It’s been 14 years since the band formerly known as The Dixie Chicks released a studio album. The powerhouse trio of Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer are back with a times-appropriate new name, The Chicks, and a new collection of songs called Gaslighter.  Gaslighter The Chicks Columbia Records,…

Jackson Pollock comes to mind when listening to Telas, the newest release from experimental ambient and house artist Nicolas Jaar. The surreal and scattershot composition of conflicting synthetic and organic sounds is reminiscent of the chaotic and abstract nature of Pollock’s work. Jaar has orchestrated a masterful and complex ambient album.…

By Timothy Arliss O’Brien Chasing the release of his second solo EP as Love Fame Tragedy, March’s Five Songs to Briefly Fill the Void, Matthew “Murph” Murphy, the guitarist and lead singer of indie rock band The Wombats, is back with his solo full-length debut. This breakthrough album collects…

There’s no such thing as idle time for Mike Shinoda. Faced with an indefinite lockdown, the Linkin Park co-founder took to Twitch and YouTube Live in his home studio to engage with with fans and flex his creative muscle. Armed with a keyboard and a handful of electronics, Shinoda dug in…

Almost two years following the success of her debut album, This Time, the 29-year-old Angeleno Donna Missal gets personal, painting stories of heartbreak and triumph. Missal describes her sophomore album, Lighter, as “represent[ing] the concept of burning shit down all around you and rising from the ashes.” Lighter Donna Missal…

Margo Price has become the roots foil for the likes of Kane Brown with her commitment to thoughtful storytelling and wholesome musicality. Pop country’s current affinity for snap-tracks threatens to extinguish whatever connection it had to its past—so Price’s approach serves as a reminder of “real country” as an artistic…

Longtime Jayhawks leader Gary Louris has been saying he wanted to get his bandmates more involved in songwriting and singing lead than they have been on the band’s last several releases. XOXO The Jayhawks SHAM/Thirty Tigers, July 10 8/10 That has now happened, to highly satisfying effect, on XOXO,…

London has cultivated a popular and distinct hip-hop scene. Its eventual merge with the city’s underground electronic music scene in the 2000s led to grime, with its choppy rapid-fire lyrical patterns and accelerated tempos. Mike Skinner the creative force behind of The Streets, is one of the best established…

Rules are meant to be broken, or so the saying goes. Rufus Wainwright has spent the better part of 20 years ignoring the rulebook and forging his own musical way. Gloriously bon vivant one moment and stunningly heartbreaking the next, Wainwright has a poet’s style of making the rough…

Icelandic-U.K. trio Dream Wife is back following its 2018 self-titled debut. Sophomore album So When You Gonna… finds the band on both ends of the pop-punk spectrum. From loud, screamed anthems to poetic mellow ballads; Dream Wife tries a little of this and that without venturing too far outside its wheelhouse.…