I officially nominate A$AP Ferg’s “Strive” for song of the summer. That’s a thing I can do, right? With all due respect to Justin Timberlake (whose newest song, while fun, should be disqualified because it’s for the damn Trolls movie), Ferg has crafted the perfect warm-weather jam: It’s uptempo, uplifting, and…

After recording 2012’s folk-leaning Sugaring Season live in the studio with a full band, Beth Orton made a 180-degree creative pivot for her sixth solo album, Kidsticks. Instead of turning to acoustic guitar, the U.K. singer-songwriter first hunkered down in a garage and crafted keyboard loops with co-producer/Fuck…

Given the lengthy run-up to its release—spanning over four months from its initial announcement—The Hotelier’s third album, Goodness, could have easily fallen victim to hype of its own making. The group’s last album (and first under The Hotelier name, rather than the original Hotel Year) Home, Like No Place Is There to…

The fact that Toronto’s PUP—which stands for Pointless Use of Potential—even made it to a second record is astounding. After the release of its self-titled debut, the band hit the road hard, touring almost constantly for two years and playing hundreds of shows. All that hard work was starting to pay off, but when the…

Billy Idol gets it. When the ’80s-era MTV icon tapped Broncho to support him on tour in 2015, he must’ve known the Oklahoma band would get a fist pump or two from his audience. The group had recently released its excellent sophomore album, Just Hip Enough To Be Woman, and songs like “Class Historian” and “Stay Loose”…

Even in his ugliest moments, Mark Kozelek has always treated the music he loves with sanctity. In fall of 2015, he took to opening concerts with a beautiful a cappella version of Andy Williams’ “Moon River,” all while still reeling from (and still commenting on) the backlash from his gross comments toward Guardian writ…

When Toronto’s Holy Fuck released its self-titled debut in 2005 and its 2007 follow-up LP, it almost seemed like it was cleverly trolling (and exploiting) the hot-shit, very bloated dance-punk scene of the time. Similar to their more math-y brethren in Battles, head honchos Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh…

In Under The Influence, The A.V. Club asks a musician to pair three of their songs with a non-musical influence.

Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost immediately. For most music consumers, it’s almost too much information, and save for those precious few who spend their hours glued to reviews sites and release calendars, it’s hard to know what’s coming out…

“It was an expensive mistake,” sings Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo on “The Ballad Of The Costa Concordia,” the 12-minute opus that comes near the end of his 13th record under the Car Seat Headrest moniker. The same song has a verse lifted from Dido’s “White Flag,” whose “Thank You” was famously incorporated into…

I’m not religious, I don’t go to church, but I’ve loved gospel music for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a black Missionary Baptist church meant spending most of my Sundays in a pew—eating candy, doodling on scraps of paper, and being reprimanded with stern nudges from my mom when I dared to fall asleep as…

Eight or nine years ago, I decided to limit the number of CDs I owned to 2,000. The decision wasn’t arbitrary—I had (and still have) two CD shelves that each hold a thousand. I reasoned then, in the days before we had nearly every piece of music ever recorded at our digital fingertips, that this was a solid number. If…

Depending on who you ask, Twin Peaks could be a Chicago rock band, a TV show, or a restaurant chain where waitresses dress in revealing uniforms. It’s why The A.V. Club wondered if the band members of Twin Peaks could spot the fake breastaurant in this rapid-fire quiz show.

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, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of Car Seat Headrest’s new record: songs about cars.

Every now and then, a new-model Bob Dylan comes along to replace the old one, much to the delight or consternation of fans. Some Dylans have been better than others. Most everyone digs the idealistic protest singer, the wild-eyed rock ’n’ roll Picasso, and the reclusive basement taper. Fewer miss the live Bob Dylan At…

When Ariana Grande recently hosted Saturday Night Live, she played a shy Tidal intern able to mimic the singing voices of Britney Spears, Shakira, Rihanna, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston. The sketch worked because the role played to her strengths—an impressive vocal range and dynamic delivery—and used her…

In some ways, everything there is to know about Teens Of Denial can be found in the video for the record’s centerpiece, “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales.” The clip is deceptively simple: As frontman Will Toledo’s falsetto floats in, we see a road ahead. We’re speeding along in the darkness as passengers, buckled in to…

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of Car Seat Headrest’s new record: songs about cars.

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of Car Seat Headrest’s new record: songs about cars.