Gracie Abrams, courtesy Lauren Leekley. If the idea of pouring out your feelings about a past relationship to your current boyfriend feels it would be awkward, that’s not the half of it for Los Angeles singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams. Gracie Abrams at BottleRock Napa Valley 3 p.m., Friday, Sept. 3 Napa…

“Solar Power” by Lorde. A lot can change in four years, even without a pandemic thrown into the middle of it. The escalating effects of climate change (fires, rising oceans, unhealthy air quality, doomsday-level hurricanes and earthquakes and fire-tornadoes), wars over natural resources, general brutality and the death of…

You should be excited about new albums from (clockwise from top left) Kelly Clarkson, Foo Fighters, Lorde, My Bloody Valentine, Lykke Li, Tierra Whack, Modest Mouse, GZA, Ghost and The Cure. Will this be the year Zack de la Rocha releases one of his shelved solo albums? No! But…

You should be excited about new albums from Tame Impala, Frank Ocean, Grimes, Lorde, AJJ, Yves Tumor, The 1975, The Cure, Tierra Whack and IDLES in 2020, writes Kyle J. Kohner. Now that another phenomenal year and decade in music has passed, it’s time to look forward at what…

Christine and the Queens perform at Fox Theater in Oakland on Oct. 26, 2018. Photo: Shawn Robbins. This is the second in a three-part series. Read the introduction to learn how I’m scoring my list and find out about my “special consideration” in PART 1. Favorite Shows 2017 | Favorite Shows…

Who knew that France would make such talented robots? Daft Punk did. I couldn’t quite justify putting it in the top five, but I want to give a shoutout to honorable mention “Let Legend Mark Me as the King” by Christopher Lee. Yes, that Sir Christopher Lee. He was…

Amy Shark performs in San Francisco during Noise Pop on Feb. 21, 2018. Photos: Alessio Neri. For 10 years, Australian Amy Shark toiled away in the bar scene of her small beach town in a remote part of her country, relying mostly on Cyndi Lauper and Alanis Morissette covers.…

Photos: Alessio Neri OAKLAND — When Lorde returned to the Bay Area Tuesday, at Oracle Arena; it was possibly not her biggest local crowd draw. That may have come when she played the sunset slot at last year’s Outside Lands. Nor was it her first time playing the basketball…

Tove Styrke, courtesy: Emma Svensson. Nearly a decade has passed since Tove Styrke finished third on Swedish Idol, without a trophy but with a record contract launching her to pop stardom in her home country. At that time, in 2009, Styrke had not released a single song of her…

Welcome, to my five-part series counting down what I believe to be the 50 best albums of 2017. I listened to an insane amount of new music during my first year as a staff writer with RIFF, nearly 150 album releases, in fact. With that in mind, when narrowing down all…