Album Reviews

It is to Mac Miller’s great credit that he became more compelling the further his career progressed. He would have made millions if he had stayed true to his humble teenage beginnings as a sentient snapback hat, Lord Finesse admirer and legal opponent, and Pittsburgh’s sauciest white boy since Terry …

At first glance, a deluxe, four-disc reissue of the second-worst Replacements album might seem like kind of an odd idea — albeit a uniquely Replacements-y one, utterly in keeping with the Minneapolis punk-rock icons’ gift for subverting even the simplest music-industry rituals to the point of needless self-sabotage. Maligned at …

There’s a live version of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” from 1969 that captures Elvis Presley in a comical meltdown of uncontrollable laughter. It’s a favorite track for oldies-radio DJs to play during Sunday morning “Breakfast with the King” hours, but it’s rarely been heard in the context of the full …

When Drake posted “Dreams Money Can Buy” on his label’s blog in May 2011, two historic events were just over the horizon: the U.S. launch of Spotify in July and the inauguration of “YOLO” as the national catchphrase in November. These two things would, of course, help define the Drake …

Steve Goodman, Artistic Hair *** Steve Goodman, Affordable Art **** John Prine is rightly getting plenty of love right now, which makes it a good time to reconsider the life and work of his friend and occasional collaborator, Steve Goodman. Thirty-five years after his death, Goodman is now mostly remembered …

For the past dozen or so years, Swedish singer-songwriter Daniel Norgren has been releasing albums full of romantically-rendered Southern folk interpretations for European audiences. Wooh Dang, his sparse eighthalbum, is the first to be released in the United States, and will likely help establish the 35 year-old singer-songwriter to an …

Most of the K-pop acts that have attained large-scale success in America are boy bands. One exception to this rule has been Blackpink. The four-member girl group-which combines EDM, trap and hip-hop elements with bubblegum hooks–have set records on the charts in America, collaborated with Dua Lipa, snagged a slot …

“Angie, are you tough enuh-uff/To let it go?” asks Mary Timony over sugared electric guitar churn at the outset of Ex Hex’s latest, immortalizing a new rock’n’roll Angie with as much performative heartache and swagger as Jagger, maybe more. Ex Hex’s second album is about garage-rock thrust at its core, …