Billy Corgan tried fan service on the Smashing Pumpkins‘ last album, 2018’s Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 — which saw the reunion of three-quarters of the band’s grunge glory-days lineup — but he must have decided half-hearted nostalgia wasn’t worth the hassle after the record got a tepid …
Read More »'Featuring Ty Dolla $ign' Proves He's More Than Everyone's Favorite Collaborator
Ty Dolla $ign is the musical equivalent of hot sauce — he goes on everything. He has spent the better part of the last decade forging collabs with seemingly every rapper and singer who’s spent time in his native Los Angeles, from Berner to Beyoncé to Bhad Bhabie. With hundreds …
Read More »Yusuf/Cat Stevens Makes a Classic Feel Relevant With 'Tea for the Tillerman²'
Cat Stevens was just 22 years old when he created his masterpiece, Tea for the Tillerman. It was his second album of 1970, as he reflected on his year of convalescence after contracting tuberculosis. 50 years later, under the name Yusuf, he’s decided to rerecord his breakthrough for the album’s …
Read More »Coldplay Get Admirably Real on the Organically Expansive 'Everyday Life'
After their platinum 2015 pop-pivot A Head Full of Dreams, an all-star Super Bowl halftime show and a two-year big-box tour that shifted $523 million in tickets, easy-listening rock champs Coldplay release an album that aspires to more than stadium-packing. This is positive: when Ed Sheeran becomes your gold standard, …
Read More »Lana Del Rey Builds Her Most Elaborate Fantasies Yet on 'Norman F-cking Rockwell'
Lana Del Rey has always been a pop classicist at heart — but she’s finally made her pop classic. The long-awaited Norman Fucking Rockwell is even more massive and majestic than everyone hoped it would be. Lana turns her fifth and finest album into a tour of sordid American dreams, …
Read More »Quality Control Music's 'Control the Streets Vol. 2' Could've Used a Little More Quality Control
What’s the point of a label compilation? Ideally, it’s a showcase that communicates depth and shines a light on the lesser-known artists on a roster by placing them on the same stage as the label’s stars. Control the Streets Vol. 2, the new compilation from Atlanta trap incubator Quality Control …
Read More »Clairo's 'Immunity' Proves Her Viral Success Was No Fluke
“I was 15 when I first felt loneliness/Cut my hair, only listened to Loveless,” sings Clairo on “White Flag.” Who can’t relate? My Bloody Valentine’s ur-shoegaze landmark — a deep sonic cave that remains one of the best hiding-from-the-world listening experiences ever — is a fitting namecheck on this beautiful …
Read More »Thom Yorke Creates Dystopian Rapture That's Perfect For Our Terrifying Times on 'Anima'
Thom Yorke describes his excellent new solo album Anima as “dystopian,” which isn’t exactly the hugest surprise in the world. With or without Radiohead, he’s spent his whole career mapping out the dystopia we’re living in—he does futuristic apocalypse the way John Fogerty does choogle. Yorke could have spent the …
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