Looking over what I have seen and heard in this mess of a release year so far, I realized that two of my favourite works of art – one a movie, another an album – are tied together by their decision to depict a particular place, or identity, with an intentional formal wooliness. Continue reading Forever the Geography: National Mutability in ‘Krabi, 2562’ (2019) + Nazar’s ‘Guerrilla’ (2020)
Bitching about fame is commonplace in popular music, and bitching about a musician’s bitching is just as recurrent a talking point as well. Continue reading Committed Distancing: On Car Seat Headrest’s ‘Making a Door Less Open’ and Drake’s ‘Dark Lane Demo Tapes’
If anyone were to ask you for either a time capsule of rap music in 2016, or an embryonic example of the seedlings of what’s become one of hip-hop’s equally richest and bewildering creative eras yet, you’d simply have to present them the 2016 XXL Freshman Cypher… Continue reading “Lil Uzi Vert, to Be Exact”: On Eternal Atake/Lil Uzi Vs. The World 2
Dan Deacon – in his lyrics, interviews and in the goofball soapbox aspect of his live performances – is loose-tongued and lucid about the headspace which produced his fifth and newest album, Mystic Familiar (2020) Continue reading Album Review: ‘Mystic Familiar’ by Dan Deacon
Žarko Urošević walks us through the perfect encapsulations of struggle, fear, failings, and humanity that make up the music of Mitski. Continue reading Women’s Day: “Mom, I failed, I’m coming home” – On music, loneliness, immigration, and Mitski
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Join us in celebrating women artists of the world! Continue reading Compilation: International Women’s Day 2020
When it comes to reevaluating posthumous releases from recently passed rappers these past few years, it’s been best to cede a little more slack than usual to the overall integrity of such projects, given the ever-growing porousness of release guidelines. Continue reading Album Review: ‘Circles’ by Mac Miller
As with our Best of the Decade in Film list, these album lists should be taken less as definitive statements on what was objectively best, and instead be considered as their own entities, to enrich rather than compete with other lists on this page (or other sites) – each a meaningful observation with a strong personal bent. Be sure to also check out Felix Rodriguez’s … Continue reading Best of the Decade: Music
by Ruairí McCann There are numerous landmarks set to be struck here on the eve of the 2020s but a significant one is that it will be nearly 8 decades since rock first took shape. While not the only mainstay of popular music that is getting long in the tooth, it seems especially potent for a genre so associated with both the shock of the … Continue reading Album Review: ‘Phantom Rhythm 幽靈節奏 (幽霊リズム)’ by Gong Gong Gong
All writing is autobiographical, writing about culture doubly so. There is no way to distill the past decade into 10 essential albums without egregious oversight and omission. There are some artist and albums that I am not equipped to write about, there are also artists that have had their critical moments in the sun. They will not be written about here. That is okay, beautiful even. Remember that the truth is in the telling. Continue reading A Decade In Review: Music of the 2010s
