Alternative Pop
Noga Erez Breaks Down New Album THE VANDALIST Track By Track: Exclusive
The alt-pop artist discusses her connection to the new album and how it reflects the ties between our real and digital lives. Noga Erez Breaks Down New Album THE VANDALIST Track by Track: Exclusive Rachel Rosenfield
Everything We Know About Billie Eilish’s New Album (So Far)
Here's what we know so far about release date, collaborators, and more. Everything We Know About Billie Eilish’s New Album (So Far) Mary Siroky
Song of the Week: Paramore Gives Us a Reason to Leave the House with “This Is Why”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Paramore make a huge return with “This Is Why.” It’s been 20 years since Hayley Williams moved from Mississippi to Tennessee, met the Farro brothers, and began the story of Paramore, one of the most exciting bands of the new millennium. Paramore has outlived most of their contemporaries, not just by continuing to exist as an entity, but also in terms of their enduring cultural relevance. While many bands of the Warped Tour Era flamed out or carried on by catering to nostalgia, Paramore have managed to remain vi...
Purity Ring Release shrines X for 10th Anniversary: Stream
Purity Ring are celebrating 10 years of their debut album with a new reissue dubbed, shrines X. In addition to the full 2012 LP, the expanded edition features three previously unreleased tracks. shrines X adds on new songs “iovein” and “firmament,” as well as a demo version of album opener “crawlersout” called “crawlersout (prototype).” Of the three additions, “iovein” is a particularly transfixing standout, as Megan James sings, “Build your little fort out in the garden/ Kill your little men and bake their bones/ Build our little guns out of their counterparts/ Peel their skin for paper on the walls,” over bandmate Corin Roddick’s glitchy electronic production. Advertisement Related Video Earlier this month, the Edmonton, Alberta natives sat down with Consequence to look back on their deb...
Song of the Week: Billie Eilish’s Storytelling Magic Shines on “The 30th”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Billie Eilish stuns with surprise track “The 30th.” If Billie Eilish is going to do one thing, it’s give us a stellar bridge. This week, Eilish surprise-released a two-song EP, Guitar Songs, created alongside her brother, longtime co-writer, and expert producer FINNEAS. The second track, “The 30th,” highlights the balance of vulnerability, specificity, and utter relatability that has made Eilish a household name and so beloved across demographics. Here, she’s singing to somebody involved in a near-fa...
Yung Lean and FKA twigs Team Up on “Bliss”: Stream
Blissed out. Yung Lean and FKA twigs have released their new collaboration, “Bliss,” as well as its accompanying music video. Stream the track below. In the quirky, nostalgic clip, the rapper picks the avant garde pop singer up for a chauffeured joy ride through a suburban town, complete with a white horse, bicycle gang, and a nod to Kelly Rowland’s famous texting via Excel spreadsheet in the music video for “Dilemma,” her 2002 smash hit with Nelly. “Oh, yeah, but I pray to God you’re good for me/ I want your bliss on bliss, a little company,” FKA twigs sings on the chorus before ceding the floor to Yung Lean, who raps, “You don’t know me or the shit I’m in/ Like The Exorcist, I’m making heads spin again/ Flash, flash, flash, flash, flash, flash/ Leandoer in the club, yeah, you find him in...
With If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, Halsey Crafts Her Own Mythology
When Halsey shared the artwork for her fourth studio album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, the inspiration was clear: seated on a throne, confidently exposed with a child in her arms, she is the regal image of the Madonna. Halsey (who goes by the pronouns “she/they”) has always seemed fascinated by the stories that make up humanity, from the mythic to the biblical and fantastical. If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is the next chapter in her own tale. This marks the fourth studio album for Halsey, who is on the cusp of turning 27 — her debut LP, Badlands, shot the singer into the spotlight when she was just 20 years old. Her bracing honesty and electronic production helped her cultivate a dedicated following of young adults, many of whom have grown with her in the years since that deb...
Caroline Polachek Covers The Corrs’ “Breathless” on Corden: Watch
In December, Caroline Polachek recorded a studio version of The Corrs’ iconic 2000 song “Breathless”, and last night, she brought those “Go ons!” to The Late Late Show with James Corden. The set designer apparently took “Breathless” literally, and to watch the performance is to find yourself dead at the gates of hell. But if we have to suffer eternal damnation, we couldn’t ask for better company than Polachek. The former Chairlift singer has the energy of an up-and-comer combined with a veteran’s poise. Wearing a Mad Max twist on a classic black dress, she commands the massive stage while hardly moving a step, using purposeful hand gestures and little shakes of the hip to provide visual interest while still keeping her breath supported for the vocally-challenging tune. ...
Caroline Polachek Shares Studio Cover of The Corrs’ “Breathless”: Stream
Chances are, if you caught Caroline Polachek live during her Pang tour, then you saw the alternative pop artist bust out a cover of The Corrs hit “Breathless”. In the event you missed out on that electric performance, however, Polachek has dropped an official studio cover version of the 2000 bop today. As is to be expected from the former Chairlift singer, Polachek’s rendition is a little weirder and a little bit less blown-out than the bombastic original, which featured triple harmonies from the three Corr sisters. Polachek handles all of the singing on this one, pitching up her voice to accentuate its sticky hook and add more angular dimensions to this Grammy-nominated number. Take a listen to both Polachek’s cover and the original version of the song below. Editors’ Picks Luckily ...
A.K. Paul Shares New Song “Be Honest”: Stream
A.K. Paul by A.K. Paul Back in May, A.K. Paul quietly dropped his first song in four years, a groovy bop called “HUNGRY BEAT” made during quarantine. Today, he’s back with another new one called “Be Honest”. The track is a mechanical alt-R&B tune that sets the English artist’s warm-blooded croon over watery, refracting synths that almost recall the busyness of vaporwave. It’s exactly the sort of left-of-center pop that we’ve come to expect from Paul and his equally elusive brother, Jai — and apparently we can expect more new material from the siblings soon. In a statement paired with “Be Honest”, A.K. Paul announced that he and Jai are relaunching their enigmatic label, the Paul Institute, and have a whole slew of new releases slated for the coming months. “I’m really happy we’re relea...
