For 20 years now, Avril Lavigne has swung a pendulum between her two rock personas: playful, vaguely punkish pop (see: “Sk8er Boi,” “Girlfriend” and “Here’s to Never Growing Up”) and self-serious alternative (“My Happy Ending,” “Nobody’s Home” and that unfortunate collaboration with Chad Kroeger in 2013). Yet despite regular attempts to shift her sound — […]
To label Big Thief’s panoramic new project a “double album” is something of a misnomer. In totality, the 81-minute mammoth that is Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is not two halves but four quarters, divided by as many distinct recording sessions, in upstate New York; Topanga Canyon, California; the Colorado Rocky Mountains; […]
In March, Mitski Miyawaki will play her first sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall — by far the largest headlining performance of her career, nearly quadruple the size of her last top-billing gig in New York City. Surely the indie noble will be scared shitless; who wouldn’t? That’s 6,000 people you’re supposed to entertain! […]
“Are you ready for a bit of Echo Victor?” a reverberating Eddie Vedder announces at the top of his third solo album Earthling, invoking the radio alphabet code for “EV.” And all at once, it’s clear this is the Pearl Jam frontman’s 13-song transmission from beyond our world, our time, our lives, and our dimension. […]
Say this much for Damon Albarn, the guy’s got a sense of humor. As he was winding down his 17-song, 75-minute set at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, he addressed the elephant in the room: his much-discussed comments about Taylor Swift. In case you missed it somehow, Albarn caused quite the stir […]
You are sitting in a car. The car is stuck in a tunnel; gridlock traffic. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. You are waiting your turn. All you can hear is the car radio. The smooth-talking DJ is guiding you forward, to “accept your fate with open arms.” Sounds like purgatory, huh? […]
No artist deserves to be defined by their romantic failures, least of all Adele, whose catalog has provided solace to leagues of lovelorn listeners over the past decade-plus — a generational voice worth wailing along to on our lowest days. So in 10, 25 and 50 years, when anniversary retrospectives are written about the star’s […]
Red was already Taylor Swift’s greatest album, her bittersweet spot between the confessional heartache that defined the megastar’s earliest songwriting and the stadium-pop grandeur that would inform her next trio of colossal LPs (1989, Reputation and Lover). It was the ultimate millennial breakup album, a touchstone of lovelorn devastation, fury, hope and reflection for all […]
Mick Jenkins’ third studio album, Elephant in the Room, confronts the issues that haunt his relationships with others, wedging between him and the world. Across the album, the Chicago MC’s deft flows and cool delivery explore the unspoken barriers in his personal and professional life. At some points, Jenkins himself appears as the titular elephant […]
“Well this is nice, this is quaint,” Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl said, taking in the audience Thursday night at the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio. He tucked his mane behind both ears like a professor adjusting his reading glasses. It’s been a while since Grohl, 52, could recognize faces from the stage since […]