Staff Picks

gglum Sifts Through the Mess on "SPLAT!"

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PUBLISHED Oct 11, 2023

A title like "SPLAT!" conjures visions of neon goop and cartoonish slapstick, but the latest single from London-based songwriter Ella Smoke...

Earl Sweatshirt and the Alchemist Stretch Out (Just a Little) on 'VOIR DIRE'

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PUBLISHED Oct 10, 2023

The other day, my colleague Calum Slingerland asked me what's the first thing that grabs me when I listen to a new hip-hop album; I respond...

Mary Lattimore Is a Singular Force on the Mesmerizing 'Goodbye, Hotel Arkada'

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PUBLISHED Oct 6, 2023

I made the mistake of starting my day with Drake's For All the Dogs, so hitting play on Mary Lattimore's Goodbye, Hotel Arkada felt like re...

Paramore Bring Some Friends on Board for the Invigorating 'Re: This Is Why'

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PUBLISHED Oct 6, 2023

Every Paramore song tends to be its own little existential plane. That's why This Is Why stood out to me as their tightest and most cohesiv...

John Carpenter's 'Anthology II: Movie Themes 1976–1988' Will Genuinely Scare Trick-or-Treaters

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PUBLISHED Oct 5, 2023

Horror Master John Carpenter already reworked his best-known film scores for 2017's Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998, on which Carpenter,...

James Wyatt Crosby Finds Comfort in Humility on "Ashamed"

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PUBLISHED Sep 29, 2023

Everything that James Wyatt Crosby touches turns into a warm breeze, even when it's drenched in melancholy. The shade of "Ashamed" is hued...

thanks for coming's 'What Is My Capacity to Love?' Makes Magic from the Mundane

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PUBLISHED Sep 29, 2023

Rachel Brown's work as thanks for coming feels worlds away from the shattered art rock they make with Nate Amos as Water from Your Eyes. Wh...

David Vertesi Celebrates Olivia Quan — and Life Itself — with "One in a Million"

PUBLISHED Sep 28, 2023

Hey Ocean! bassist David Vertesi wrote "One in a Million" about the death of Vancouver producer Olivia Quan last year, and while the lyrics...