My World Of Flops is Nathan Rabin’s survey of books, television shows, musical releases, or other forms of entertainment that were financial flops, critical failures, or lack a substantial cult following.

It didn’t take long for riot grrrl to turn into girl power. By 1997, what had started as a provocative, politically charged underground phenomenon had been chewed up and spat back out onto a ringer T-shirt, a victim of its own charisma. Many of the movement’s key bands were gone or in the process of breaking up—’97…

Iceland’s prodigious pop-musical output includes its share of moody and forlorn affairs, music that resonates as you stare at the ceiling in your darkened bedroom. I’ve been listening a lot to the Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir of late, in particular, his cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box.” This is a track that…

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 review sites and release calendars, it’s hard to know what’s coming out…

Darren Jordan Cunningham may not like talking about music, but he certainly enjoys thinking about it. Every one of his releases as Actress comes steeped in quasi-philosophical meditations on identity, sci-fi futurism, and abstract ideas about color and geometry, while his previous release, 2014’s Ghettoville, was…

Bob Dylan has one of the most distinctive voices in the history of rock ’n’ roll. But is it any good? That’s not an idle question. The culture’s taste in pop vocalists evolves and diverges, varying by genre, era, and just plain old personal preference. Judas Priest’s Rob Halford is a phenomenal singer for a heavy…

Erik Adams: The sound of “Purple Rain” blaring from a tour bus should’ve been the first indication. I was on vacation on April 21, 2016, nearing the end of a blissfully disconnected week of not reading email, not scrolling through Twitter, and not checking The A.V. Club. Any of those sources would’ve explained why a…

No two Pile albums are alike, and that’s what makes hitting play on a new one so exciting. Those first few notes open a door to a new world, one that could only be created by frontman Rick Maguire. With Pile, Maguire is fearless, willing to take country and bluegrass riffs and twist them around noisy post-hardcore and…

Nirvana’s Nevermind came out in 1991 and became a veritable sensation, selling millions of albums and signifying to labels, music fans, and the world, that there was much success to be found in alternative rock—music that until that time was not heard much on the radio. In an effort to find Nirvana’s successor/gold…

Pile is the kind of band that inspires people to do crazy things, like start a record label or write a concept record about it. At least those are two of the more outlandish examples we have so far.

Released just a couple of weeks ago, “Die Young” is the third (and probably last) lead-up single to Sylvan Esso’s forthcoming What Now. It’s also the one that’s gotten me most excited to hear the full thing. “Die Young” is a darkly romantic track about someone coming along and spoiling the narrator’s shortsighted…

Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn is a deeply empathetic songwriter. That’s not always obvious, since his characters tend to be working through (self-imposed) streaks of bad luck or turbulent emotional spirals. However, even his protagonists with shifting moral compasses tend to be likable, mainly because Finn is adept…

Our latest Pickathon video comes from Patrick Watson, who took on his track “Bollywood” at last year’s festival. He’s perched under the trees on the fest’s Mt. Hood stage, and his performance really helps kick up the area’s charming atmosphere.

Drake has always been an album artist. That’s what was sort of surprising about the four-album run he made from 2009’s So Far Gone EP to 2013’s Nothing Was The Same: Each release held together marvelously, one long, lush production cut into an almost narrative sequence of hits, unlikely guest spots, and thoughtful…

Chicagoland native and Punch Brothers banjoist Noam Pikelny stopped by the A.V. Club to treat us to a few songs from his recent album, Universal Favorite. In the clip above, he performs “Waveland”

Chicagoland native and superb banjoist Noam Pikelny stopped by the A.V. Club offices to treat us to a live performance. In the clip above, he performs “Redbud,” a track from his recent album Universal Favorite.

Channels debuted during some of the bleakest days of the Bush administration, not long after frontman J. Robbins closed the door on his old band, Burning Airlines. When the Maryland trio—featuring bassist Janet Morgan (Robbins’ wife) and drummer Darren Zentek of Kerosene 454—released the Open EP in 2004, it reflected…

Explaining Spoon’s rise to fame is easy if you break down its songwriting. On first listen—or the 10th, really—its material sounds simplistic because it’s exactly that. Learning Spoon songs isn’t difficult, but replicating Spoon songs is hard. The subtleties and delivery, like Britt Daniel’s hoarse scratch on the tail…

This week’s question comes from A.V Club alum Becca James:

Listening to Sorority Noise’s third album, You’re Not As _____ As You Think, is a sobering experience. For his band’s latest release, vocalist-guitarist Cameron Boucher did what he always has: written music about his life and put together an album. But this time around, things were a whole lot darker. You’re Not As…