The emotion started welling up during, of all songs, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” Something about the sight of a gaggle of teen girls, singing the nonsense chorus of that White Album classic started to crack my critical resolve. By the time Paul McCartney hit the chords of “Hey Jude,” already two-plus hours into the opening night of […]
When we first met Melody Prochet, the Paris-based singer-songwriter wasn’t mourning love lost; she was patiently feeding lost love to a sonic kaleidoscope and minting a DayGlo, beat-assisted species of shoegaze as lush, warm, and candied as Cam’ron’s 2002-2005 wardrobe or an interactive Yayoi Kusama installation. Her project’s 2012 debut remains a psychoactive magic carpet […]
When Bloc Party released their debut studio album, Silent Alarm, in 2005, it garnered the kind of praise that young, bright-eyed musicians fantasize about. Earnest comparisons to legendary acts like Blur, U2 and The Cure were just the beginning. They, alongside bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads, were considered an intricate part of indie […]
Vinyl Nation, a new documentary from directors Kevin Smokler and Christopher Boone, is, as the title may suggest, as much a chronicle about a growing community than it is about the medium of vinyl records. To be clear, the history of vinyl pressing, from its early market dominance to its later decline due to the […]
At a time when it would be understandable to pack things in, Spiritualized leader J Spaceman (Jason Pierce) found himself thriving in the past few years of isolation. As he’d walk through an eerily silent London, Spaceman found himself inspired by the world “full of birdsong and strangeness and no contrails.” The experience allowed him […]
There are multiple Nic Cages on display in the new meta action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: the financially struggling actor with a penchant for lavish purchases and hotel stays that would bankrupt the budget of Vermont; a less-than-attentive father who means well but is quickly losing the patience of his teenage daughter; and, […]
It’s so easy to be cynical about a band like Wet Leg, who in a matter of months last year signed a management deal, a record contract with tastemaker Domino (Arctic Monkeys, Cat Power) and sold out their first headlining tour, despite having released only two singles — six minutes of music to secure all […]
Father John Misty is something of an online discourse generator. You never quite know what to expect from him. He used to have a tremendous presence on the internet and social media at large, but he has receded a bit in recent years. Around the album cycle for 2017’s epic Pure Comedy, it seemed like […]
Dom Deshawn’s latest album Tale of Two Seasons captures the almost helpless feeling of passing through the seasons, undergoing a change that you can’t control but is happening all around you. Like last September’s Maintainin’, the project emerges from the Columbus rapper–born Dominique Mattox–processing personal struggles within the larger global catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
After setting the reggaetón genre ablaze with “Gasolina” in 2004, Daddy Yankee is getting ready to hang up the nozzle. With news of his impending retirement from music this year, the Puerto Rican icon released his final album, Legendaddy. Across 19 tracks, Daddy Yankee reasserts his position as the King of Reggaetón while collaborating with […]