Much like the poet Walt Whitman, the blues contains multitudes. Seemingly a genre dedicated to searing guitar solos and feedback-drenched suffering, the blues also spans gentler acoustic moods. American bluesman Keb’ Mo’ (born Kevin Roosevelt Moore) has made this mellower branch of the blues family tree his home for…

When Years & Years released their last album, Palo Santo, nearly four years ago, they were a trio. In the subsequent years, the group went through various changes resulting in a new version of Years & Years for third album Night Call. It’s now just lead singer Olly Alexander, exerting…

The course of John Mellencamp has been fairly well established for the past 20 years or so. It consists of tales of lessons learned (or not) along the hard road of life, set largely to acoustic music with one foot firmly in Americana and the other on stage with…

Aurora, “The Gods We Can Touch.” Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora Aksnes had the concept for her new album, The Gods We Can Touch, within days of finishing its predecessor. When we spoke to her in 2019, she even gave us a clue: “It’s just about the fact that everything matters—those…

It’s time for Earl Sweatshirt to get off the pavement and brush the dirt off of his psyche, as the Odd Future alum returns with his contribution to the pandemic-fuel genre. The aptly titled Sick! is the rapper’s fourth studio album. It maintains the short length of his preceding releases from 2018…

“Hey, I made you a mixtape,” FKA twigs whispers in the opening interlude to her new mixtape over a very distorted background voice. “Because when I feel you, I feel me/ And when I feel me/ It feels good.” With the click of a tape, the track then morphs…

Though 2022 may not have started as calmly as we all had hoped with the new COVID Omicron surge, politics and hospitalizations do seem to be slightly more under control than 12 months ago. With winter in full swing and Christmas music making its way down the charts, it’s…

Skillet. “Dominion.” For Dominion, its dynamic 11th studio album, Skillet takes a familiar formula while adding some extra ingredients that elevate the Wisconsin band’s sound to both heavier and softer directions. Dominion Skillet Atlantic, Jan. 14 8/10 For example, opening track “Surviving the Game” is a soaring, uplifting anthemic rocker like…

What is it with rock musicians and children’s books? These days, it seems like every other songwriter or band is putting out some kind of storybook-themed concept album. The most recent X Ambassadors LP, The Beautiful Liar, couched its rather bland breakup songs in a half-baked audiobook-for-kids conceit. Then…

As we close one chapter and open another in the wake of the new year, The Weeknd delivered his fifth studio album Dawn FM. It comes following the success of 2020’s After Hours and the milestone of headlining the Super Bowl halftime show. The album delivers dreamy and dreary electronic…