Photo Credit: Mary Ellen Matthews The run-up to SZA’s sophomore effort SOS has been long, unpredictable, and reliably confounding. Its lead single – and SZA’s first solo top-ten hit – “Good Days” arrived almost two years before the rest of the album and wouldn’t enjoy an official music video until March 2021, by which time… Read more
Photo Credit: Johannes Lovund EDM, perhaps more than any other genre, defined the commercial music of the 2010s. When you think about the biggest, most inescapable hits of the decade, you realize a majority of them belong to this genre – the late Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” Major Lazer, DJ Snake, and MØ’s “Lean On”… Read more
Photo Credit: Dennis Leupold The existence of A Very Backstreet Christmas shouldn’t surprise anyone. Though the demand for new Christmas music remains low – year after year, more and more people seem to be sticking with the classics (Mariah, Kirsty MacColl, Michael Buble, etc.) over renditions from the stars of the moments – creating a… Read more
Photo Credit: Isaac Schneider Muna’s self-titled third album starts out by touching several bases right away. The first few seconds of the opening cut “Silk Chiffon” introduce a subtle synth intro before an acoustic guitar and vocals that suggest that what we’re in for is mainly a singer-songwriter vibe. Then, less than a minute in,… Read more
Photo Credit: RCA Records Alanis Morissette has been part of the cultural consciousness for some time now. Born in Ontario, Canada in 1974, Alanis was featured on a weekly kid’s show by the ’80s and was a pop star in her native country by the early ’90s. In 1993 Alanis Morrissette dropped an album that… Read more
Photo Credit: Matt Salacuse When Bleachers released their 2017 album, Gone Now, the band was still relatively undiscovered. The band had a taste of widespread success with one of their first singles, “I Wanna Get Better”, and followed it up with a strong debut and sophomore album that was well-received by both fans and critics. After… Read more
Photo Credit: Shane Adams Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, who goes by the stage name H.E.R. (pronounced “her”), has been releasing singles and individual tracks going as far back as 2014, thus it’s a bit surprising that she’s just now coming out with her first full-length release. If making up for lost time was any part of… Read more
Photo Credit: RCA Records On When You See Yourself, their first new album in five years (and eighth studio effort overall), Kings of Leon offer up fifty minutes of tight, mature, intelligent rock ‘n’ roll, most of which can be described as “atmospheric” but almost none of which comes off as incidental. The marathon-titled opening… Read more
Photo Credit: Eric Ray Davidson As the end of the fall season moves into winter, R&B heartthrob Bryson Tiller’s third studio album Anniversary was released just in time for newfound loves and rekindled romances. Coming off of a long-awaited three years since his 2017 sophomore album True To Self, the new LP has been met… Read more
Photo Credit: Milan Zrnic The legend of Alicia Keys has taken on a life of its own as she grows into a new phase in her illustrious career. She is one of a handful of artists who can handle the gravitas of a mononym without advertising herself as such, Alicia finally capitalizes on that renown… Read more