Album Reviews

Throughout his career, Kendrick Lamar has never been one to relinquish control. He says as much in his verse on Big Sean’s aptly titled 2013 single. On that track, a fiery declaration of rap supremacy, Kendrick’s ability to wrangle personas and sonic textures from his voice made for one of …

When Arcade Fire first came roaring out of Montreal with their firmament-strafing debut, Funeral, in 2004, they promised something new, exciting, and somewhat contradictory: heroic, culturally significant indie rock. A significance-deprived world ate it right up. This band didn’t just musically honor Springsteen, U2, and Bowie in the coming years, …

Chicago’s Lil Durk raps in a wavy warble that sounds like how a codeine high from a filled-to-the-brim double cup probably feels. But there’s emotion in his register—built up from a lifetime of scrapping it out on his city’s crime-ridden South Side. That Durk manages to make it melodic is …

Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, the married couple behind Low, have kept their band running for nearly 30 years now, which is inspiring considering their message since day one has been, “Everything is falling apart, but hey, we’re in this together.” Few bands have stared into the abyss quite like …

They say it takes a village to raise a child, so, for their second album, the collaborative Big Red Machine (nominally National guitarist Aaron Dessner and Justin “Bon Iver” Vernon) decided to invite a birthday party’s worth of friends to pitch in for How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna …

On FM!, his 2018 collaboration with Kenny Beats, Vince Staples treaded familiar territory, presenting stories past and present of running around his favorite haunt, Long Beach’s Ramona Park, and the streets that orbit it, as California backyard party music that might get played on the radio. Kenny reprises his role …

No space is safe from the heaviness of our times — even, it appears, a Maroon 5 record. The tone of Adam Levine and company’s seventh LP is downright elegiac. “Toast to the ones that we lost on the way,” Levine offers on “Memories,” a sweet, somber, genuinely felt ballad, …

“In all the world there’s no escape from this infernal din,” Geordie Greep fittingly intones on “John L,” his spoken-word ravings spilled over spiky Henry Cow-meets-Primus riffs and a bruising rhythm section that could battle Battles. London’s Black Midi satiated critics’ chaos cravings on their out-of-nowhere 2019 debut,Schagenheim. But the …

Dawn Richard has taken a winding path through her nearly 20-year career. In the early 2000s, an audition for season three of the Diddy-helmed reality show Making the Band helped lead to stints in the R&B groups Danity Kane and Dirty Money; she’s also been an animator for Adult Swim, …

Selena Gomez is following in the footsteps of Christina Aguilera as the next major pop star to musically embrace their Latina heritage. Twenty years after Aguilera’s Mi Reflejo LP, Gomez dropped her first Latin project, the Revelación EP. Both titles explore a theme of reflections, like looking into the mirror …