De La Soul is one of the most culturally significant and musically influential hip-hop groups from the late ’80s and ’90s, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the current digital realm of music that actually gets listened to. That’s because, by and large, De La Soul isn’t there. Thanks to a messy thicket of legal…

Although the film’s aesthetic owes just as much to bad-trip ’70s psychedelia, the phrase you’ll hear most often when describing the psychotronic new Nicolas Cage vehicle Mandy is “heavy metal.” (In his review for The A.V. Club, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky says it has “enough vintage MTV fog machines to kill a hair metal…

Riot Fest 2018 was an oddly muted affair. No big reunions or “one time only” performances of the kind that have so thrilled festivalgoers in times past, like Jawbreaker getting back together last year or L7 in 2015. Instead, there was a comforting procession of longtime stalwarts (Bouncing Souls, Andrew W.K.) and…

1. Kim Carnes, “Bette Davis Eyes”
2. Diana Ross & Lionel Richie, “Endless Love”
3. Kenny Roger, “Lady”
4. John Lennon, “(Just Like) Starting Over”
5. Rick Springfield, “Jessie’s Girl”
6. Kool & The Gang, “Celebration”
7. Hall & Oates, “Kiss On My List”
8. Eddie Rabbitt, “I Love A Rainy Night”
9. Dolly Parton, “9 To 5”
10. REO…

Two weeks ago, British folk-rock icon Marianne Faithfull announced her 21st studio album, Negative Capability, will arrive November 2. And today she’s shared its first single, “The Gypsy Faerie Queen,” written with and featuring Nick Cave. It’s the latest in a long-running creative relationship between Faithfull and…

Just short of 10 years ago, the world lost one of its brightest new talents in Amy Winehouse. As a young British singer whose soulful voice sounded as if it came from another era, a musician whose fresh sound drew from an eclectic mix of genres, and a writer who could crank out an enduring hit in a couple of hours,…

Low goes fully experimental on Double Negative, while Philly’s Spirit Of The Beehive gains focus on Hypnic Jerks, and Paul Weller contemplates True Meanings.

Spiritualized leaves us (maybe, but probably not) with the essential And Nothing Hurt, while Chilly Gonzales’ Solo Piano trilogy ends on a contemplative note, and Chicago MC Joey Purp sounds better than ever on his third mixtape. Plus, we take a look at the latest from Mothers and Ava Luna.

Eminem’s new album, the surprise release Kamikaze, is bad. This has been the case for every album he’s released for around 15 years, depending on how generous you want to be to 2002's The Eminem Show, a long artistic stagnancy that Eminem seems keenly aware of. Kamikaze, like so many other Eminem albums, functions as…

For two artists that don’t sound or act much alike musically, the parallels between the careers of Paul McCartney and Paul Simon are substantial. Both Pauls started in pop music as teenagers, wound up playing in extremely popular and influential bands, released a prodigious amount of great material with those bands…

Okay, so we don’t know for sure that Donald Glover’s fourth (and reportedly final) album as Childish Gambino will arrive this month, but the prospect looms large as we turn the corner into fall. What we do know is we’re getting big new albums from Chicago MC Noname, French synth-pop phenom Christine And The Queens,…

This Mortal Coil, the gothic dream-pop collective led by 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell, released three gorgeous, hugely influential albums between 1984 and 1991: It’ll End In Tears, Filigree & Shadow, and Blood. The label announced today that all three LPs will be reissued with “remastered audio made from the original…

Wild Nothing returns to glorious form on Indigo, while Danny Brown and the Bruiser Brigade Reign Supreme on their Twitch-only stream, and jazz improvisers Szun Waves conjure a bright New Hymn To Freedom. Plus: the latest from Thou, Troye Sivan, Big Red Machine, and Muncie Girls.

No one would call Anna Calvi’s music tame. This is an artist who announced herself in 2011 with the rousing drama of “Desire” and the sweeping, Morricone-inspired vistas of “Love Won’t Be Leaving,” who took the stage in flaming red silk, expressive riffs sparking from her sunburst Telecaster. It was enough to make…

Controlling the context of your creation is something of a fantasy for any artist, but especially a Black artist. Though we remain the wellspring of culture in America, the musings of Black people are never just left for us alone. Yet it is precisely this control of narrative that makes Blood Orange such a singular…

What Are You Listening To? is a weekly run-down of what A.V. Club staffers are streaming. Listen to these songs and more on our Spotify playlist, updated weekly with new stuff.

Ariana Grande illustrates once again that she is an unparalleled pop chameleon on Sweetener, while KIN splits the difference between late-period Mogwai and the band’s previous film work, and Midori Takada & Lafawndah pair up for the tightly conceived and elegantly performed Le Renard Bleu. Plus Interpol, The Lemon…

What Are You Listening To? is a weekly rundown of what A.V. Club staffers are streaming. Listen to these songs and more on our Spotify playlist, updated weekly with new stuff.

1. Next, “Too Close”
2. Brandy and Monica, “The Boy Is Mine”
3. Shania Twain, “You’re Still The One”
4. Savage Garden, “Truly Madly Deeply”
5. LeAnn Rimes, “How Do I Live”
6. Janet Jackson, “Together Again”
7. K-Ci & JoJo, “All My Life”
8. Elton John, “Candle In The Wind 1997”
9. Usher, “Nice & Slow”
10. Paula Cole, “I Don’t…

Nicki Minaj reaches for the throne room, Animal Collective unearths an interesting live artifact, Death Cab do more Death Cabbing, and more in this week of new releases.