On Peso Pluma's 'Génesis,' the rising star holds fast to the sound of his ancestors

The Mexican artist just made it official: this summer you can hit the club and get down to your grandparent's favorite dance music.

(Image credit: Arenovski)

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From soil to stars, the new Aizuri Quartet album offers a space to think

The band's sophomore album, Earthdrawn Skies, connects the dots in wildly diverse music spanning eight centuries.

(Image credit: Shervin Lainez/Courtesy of the artist)

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On 'Time Ain't Accidental,' Jess Williamson is heartbroken, but open to love

On the record's 11 songs of vividly detailed, windswept alt-country, Williamson's reeling from the aftermath of a breakup, driving on country highways and finding new love.

(Image credit: Jackie Lee Young/Courtesy of the artist)

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Peso Pluma opens up his book of 'Genesis'

ENTER TEASER

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One of pop music's unreliable narrators offers discomfort. (But can you trust him?)

Four decades into his career, Lloyd Cole's On Pain finds this purveyor of guitar pop still exploring that hazy space where people question themselves and make excuses or promises they might not keep.

(Image credit: Mark Dellas/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here

Here's the deal with King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

How did an Australian band with no hits, modest media coverage and a ridiculous name find a massive audience? The group's metal-forward new album is a perfect example of how it weaponizes niche.

(Image credit: Jason Galea/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here

Composer and saxophonist Henry Threadgill has a new album and a new book

Threadgill's autobiography, written with Brent Hayes Edwards is called Easily Slip into Another World. His album, The Other One, is a three-movement composition written for a 12-piece ensemble.

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Gunna's poised songs of rehabilitation

a Gift and a Curse is the Atlanta rapper's most personable and purposeful album, one interrogating the values of the justice system, rap media and the court of public opinion with artful clarity.

(Image credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

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Janelle Monáe's 'The Age of Pleasure' album is exactly that

Monáe has been releasing albums that mix R&B, pop and rap since 2007 — this is the artist's first since 2018. In recent years, Monáe has appeared in the films Moonlight, Hidden Figures and Glass Onion.

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Meshell Ndegeocello opens the lid on her self-contained world

The artist's first album as a lead for Blue Note grew from a jarring realignment in her personal life. On The Omnichord Real Book, she finds ways to embrace jazz without taking on its baggage.

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

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Where to start with country music weirdos Souled American? The end

Out of print, odd and obscure, Souled American's esoteric take on country music is now available digitally for the first time. We asked composer Sarah Hennies to pick a place to begin.

(Image credit: Jeff Hamand/Courtesy of the artist)

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On a new Sigur Rós album, warmth and light push through the darkness

ÁTTA, the band's first album in 10 years, sports an orchestra of strings, high-flying vocalism and its signature bittersweet melodies.

(Image credit: Tim Dunk/Courtesy of the artist)

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Nu metal never died — it just took a Memorrhage to remember

Musician Garry Brents has been a prolific creator of extreme metal for years, but his latest project returns to his first love, '90s nu metal, through a dystopian lens.

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

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On the easy-going 'Joy'all,' Jenny Lewis defiantly preaches the pursuit of happiness

With a new home in Nashville, the singer-songwriter's fifth solo album is a laid-back affair full of zen-like wisdom that lands as guidance for a generation.

(Image credit: Bobbi Rich)

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Aja Monet's debut album fuses art and advocacy, poet and performer

The poet's first recording with a band, when the poems do what they do, lends an emphatic new authority to her words, which she delivers with a hypnotist's composure.

(Image credit: Fanny Chu/Courtesy of the artist)

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With 'Fountain Baby,' Amaarae redefines herself as a pop auteur

By training her eyes on multiple targets, the singer challenges listeners to widen their points of view, compelling them to place her in spaces she's found belonging, not where she's been assigned.

(Image credit: Josh Croll)

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Jason Isbell and Rodney Crowell stretch their boundaries on two new albums

Where Isbell's Weathervanes sounds like a new attempt to describe the world around him, Crowell's Chicago Sessions has the aura of an old pro who's realized he has a few more life-lessons to share.

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Janelle Monáe wants you ... to enter the 'Pleasure' zone

There's almost nobody better at creating complex musical worlds, but on her new album The Age of Pleasure, Janelle Monáe's aim is to stop thinking. Or at least start thinking about feeling.

(Image credit: Mason Rose/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here

Foo Fighters' 'But Here We Are' is heavy, in every sense of the word

These songs ache with loss, even as they explode in full-bore rock mayhem, and that loss extends beyond the deaths of loved ones.

(Image credit: Scarlet Page/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here