On the aching Dunya, the artist stands at an east-west crossroads, trying to resolve a young striver's years of trauma with a folklorist's drive to preserve what's left.
(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)
Many music lovers consider Ives, who died in 1954, to be the first truly great American composer. A new recording by pianist Donald Berman is a major addition to the Ives discography.
Dylan's 40-show 1974 tour with The Band produced a live double-album later that year. Now, the music available from that tour has increased dramatically with the release of a new 27-CD set.
The FORCE finds the rapper looser and more agile than he's sounded in years, assisted by eclectic production from Q-Tip.'/>
On surprising new albums, '80s trailblazers LL Cool J and MC Lyte sound thrillingly revitalized, thanks to sharp production choices and a willingness to bend their signature styles toward the moment.
Born Sept. 27, 1924, Powell helped set the style for jazz piano after WWII. While earlier pianists played busy bass patterns, he helped establish a more fragmented, punctuating role for the left hand.
Morgenstern, who died Sept. 7, directed the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies for 35 years, building a one-of-a-kind collection of recordings, memorabilia and writings. Originally broadcast in 2004.
Manning Fireworks, finds inspiration in The Band and the Drive-By Truckers.'/>
Ann Powers considers the breakthrough of indie rock up-and-comer MJ Lenderman, and finds that he’s got some classic rock in his tales of romantic woe.
(Image credit: Charlie Boss)
The magnetic bond between Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, partners in life and in music, has always been central to their songs. On their latest album, the "we" becomes existential.
(Image credit: Alysse Gafkjen)
Viral stardom is often a prison — but on the dazzling and frequently hilarious Alligator Bites Never Heal, the "Yucky Blucky Fruitcake" rapper proves those walls can't contain her talent.
Over a decade after their classic run upended digital culture, the rapper and mixtape mogul reunite to show listeners why it mattered — and what a younger generation of trap artists has learned.
(Image credit: Srdjan Stevanovic)
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Sabrina Carpenter has had two of the year's biggest hits with "Espresso" and "Please Please Please." Now, she's released a new full-length album called Short n' Sweet, which serves up more catchy silliness and high drama. But does the album keep that "Espresso" magic alive?
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The new albums Quantum Baby and Bird's Eye are exercises in self-liberation, leveraging the sounds and potential of a loaded category while rejecting its limits.
The recording sessions for Young's 1974 album were gloomy, drug-fueled affairs, but the end result proves that artists can make good work no matter how hemmed-in, churlish or depressed they may be.
The rising young pianist, from a family of seven musical siblings, offers dynamic music by brother and sister Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.
(Image credit: Karolina Wielocha)
I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, the artist's fifth album and first since his Kanye collabs made him a snark target, swings back at everyone in sight — but saves a few knocks for himself.
The Bronx rapper's acid tongue and unbothered stance made her one of hip-hop's hottest prospects. On her debut album, Y2K!, her snowballing hype may have exceeded the reach of her pen.
(Image credit: Coughs)
Though sales were lackluster, Too Much Too Soon captured the band's spirit. Less than a year after its release, the Dolls broke up in a combination of commercial failure and personal misbehavior.
Three survivors of a chaotic moment in hip-hop conjure its best qualities, a decade and a few major career twists later, for three new albums released on the same day.
(Image credit: Pavielle Garcia)
The two veteran rappers read as comic inversions of one another on their new albums, by turns renewed and restrained by the instincts that defined them at the start of their careers.
(Image credit: Aaron J. Thornton)
In an era when connecting the tidbits of an artist’s private life can seem more important than following a musical thread between songs, West of Roan's Queen of Eyes revives faith in the power of the concept album.
(Image credit: Blake McMeekin)
Fulfillingness’ First Finale won the Grammy for Best Album in 1975, yet today it feels underrated — perhaps because its overall tone was more meditative than the albums immediately preceding it.
The Great American Bar Scene, features love songs, thorny anthems, autobiographical lore and even a mini-arc that directly invokes classic Bruce Springsteen songs. '/>
Bruce Springsteen, 40 years on from Born in the U.S.A., shows up on Bryan’s new album to offer the wisdom and regret of a lifetime of telling truths and spinning yarns.
(Image credit: Keith Griner)
Megan Thee Stallion's post-traumatic reset, a left-field Lil Yachty collab, the raunchy return of cupcaKKe: June 28 delivered a truckload of major albums, and a portrait of modern rap's main tension.
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Live Nation)
A lot has happened to rapper Megan Thee Stallion over the last couple of years including a highly publicized trial after being shot by a former friend, a messy breakup, and a feud with artist Nicki Minaj. She confronts all of that and more on her boastful and vulnerable new album Megan. But she also has fun on playful tracks like 'Down Stairs DJ' and 'Otaku Hot Girl' that are odes to self-pleasure and her anime nerddom.
(Image credit: Rich Fury)
The 28-year-old conductor has been making news lately — getting rave reviews for renditions of Stravinsky and Debussy, and also for being the music director of more than one major orchestra.
By 1974, Steely Dan's two albums had helped established the band as a viable business proposition. With Pretzel Logic, they began a quest for studio perfectionism that would last for decades to come.
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs' “Dare To Dream," Tommy Richman's "Million Dollar Baby" and Jeff and Steven McDonald's “Born Innocent" feature spontaneous sounds rooted in deep knowledge of the past.
Éxodo, pushes his sound further.'/>
On his new album, Éxodo, regional Mexican hitmaker Peso Pluma gives listeners a sampler of his burgeoning potential as a multi-genre star.
(Image credit: Arenovski)
New albums by Don Toliver and LUCKI take opposite paths to the same calling, an understanding of rap as texture rather than text.
(Image credit: Jack Dalton)
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