Read Barack and Michelle Obama’s Statement on the Passing of Aretha Franklin
Former president Barack Obama celebrates with Aretha Franklin at a 2015 Justice Department event to unveil the official portrait of Eric Holder, the former Attorney General.@BarackObama/Twitter Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, died on Thursday at her home in Detroit, aged 76. The former president,…
Here’s Some Folk-Pop for Confronting the Late-Night Demons
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Cowboy JunkiesAll That ReckoningLatent Led by singer Margo Timmins and her brother, guitarist and songwriter Michael Timmins, Canada’s Cowboy Junkies have been making distinctive, brooding folk-pop for more than three decades. Though best known for their breakthrough second album, The Trinity Session, the group has…
Ray Davies Grapples With the Mythical United States—and the Real One
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Ray DaviesOur Country: Americana Act IILegacy Recordings More than a half-century after helping to launch the British Invasion with hits like “You Really Got Me,” former Kinks leader Ray Davies continues to make interesting, vital music. Our Country: Americana Act II offers another stirring chapter…
Neko Case’s “Hell-On” Is Harrowing and Absorbing
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Neko CaseHell-OnANTI- Neko Case has such a strong, commanding voice that it’s hard to see how she could convey vulnerability, but Hell-On brims with sadness and regret. Her alt-country roots long are since forgotten—this riveting art-pop work mixes gorgeous, unpredictable melodies with inventive, sometimes oblique…
Two New Albums Worth Your While: La Luz and Locate S,1
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. La LuzFloating FeaturesHardly Art Locate S,1Healing ContestSybaritic Peer/Nicey Music Sometimes, the pure, visceral sound of music is so transporting that it’s easy to just switch off the brain and surrender to the mood. Witness, for example, La Luz and Christina Schneider, young veterans who might…
If You Love Kooky American Music Trends, You’ll Totally Dig 1950s “Exotica”
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Various ArtistsTechnicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic DelightsNumero Group Targeted at grown-ups who were turned off by the vulgarity of rock and roll in the late-’50s and early ’60s, Exotica wasn’t so much a genre as a marketing tag. The music incorporated a smorgasbord…