appears in the following:
On 'Hold the Girl,' Rina Sawayama's stadium sound obscures her signature appeal
Friday, September 16, 2022
The pop singer has superstar ambition and a knack for clever genre collisions. But while her new album sometimes matches intensity with innovation, it more often grinds her nuanced story to a paste.
On 'Found Light,' Laura Veirs documents newfound freedom with attentive awe
Friday, July 08, 2022
Written after her divorce from her longtime producer, Veirs' new album vibrates with a sense of potential, balancing the weight of experience with the rewards of staying attuned to wonder.
How PJ Harvey's 'Uh Huh Her' Taught Me To Carve My Own Path
Thursday, April 22, 2021
As a kid discovering music, you assemble a hodgepodge of other people's opinions. But there's a lot of joy to be found when the urge to agree with the critics melts away, writes critic Laura Snapes.
Songs We Love: Hiss Golden Messenger, 'Standing In The Doorway'
Friday, June 30, 2017
M.C. Taylor has a rueful, weary reediness that makes the tensions in his songs pull that much harder. In a beautiful outtake from Heart Like A Levee, dreaming and reality are at odds.
Songs We Love: Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, 'Dreaming In The Non-Dream'
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
The 16-minute track manages to be concise and lean, almost speeding on an empty tank through a tireless groove that solders dusty Ohio punk to krautrock's soothing repetitions.
Songs We Love: The National, 'The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness'
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Ever since Boxer, the band's pledged to release a record channeling the cataclysmic energy of its concerts. With the first single from Sleep Well Beast, it's finally come through.
Songs We Love: This Is The Kit, 'Moonshine Freeze'
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Inspired by its time at an experimental Berlin festival, this single offers a cool, cryptic introduction to the Bristol-Paris folk band's kaleidoscopic new phase.
Songs We Love: Perfume Genius, 'Slip Away'
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Defiance is exhausting. Mike Hadreas' cosmically expansive, baroque declaration of love also acts as a protest song, depicting his lover as a godlike being who sustains his spirit.
Songs We Love: Joan Shelley, 'Wild Indifference'
Monday, March 06, 2017
In the lead single from her new, self-titled album, the folk singer addresses another person while turning inward. "If I had my way, every song would eventually lead to empathy," she says.
Jens Lekman Will See Himself Now
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
For the singer, introspection became a lens that nearly ended his career. Focusing on the lives of others changed that. "In a world of mouths," Lekman sings on his new album, "I want to be an ear."
Songs We Love: Sui Zhen, 'Hangin' On'
Friday, February 17, 2017
The Melbourne artist's Susan persona, whom she calls "a manifestation of social media metadata," gets a taste of freedom in a Butoh-inspired video.
First Listen: Allison Crutchfield, 'Tourist In This Town'
Thursday, January 19, 2017
After more than a decade on the road, the prolific punk singer (of Swearin' and p.s. eliot fame) releases her solo debut in a bold attempt to unhitch love from nostalgia.
Songs We Love: Jake Xerxes Fussell, 'Have You Ever Seen Peaches...'
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Fussell's cover of the Jimmy Lee Williams song marks a move into more existential territory: The maturing artist is now less a force of nature than someone keen to sync with its rhythms.
Songs We Love: Hurray For The Riff Raff, 'Rican Beach'
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
Alynda Lee Segarra tells NPR her new song is about "people of color claiming their space and their right to exist." It's dedicated to the protesters at Standing Rock and Peñuelas, Puerto Rico.
Songs We Love: Julie Byrne, 'Natural Blue'
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
With her softly echoing guitar and slight strings, Byrne channels some ancient wavelength, then suddenly sticks a pin in the universal.
Songs We Love: Mega Bog, 'Fwee'
Tuesday, November 01, 2016
Erin Birgy echoes the liberationist vibe of the West Coast's hippie heyday with a seven-piece rock band blissing out by a glimmering shoreline.
Watching A Festival, And Its Music, Take Shape
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Earlier this month, musicians — invited by Bon Iver and The National — gathered at a former East German radio facility for an unconventional festival that pieced its story together as it went along.
Songs Cycles: Jenny Hval On The Importance Of Uncertainty
Monday, October 03, 2016
"It can be really tough to be bold," says the Norwegian art-pop singer of her approach to performance. On her sixth album, Blood Bitch, she aims to balance provocation and complexity.
Songs We Love: Jaala, 'Junior Spirit'
Friday, September 23, 2016
Frontwoman Cosima Jaala tries and fails to leave someone in a proggy freakout of a song about feeling all kinds of different ways at once.
'A Real Little Taste Of Heaven': Visionary Guitarist Jack Rose In 11 Songs
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
To celebrate new reissues of his work, friends, fans and peers share favorite songs and memories of the musician whose influence on American Primitive Guitar has grown to monumental heights.