The nuanced examination of Big L’s posthumous release Harlem’s Finest: Return of the King, situating it within the broader context of his life and career. It balances admiration for Big L’s technical brilliance with critical scrutiny of the compilation’s execution. The writing vividly captures L’s charisma, lyrical genius, and the impact he had on peers…
Florence Welch’s sixth album, Everybody Scream, continues the band’s tradition of transforming personal trauma into expansive, cathartic music. Each album opens with Welch confronting aftermaths—this time shaped by her near-death experience from an ectopic pregnancy during the Dance Fever tour in 2023. The record channels grief, anger, and resilience through arena-pop baroque arrangements, featuring cinematic…
The article profiles Jordan Patterson and her debut album The Hermit, emphasizing how her background—growing up in North Carolina, early exposure to Roberta Flack, formal arts schooling in Los Angeles, and later discoveries like Nick Drake and Radiohead—logically shapes her warm, folk-rooted sound. Yet the writer argues that none of this explains Patterson’s singular voice,…
Stylish meditation on Big city life EDITS, the remix album built from Smerz’s Big city life. The writer leans heavily into imaginative, sensory language to capture the project’s appeal—treating the album like an urban dreamscape you can physically wander through. Rather than focusing on relatability, the review celebrates how Smerz’s music works as an environment…
The article celebrates Chin Up Buttercup, the fifth Austra album, as the culmination of Katie Stelmanis’ long-running artistic evolution. Throughout her career—whether in art-punk bands, solo work, or collaborations—Stelmanis has relied on a few constants: devastatingly emotional lyrics, her operatic vibrato-heavy voice, and a talent for blending dance-floor euphoria with darker indie atmospheres. Austra has…
Through This Fire, the 23rd album by the Mountain Goats, built around a dream-born character named Peter Balkan and a narrative of three shipwrecked survivors. The reviewer praises the album’s ambition and emotional weight but argues that it ultimately falls short of the band’s most accomplished narrative works. John Darnielle crafts a story about survival,…
The article is a reflective, deeply appreciative look at Let It Be (Deluxe Edition), positioning it within the broader context of The Replacements’ decade-long streak of revelatory archival releases. After the successes of For Sale, Dead Man’s Pop, and Tim (Let It Bleed Edition), the writer notes how easy it is to imagine an endless…
Originally from France, who has established a distinctive place in the city’s underground music scene. Formerly part of the post-punk trio Moss Lime, she now runs the indie label and fanzine Celluloid Lunch with her husband, Joe Chamandy, who also plays guitar on her new album Panorama. Though she tends to avoid the spotlight, Barbier…
Shortly before releasing last year’s No Glory, their debut album, Hannah Pruzinsky left their work as a physician to pursue music full-time—a leap that quickly paid off within New York’s close-knit DIY scene. Under the name h. pruz, they craft songs with a quiet, assured intimacy, a confidence that suited No Glory’s focus on new…
Eden is usually painted as some glittering fairy-tale garden—a man, a woman, a snake, an apple, and a catastrophe that supposedly cursed everyone forever. But imagine instead that paradise was just a quiet farm on the border of England and Wales. Picture sheep wandering lazily, hens darting around the yard, teenagers sneaking Baileys from someone’s…