With the world largely returning to normal this year, 2022 saw no shortage of musical releases – with big hitters like Beyoncé, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar returning (to varying levels of success) and a new generation of talent (like Ethel Cain and London’s Black Country, New Road) making themselves heard. Below I sift through the… Read more
Constantly changing throughout the year, my Album of the Year list – which I always enjoy making – this year constitutes Irish Weird Al Yankovic-inspired country pop, moist body parts, teenage Sonic Youth apprentices, weaponized troglodytes, crashing metaphoric airplanes, strong, colorful, Canadian beverages, and for the first time since 2018 – no hip-hop albums. Below… Read more
2022 saw no shortage of fantastic music, which is perhaps why there’s so much disagreement as to what the year’s big, standout releases were. With this list, I attempt to break through the noise and put aside any personal biases to objectively assess the most important releases from this year. #10. Alvvays – ‘Blue Rev’… Read more
I’m always finding it harder to put together a “best songs of the year” list than a “best albums of the year” list because whenever I listen to music, I prefer to consume the entire album rather than pick out specific songs. Yeah, there really are people like me out there! Nonetheless, here are ten… Read more
The Top Ten Best Songs of 2022 (So Far) Though the first half of 2022 has seen something of a dearth of mainstream musicians, this space has thankfully been filled by a number of highly talented alternative, indie stars. From the masterful indie-rock confessionals of Soccer Mommy to the affecting balladry of Regina Spektor, Q1… Read more
With Coronavirus receding and the world slowly opening back up, the last year has allowed musicians to finally get back in the studio and record new music. Combine this with a pandemic’s worth of soul-searching and you find an entire generation of new talent making urgent music that meets this moment. From soul-searching singer-songwriters to… Read more
Photo Credit: Rosie Foster No other group today makes music quite like Black Country, New Road. Their aptly titled 2021 debut For the First Time is one of the most ambitious debuts ever released; a freewheeling, ferocious record that incorporated klezmer music and jazz fusion alongside post-punk and art-rock. Isaac Wood’s frenzied deliveries and weird poetry soon… Read more
Black Country, New Road – Ants from Up There, to be released: February 4th Photo Credit: Rosie Foster With their bold, modern take on post-punk and jazz, English seven-piece Black Country, New Road built an instant – and fervent – cult following with their 2021 debut For the First Time. Barely a year out from that… Read more
Charli XCX – CRASH, to be released: March 18th Photo Credit: Emily Lipson So, how is Charli XCX feeling now that her record deal is on its last leg and she’s out of quarantine (at least for now, as far as I’m concerned)? Pretty cool, pretty reflective, and pretty hungry it seems, considering the vibe… Read more