In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: Our favorite songs featuring unusual instruments.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: Our favorite songs featuring unusual instruments.

Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.

In HateSong, we ask our favorite musicians, writers, comedians, actors, and so forth to expound on the one song they hate most in the world.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: Our favorite songs featuring unusual instruments.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: As summer draws to a close, we’re featuring our favorite songs about fall.

Since debuting in 2006 with the acclaimed album Gulag Orkestar, Zach Condon and his band Beirut haven’t strayed far from the Eastern European and French influences that informed the project from its inception. Condon’s own trumpet and ukulele have provided the music’s backbone while accordion and brass arrangements…

An artist’s response to success can be just as interesting as their response to failure. In the wake of his major-label debut in 2012, Blak And Blu, Austin-based singer-guitarist Gary Clark Jr. was elevated to some of the biggest heights in music. He jammed with the Rolling Stones on multiple occasions and won a…

Ben Folds has never made the same album twice. While that’s a by-product of his disinterest in revisiting past work unless it’s through the lens of sarcasm or irony, it’s also a function of his fondness for comfort-zone-stretching collaborations. In recent years, Folds has teamed up with everyone from a cappella…

After he made his name as the exuberant frontman for The Hold Steady, Craig Finn’s songwriting as a solo artist naturally had to turn in a more somber direction. The stories that Finn sings in The Hold Steady are propelled by the band’s energy, particularly his songwriting counterpart and guitarist Tad Kubler. Here,…

With 2013’s The Invisible Way, Low took a step away from the jittery, tense electronics that had characterized its recent output, embracing a warmer, organic sound, full of pianos and acoustic guitars. It was a welcome departure, making up for what it lacked in consistency with a passionate intimacy. For the group’s…

Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: As summer draws to a close, we’re featuring our favorite songs about fall.

Reducing New Order’s 35-year discography to a single hour may seem like too big a task, but one thing lightens the load a bit: It’s easy to ignore everything from the past 22 of those 35 years because, while there are flashes of greatness in the band’s post-1993 output, nothing is particularly amazing or illustrative.…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: As summer draws to a close, we’re featuring our favorite songs about fall.

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: As summer draws to a close, we’re featuring our favorite songs about fall.

In reference to Prince’s new HITNRUN Phase One, co-producer and engineer Joshua Welton told Entertainment Weekly: “I know [Prince] has different types of fan bases and this is kind of for the [hardcore] Purple Collective, the ones who say ‘I don’t care what he puts out! I love Prince.’”

Late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury was known for his commanding live performances. But he became internet-iconic thanks in part to a stunt he pulled during shows in late 1979 and into 1980: emerging during the encore perched on the shoulders of someone dressed as Darth Vader or Superman. The former gesture has become…

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: With Labor Day on the horizon, we’re once again talking about our favorite “baby” songs.

In HateSong, we ask our favorite musicians, writers, comedians, actors, and so forth to expound on the one song they hate most in the world.