Album Reviews

Is Gunna a rapper or an Avenger? On Spotify’s amazing poster promoting his new album Wunna, a computerized Gunna stands in reverse-V formation with his musical godfather Young Thug and the album’s principal producers: Wheezy, Turbo, Taurus, and Aviator Keyz. They all wear matching iridescent black vinyl bodysuits. A burning …

Country trio Midland sparked a lot of unnecessarily heated debates back when they first arrived. Their throwback aesthetic and sound — a playful, scuffed-up nod to the oft-derided Urban Cowboy era in country and its characteristic softness — drew suspicion from anyone who shaped their idea of masculinity around Waylon …

For his first LP since 22, A Million, Justin Vernon dials back the avant-pop extremes a bit, giving human larynxes and other acoustic instruments more room to flex amidst a landscape of synths and vocal-processing veils. You wouldn’t guess it from opening minute or so of the similarly-comma-smitten i, i …

In the decade or so since Steven Ellison released his breakout Los Angeles LP, he’s established himself as hip-hop’s headiest auteur, a maximalist Brian Eno for the medical marijuana age whose meteor-storm productions triangulate funk, electronica, and assorted jazz fusions, and are attached to out-there film projects and a live …

If last year’s Oxnard was Anderson .Paak’s version of Outkast’s Speakerboxxx – a shape-shifting hip-hop LP steeped in eccentric R&B — its sister LP, Ventura, is his The Love Below, an eccentric R&B record tilting towards hip-hop. Ventura even begins with an André 3000 cameo, a memorable one at that, …

“Can I be basic with you?” Norwegian singer Sigrid Raabe offers on her debut LP. In a moment where many aspiring pop artists pile on heroic pretensions, the idea of aspiring to normal-ness is refreshing, especially since the music that undergirds her lyrics is anything but basic – part openhearted …

Solange carries her history like a talisman. It’s there to remind her — and us — how to remain grounded while moving forward. WithWhen I Get Home, she pays tribute to her roots in Houston by presenting a therapeutic and transfixing scrapbook that seamlessly brings together the past and the …

Pop, and the particular plight of a female pop star, has proven itself to be prime fodder for Oscar-bait feature films this awards season. First,A Star Is Borntold a musical love story, set to music written by its star Lady Gaga. Soon, we’ll haveTeen Spirit, where Elle Fanning will become …

“Just because I can’t describe it,” Jeff Tweedy sings halfway through Warm, “doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.” On his first formal solo album of new songs (and second non-Wilco project in the last few years), Tweedy — never one to take a year off from songwriting — plunges far into …

Seven years ago, the kids couldn’t get enough of arena-ready electronic dance music. Scan the Hot 100 today, and the subgenre looks like an endangered species. So producers who once waltzed to the top of the charts have been forced to drastically change their approach. Some have been trendy: The …