Rick Ross, low key, might have invented “yacht rap.” The Miami-bred boss specializes in cigar-to-the-sky manifestos that make the most ruthless coke deals seem like a company cruise. A grizzled behemoth prone to surrealist flights of fancy (and some motivational, meat-and-potatoes grind talk), Ross epitomizes extravagance, largesse, and team goals. …
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It’s been a charmed few years for Brandi Carlile since she released 2018’s By the Way, I Forgive You. The Washington State singer-songwriter co-founded the groundbreaking country collective the Highwomen, covered Joni Mitchell’s Blue at a triumphant concert event, produced Grammy-winning work for Tanya Tucker, and wrote a memoir. Carlile …
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There have always been two sides to the Killers (a little like the way the Cure alternated between sugary pop and cathedral-sized goth-rock). There’s the slick New Wavey act that broke big with the legendary “Mr. Brightside” and released last year’s “Imploding the Mirage.” Then there’s singer Brandon Flowers’ Springsteen-style …
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Jack Antonoff has achieved a rarified ubiquity for a songwriter-producer. You can measure his prominence in Grammy Awards (five) and, to a certain extent, critics lists and charts, though for someone technically working behind the scenes, the best proof might just be the memes. Like this scrappy photoshop job of …
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Morgan Wallen’s debut single, 2016’s “The Way I Talk” was a fitting introduction to the former Voice contestant from East Tennessee. Like countless country singers before him, Wallen employed his small-town drawl, which feels so resonantly country that it can seem like the product of a Music Row laboratory, as …
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With all the Covid-induced travel restrictions, it is fitting that Diplo resigned himself to a bit of domestic tourism; earlier this year, he stormed Nashville with the release of his country album Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil, his bid to recast himself as a Red Dead Redemption …
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“I’m near the bottom/Name the blues, I’ve got ‘em,” the National frontman Matt Berninger sings on the delicately despondent “Oh, Dearie,” from his debut solo LP. It’s a song about being completely asphyxiated by fear and doubt — certainly a message for our times. But don’t call the crisis hotline …
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Fontaines D.C., a rare punkish art-rock group that cites James Joyce and The Godfather as equal inspirations, sprung out of Ireland last year with a smart, upbeat set of songs on their debut, Dogrel. Frontman Grian Chatten’s stentorian raving (and his Irish accent) sliced right through the group’s jitterbugging power …
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Rufus Wainwright has always existed in a world unto himself, the sort of place where Cole Porter, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, and Ian Anderson could all share a sherry and muse on love and literature. It’s an acquired taste for sure, but somehow, he’s always been able to pull off sounding blithe …
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History is a fickle motherfucker, but you gotta hand it to whatever forces have aligned to drop a new Run the Jewels record in this particular moment. By the fourth installment, most pop culture franchises can start to seem pretty tired. Not El-P and Killer Mike: On RTJ4, the duo …
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