Album Reviews

Freddie Gibbs and Madlib are two larger-than-life figures who carry diametric mystiques. Gibbs is the Rust Belt hero, the world-beating outlaw who bathes with snakes and has been serving impregnable street raps since 2009. Madlib is much more elusive but no less prolific—the perpetually shroomed-out producer who spends his days …

From the rough, spontaneous energy of the rehearsals that open this box to the set’s barely-tamed-tornado climax, on stage in Montreal, Bob Dylan‘s Rolling Thunder Revue barely lasted a season: seven weeks in the frenzied autumn of 1975. And no song captures the distance and velocity of Dylan’s legendary touring …

If you don’t know Supa Bwe, you know his sound. The 29-year-old Chicago rapper has championed a combustible blend of hip hop, pop-punk, and R&B and helped carve out what would become a fertile, crowded lane occupied by younger stars like Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTENTACION, Trippie Redd, and YNW Melly. …

What is it about dashed expectations that breed singer-songwriters? As the Sixties dream cratered, a golden era peaked in Laurel Canyon — think Joni, Jackson, Sweet Baby James — with a tendency towards wistful solipsism. Now, a new one is blooming as the American experiment contemplates its doom. Father John …

Some artists seem to sense death. Sometimes they see it in others, but more often that gnawing presence percolates within themselves. On November 16 of last year, Lil Peep died of an overdose at the age of 21. The half-singing, half-rapping musician was an ascendant presence on SoundCloud right as …

The rumors suggested that the bidding war for singer Dominic Fike was not like the others: Usually the major labels throw piles of cash at rappers, but Fike’s tracks are guitar-based, and believe it or not, could only be described as rock music. And while labels typically start to hurl …

“Yes sir, I am wet,” declaresHélöise Letissieron “Girlfriend,” a non-binary lust-fest with slithering keytar from Cali synth scientistDâm-Funk. The lead single from the French pop heroine’s second album under the moniker Christine & The Queens arrived with a striking video – the only sortLetissier makes –riffing visually off Charles C. …

Recorded on the quick by Bob Dylan’s former backing musicians in New York and L.A., but spiritually located in an unglamorous Catskills basement, The Band’s 1968 debut is a loose record, casual by design. That’s exactly why stoners, scholars, scruff lords and tambourine freaks keep returning to Music From Big …

How do you pay tribute to a true original? That’s the question at the heart of Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor, a fascinating new album — produced by avant-garde mastermind John Zorn — on which six adventurous jazz pianists honor Taylor, the perennially radical, school-unto-himself dynamo of the keys who …

At a party celebrating the release of Teyana Taylor‘s VII album in 2014, Kanye West gave a short speech praising the R&B singer, who is signed to his G.O.O.D. Music label. “Teyana provides something that’s so R&B, so black, so ‘hood, so missing, so necessary in the marketplace,” West asserted. …