VMAs This year’s MTV Video Music Awards (which aired live on September 12th) tell us pretty much all we need to know about how the state of rock ‘n’ roll is 2021. Actually, we can even go all the way back to 1997: The award category that had once been “Best Heavy… Read more
In 1995, The Simpsons premiered one of its episodes which flashes forward several decades (no, this isn’t the one that predicted the Trump presidency), and among the gags is one about how in the future “the Fox Network turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually that no one noticed.” While that hasn’t come to… Read more
In the past two years, a lot of new artists have exploded onto the music scene, harnessing the free time that the quarantine provided to hone their musical talents and the power of social media to build a fanbase and gain recognition. Here at Music Matters Media, we rounded up 10 of our favorite artists… Read more