MAVI's clearheaded songs of endurance
The Charlotte rapper's new album, Laughing so Hard, it Hurts, is more direct in thought and intention than his debut, more open and vulnerable, letting his observations guide his insights.
Music Reviews
On 'Blue Rev,' Alvvays finds euphoria in noise
The third album from the Canadian noise pop purveyors feels like a conversation between clarity and cacophony, creating an exhilarating tension.
Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn find solace in color and motion on 'Pigments'
Pigments comes to terms with the aches that make us human and asks listeners to act in accordance with their bodies' instinctive reactions to change, fear, doubt and love.
'The Loneliest Time' showcases Carly Rae Jepsen's versatility
Singer Carly Rae Jepsen has just released her latest album, The Loneliest Time.
On 'It's Only Me,' stardom makes Lil Baby more anonymous than ever
The newly minted A-list rapper variously calls himself a legend, a hero and a boss on the album, but the songs never embrace that mythmaking or mold those labels into personas.
In the haze of 'Midnights,' Taylor Swift softens into an expanded sound
On Swift's 10th and most challenging album, she and producer Jack Antonoff push her voice in new directions, rethinking the sonic rhetoric of first-person storytelling and shaking off old habits.
Saxophonist Bobby Watson brings the sparks on 'Back Home in Kansas City'
After decades in New York, Watson has returned to Kansas City. The core KC jazz values — a swinging beat, a personal style, and an earthy, bluesy sensibility — are firmly in place on this new album.
Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson tell their truth plainly
Plains' I Walked With You A Ways, the collaborative debut from the Waxahatchee singer-songwriter and Williamson, combines wry wisdom with a classic country sound.
Confronted with life's fragility, Wild Pink finds sanctity in stillness
The band's new album, ILYSM — made in the midst of cancer diagnosis — shares much with the genre of slow cinema: It asks the listener to lean in, pay attention and find providence in small details.
Singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde gives voice to an imaginary town on 'Lindeville'
McBryde mixes passionate music with novelistic details on a concept album about the inhabitants of a small rural town, named after the songwriter Dennis Linde.