Tag Archives: music-album-reviews

Think of Snoop Dogg’s The Algorithm as good housekeeping. Even legendary brands like Def Jam occasionally need revitalization. The label may be decades removed from its late Nineties renaissance when giants like Jay-Z, DMX, and Ja Rule ruled the universe. But when the Doggfather announced in June that he was …

Silk Sonic is Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s lavish love letter to Seventies soul music, particularly post-What’s Going On Motown and the sumptuous, string-bathed Philadelphia sound of greats like the Stylistics, the Delfonics, and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. They created A Night With Silk Sonic during Covid quarantine, …

In 2019, a documentary about the making of 2 Chainz’ Rap or Go to the League was released to the rap public. The documentary features LeBron James as a faux A&R guy, directing Tity Boi on how many tracks he should put on the record. LeBron talks to Chainz about …

We know so much about Demi Lovato, yet less than we thought. The 28-year-old Disney actress turned pop star seemed as open about her addiction and personal troubles as any public figure, yet her new four-part YouTube series, Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil (the third documentary about her life …

Bad Bunny has always looked ahead. When his sophomore effort YHLQMDLG dropped last February, the Puerto Rican rapper already had his mind on his next project. On YHLQMDLG‘s final track, “<3,” he announced that he’d be back in nine months with a follow-up release that would likely be his last. …

Twenty-five years ago, Alanis Morissette became an overnight superstar because she was jilted and angry and she thought the world ought to know. Now that she’s older, she seems to have reconciled some of her demons but the embers of her angst have been replaced with generalized anxiety and depression …

So here we are again. The world was in the middle of the cruelest summer ever, just staggering through late July, when Taylor Swift decided to make it all so much messier — her specialty. In a move that nobody saw coming, she announced a surprise album on July 23rd, …

As the most popular male romantic balladeer of his generation, John Legend has often seemed like a throwback to a more universal era of pop superstardom — before harsh division and hashtag individualism, when love (and a perfect melody) was all you needed. In a way, Legend done for R&B …

Steve Earle has released an album every two or so years since getting sober in the mid-Nineties. That’s inevitably led to a mixed bag of results, from the inspired (2009’s Townes Van Zandt tribute Townes) to the less compelling (2015’s blues genre exercise Terraplane). From a narrative standpoint, Earle’s latest …

Get used to hearing Rina Sawayama’s name in every conversation about what’s hot in pop this year. The Japan-born, U.K.-raised singer-model’s debut album, Sawayama, is a thrilling musical adventure, expertly referencing the chaos of Top 40 at the turn of the century without getting too hung up on the nostalgia …