Eric D. Johnson was stranded. When he called the The A.V. Club from a rental-car counter in Atlanta, the facility was fresh out of cars, bringing a sudden halt to a long day of travel for the singer-songwriter who’s been recording under the Fruit Bats moniker since 1997. Johnson was stranded, but not without support:…
Often the last big records of the year arrive in November, making it a fair bet that Solange’s “imminent,” highly anticipated fourth album will drop in the next few weeks. There are also promising new efforts on the horizon from Anderson Paak, Dead Can Dance, Cupcakke, Josephine Foster, and Jeff Tweedy, plus exciting…
Halloween is on a Wednesday this year, which means that all but the most dedicated creeps will be throwing their Halloween parties this weekend. And while it’s tempting to just put “Monster Mash” on repeat and wait for someone to call you out on it, you want your guests to stick around through the witching hour, right?
Artists going solo are always haunted by the specter of their main gig. Thom Yorke’s pair of electronic releases under his own name, from 2006 and 2014, were little exercises in laptop craft, featuring typically baleful melodies and wry, aphoristic lyrics. In 2013 he released a one-off album with his supergroup…
There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time.
On her 2007 album How To Win!, stand-up comedian Maria Bamford tells a joke about her mother telling her she looks “mentally ill” without makeup. “Now, when I go home, I’m certain to wear thick green eyeshadow and a line of lipstick around my lips,” Bamford says, before asking in a quivering voice, “Baby look pretty…
There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time.
Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus make records that seemingly flaunt their loneliness to make the listener feel less alone. Devastatingly honest, each singer-songwriter’s most recent record—Baker’s Turn Out The Lights, Bridgers’ Stranger In The Alps, and Dacus’ Historian, all out in the past year or…
Solange, the pop artist responsible for 2016's neo-soul masterpiece A Seat At The Table, is the subject of a fascinating, far-ranging new profile in The New York Times. The piece explores her early albums and recent forays into performance art, but it also contains a juicy promise for fans: Her new album is not only…
A 2013 article in The Atlantic asked a very good, non-rhetorical question: “Why is Sweden so good at pop music?” The fascinating article outlined some potential answers—prioritization of melodies, government support of artistic endeavors, a supportive community, embrace of cutting-edge technology and sounds—but missed…
There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time.
Lil Wayne’s long-delayed Tha Carter V has enough highlights to carry it through, while metal vets High On Fire offer one of their most ass-kicking albums yet, and Philly DIY rockers Swearin’ return restless and reflective on Fall Into The Sun. Plus, we look at the third LP from Death Valley Girls, Darkness Rains.
The spooky season is nearly here, and with it will come John Carpenter’s excellent soundtrack for the Halloween series’ 11th installment and Thom Yorke’s music for Luca Guadagnino’s masterful Suspiria remake. Beyond horror scores, October offers exciting new records from High On Fire, Robyn, Daughters, Julia Holter,…
Devo was finished. The quintet—brothers Jerry and Bob Casale and Mark, Bob, and Jim Mothersbaugh—had gotten about as far as they could in their hometown of Akron, Ohio. The former Rubber Capital of the World would eventually find a secondary renown for producing musical outcasts, but in the mid-1970s, its barflies,…
Of course Cher pulls off the ABBA tribute Dancing Queen. Elsewhere BROCKHAMPTON continues to reveal new shades on Iridescence, and The Joy Formidable’s Aaarth boasts its most off-kilter anthems yet. Plus, we take a look at Chicago indie-rocker Lillie West’s second outing as Lala Lala.
Piano & A Microphone 1983 is an unpolished Prince gem, while Metric loses focus on Air Of Doubt, and Lonnie Holley is louder than ever on Mith. Plus, we take a look at Carrie Underwood’s sixth LP, Cry Pretty.
When Christine And The Queens emerged with 2015’s self-titled effort, the album was a welcome antidote to sterile pop music. Héloïse Letissier, the French musician behind the project, wasn’t just a refreshingly honest songwriter. She was also a mesmerizing live performer who seemed to melt into rhythms and grooves—and…
Following residencies in cities like Sao Paulo, New York City, Tokyo, Johannesburg, and Berlin, Red Bull Music Fest has announced it will set up shop in Chicago for the month of November, with a lineup heavy on hip-hop, electronic, jazz, and experimental music. True to form, the monthlong curation of talks and…
In 2016, Noname made waves when she debuted with Telefone, a vivid, soulful collection of jazz-rap establishing her voice among friends and fellow Chicago MCs like Chance The Rapper and Saba. On her sophomore LP, Room 25, she further proves that her songs aren’t just memorable, but necessary. Room 25 opens to the…
It’s been eight long years since Robyn’s career-defining Body Talk LPs, and though she’s released a handful of collaborative singles and shorter projects in the meantime, the wait for a new solo full-length from the Swedish pop artist is almost over: Honey will arrive October 26 via Interscope and Robyn’s own label,…
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