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2 Chainz gets contemplative on Pretty Girls Like Trap Music
Atlanta rapper Tauheed Epps, better known as 2 Chainz, has built a career out of recording self-aggrandizing verses even more outsize than his six-foot, five-inch frame. He litters June’s Pretty...
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At 77 years old, soul-blues veteran Latimore is still his sultry self
On Benny Latimore’s latest album, A Taste of Me: Great American Songs (Essential Media), the soul-blues veteran wraps his smoldering baritone around standards from the Great American Songbook...
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Gospel of the Serpent III is a ritualistic metal blowout not to be missssssed
Chicago’s Murder City Promotions and Temple of the Old Serpent have scored some massive metal energy for their Gospel of the Serpent III, a ritualistic multiband blowout. (Gospel of the Serpent II...
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On Henry Church, rapper Joseph Chilliams refracts the west side through the...
In a recent interview with Chicago culture and news site These Days, rapper and Pivot Gang cofounder Joseph Chilliams discussed an epiphany he’d had about making music while watching a Louis C.K....
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On their first record in nearly 20 years, local punks 88 Fingers Louie sound...
It’s been 19 years since local melodic hardcore outfit 88 Fingers Louie released a proper full-length, and on the brand-new Thank You for Being a Friend (Bird Attack), the reunited band haven’t...
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Sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer bring an imperfect country intimacy...
On the new Not Dark Yet (Silver Cross/Thirty Tigers), their first collaborative album, sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer don’t harmonize in the manner of other famous country siblings, such as...
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Jazz bassist Eric Revis made his name with Branford Marsalis, but he’s always...
Because competition for gigs in New York is so tight, jazz musicians often need to carve out a very specific niche—to become the best at mainstream postbop or neo-swing or whatever. Under those...
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Spirit isn’t a classic Depeche Mode album, but it’ll do
Released this past March, Spirit was heralded by AllMusic as Depeche Mode’s finest album since 2005’s Playing the Angel. A textbook case of damning with faint praise, but maybe the best we can hope...
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With help from longtime collaborator Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and his...
Best known for his work with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings seemed intent on using his second album, 2015’s Nashville Obsolete, to differentiate himself from his partner and her sharp updates of...
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On Find Me Finding You, Laetitia Sadier transcends clunky Marxist lyrics with...
Laetitia Sadier has been pairing honeyed, seductive melodies with lyrics that read like strident Marxist tracts since her days in Stereolab. On her new solo album, Find Me Finding You (Drag City), the...
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The Fly Honey Show grows into a Chicago institution
The performing-arts showcase doubles as a celebratory creative outlet for marginalized people. It's part cabaret, part variety event, and part burlesque. Its overarching themes are body positivity,...
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Kevin Morby celebrates the New York of Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and the Ramones
Kevin Morby opens his new album with “Come to Me Now,” an oozing ballad that accompanies his pinched singing with an old pump organ and a sparse, shuffling beat. He told NPR Music that it’s one of...
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Indie hero Phil Elverum shows us his ravaged heart on Mount Eerie’s A Crow...
On June 1, 2016, singer-songwriter Phil Elverum, who records somber, wispy antifolk as Mount Eerie, launched a GoFundMe page to benefit multidisciplinary artist Genevieve Castree Elverum (née...
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On The Nashville Sound, Jason Isbell grapples with the racist legacy of a...
Jason Isbell had the shifting fabric of the south on his mind when he wrote the songs on his new album, The Nashville Sound (Southeastern), and his observations have only become more resonant over the...
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Taeyang of K-pop group Big Bang debuts his silky R&B in Chicago
When Big Bang’s T.O.P. began his two years of mandatory military service at the start of 2017, it felt like the future of the South Korean pop band might be in question. Big Bang had just celebrated...
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On Time Well, northwest Indiana slowcore band Cloakroom blast off into outer...
The Cloakroom formula has been firmly in place since their first EP, Infinity, came out in 2013: beautiful, mournful vocal melodies backed by simple, half-time, solid-as-hell rock that shifts between...
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Nigerian pop star Wizkid extends his global domination with Sounds From the...
It’s difficult to talk about superstar Nigerian singer-songwriter Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, aka Wizkid, without describing his trajectory in terms of U.S. music history. That’s partially because his...
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On CTRL, R&B singer SZA paints a complicated picture of sex and romance
On her major-label debut, CTRL (RCA), New Jersey singer SZA lays bare the complexities, insecurities, and contradictions that accompany sex and romance in the modern world—at least for folks in their...
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Bassist Matthew Golombisky keeps nourishing Chicago’s improvised-music...
Peripatetic bassist Matthew Golombisky didn’t stay long in Chicago, where he moved from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina; after a few years he left for Oakland, and he now lives in Buenos...
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Balkan brass combo Slavic Soul Party! deliver a knockout treatment of Duke...
New York combo Slavic Soul Party!, led by versatile percussionist Matt Moran, has arguably advanced the cause of Balkan brass music further than any other U.S.-based group, honoring the rollicking...
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