For Algorithmic Perfection, All You Need Is Tove Styrke and Ritual’s New Single
@blakexcharles/Tove Styrke/Twitter Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. This week: “Love Me Back” by Ritual and Tove Styrke (Island Records, 2019) Why we’re into it: This classic electronic-pop track is a master class in contrasting melancholy lyrics with upbeat production. Look, this song may sound exactly like “Closer” 2.0 in the way that it…
A Bold Departure for Sharon Van Etten
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Sharon Van EttenRemind Me TomorrowJagjaguwar Somber anguish has long been a hallmark of Sharon Van Etten’s beautifully austere folk-pop, which probes the inner workings of relationships with unsparing directness. The startling “Remind Me Tomorrow” marks a dramatic sonic change, expanding her palette to include such…
On the Road With Matthew Houck, a.k.a. Phosphorescent
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Matthew Houck, who has long recorded and performed as Phosphorescent, performed with his band last month at the East Williamsburg venue Brooklyn Steel for the second to last show (opener: Liz Cooper & the Stampede) of their European and US tour. Houck, best known…
Stream “Juice” by Lizzo Right Now, You Cowards
Lizzo/Twitter Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. This week: “Juice” by Lizzo (Nice Life Recording Company, 2019) Why we’re into it: Unapologetic and in-your-face, “Juice” is proof that making bad music isn’t in Lizzo’s vocabulary. The Minneapolis-based flutist is starting 2019 with a retro-glam-pop (isn’t that a thing?) song that is funky, fun, and extremely danceable. From the first…
L Devine’s Message to a Homophobic Mom Perfectly Captures One Key Part of the Queer Experience
L Devine/Twitter Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. This week: “Daughter” by L Devine (Warner Bros. Records UK, 2018) Why we’re into it: Part confession and part love letter, this track is vulnerable and honest, evoking an inner and outer world of character and conflict. Coming out is one of the most sacred…
Joy to the World! Four New Christmas Albums You Won’t Want to Re-Gift
Los Straightjackets Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Does the mere thought of Christmas music make you queasy? That’s understandable, given how aggressively cheerful or shamelessly sentimental much of it is. Despair not! Here are four releases that won’t induce nausea and may even make the holidays easier to bear, from…