MUNA’s New Live Album Is a Joyous Hometown Victory
For two nights in Los Angeles, queer indie-pop trio MUNA put on a joyous homecoming concert ten years of dreaming in the making.
PopMatters Picks
Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion Reunite for Genre-Defying LP
The combined forces of composer/vocalist/violinist Caroline Shaw and accomplished ensemble Sō Percussion continue to thrill and amaze.
Rising Appalachia Offer a Tantalizing Collection of Covers
Rising Appalachia’s harmonies on “I Need a Forest Fire” are downright mesmerizing, as they deliver a zeitgeisty performance for one of 2024’s top tracks.
MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of June 2024
In June’s best metal, Crypt Sermon offer hooks in doom form, Insect Ark stay on the experimental path, and Ulcerate offer despair with technical death metal.
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The Art of Psychological Warfare
From marketing manipulation to all-out psychological warfare, Stories Are Weapons clarifies how our world – and worldview – is seldom our own.
KOKOKO! Electrify on the Intensely Innovative ‘Butu’
KOKOKO!’s Butu is full of heat and movement, from the traffic sounds that start the opening track “Butu Ezo Ya” to the final claps of razor-sharp “Salaka Bien”.
Rory Block Pays Tribute to Bob Dylan and New York Roots
Blues singer/guitarist Rory Block reaches back to her youth for inspiration in this tribute to Bob Dylan, choosing tunes that “touched her heart and soul”.
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The 50 Best Albums of 2024 So Far
The 50 best albums of 2024 offer sublime music as major artists return with new work and brilliant new sounds bubble up from the underground and worldwide.
Dirty Three Prove the Theory That Love Changes Everything
Dirty Three continue their long career of making organic, meditative post-rock jazz that always humbly approaches a single moment, without pretense or distraction.
SUMAC’s ‘The Healer’ Is One of the Best Metal Albums of 2024
Experimental metal trio SUMAC return with four tracks, a gargantuan runtime, and an experience that feels both frightening and healing on The Healer.
Laurie Lewis Knows We Are Just a Blink Compared to ‘Trees’
Folk singer-songwriter Laurie Lewis reminds us to be kind to each other and appreciate the good things in life, like trees and the natural world—and John Prine.
‘The Underground Railroad’ and Cinema’s Origins in White Supremacy
In adapting the alternative history The Underground Railroad, Barry Jenkins and his crew made cinema – a medium with origins in white supremacy – work for them.