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Top 50 Albums of 2021
Our 2021 Annual Report continues with our Top 50 Albums list. As the year winds down, stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles about the best music, film, and TV of 2021. You can find it all in one place here. We’re all friends here, so let’s be honest: Most playlists are boring. Corporation-curated playlists are boring, influencer playlists are boring, and the playlist you made for your high school crush became boring the moment you liked someone new. We use them at times — road tripping, studying, or working out — for a pleasant background vibe. But when it comes to prolonged active listening, only an album can demand your full attention. Advertisement That was especially true in 2021. Many workers returned to the office, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to teach us new let...
Top 50 Songs of 2021
The 2021 edition of our Annual Report continues with our Top 50 Songs of 2021 list. As the year winds down, stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles about the best music, film, and TV of 2021. You can find it all in one place here. While 2020 felt like the year that didn’t happen, 2021 has felt like the year that just… kinda did. As the calendar pages flipped by, we cautiously began searching for a semblance of a familiar life, culminating in a summer-fall explosion as festivals returned and venues reopened. But for so many reasons, we were always looking over our shoulders, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even as the world proved ever stubborn, we were desperate to put the worst behind us. The term “post-pandemic” entered the lexicon, a fallacy we were all fully aware of as we ...
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills on 25 Years of New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Michael Stipe and Mike Mills sit down with Kyle Meredith to remember R.E.M.’s 1996 album New Adventures in Hi-Fi for its 25th anniversary. Advertisement Related Video The rock legends talk about writing the bulk of the record while touring the Monster album, the idea of spontaneity within the songs, and Stipe using religion as a writing tool. We also hear what it was like for the lead singer to meet his idol Patti Smith for the first time, hearing Eddie Vedder and Jason Isbell’s recent covers of R.E.M. classics, and new music on the way from both individuals. Listen to R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills on this new episode ...
Edge Slayer Shares the Origins of New Single “w00m3”: Exclusive
With the recurring new music feature Origins, we get exclusive insights into artists’ latest songs. Today, New Orleans performance artist Edge Slayer takes us into her “w00m3.” Edge Slayer is more apt to create her own space than wedge her way into one defined by others. Hailing from New Orleans, the performance and multi-disciplinary artist/producer founded popular local party series Séancé, dedicated to creating safe spaces for Black and queer individuals. (She herself is a Black trans woman.) It’s no different when it comes to her music. Blending trap, R&B, alternative hip-hop, and ambient sounds, she’s created a sonic world all her own on her new album, Tsureena. Due out later this year on LCD Soundsystem member Tyler Pope’s Interference Pattern label, the record follows ...
Indigo De Souza Announces Tour Dates, Covers Frank Ocean’s “Ivy”: Watch
Indigo De Souza is ready to hit the road. Today, the rising singer-songwriter announced a round of upcoming tour dates running through the fall and winter. The North American jaunt kicks off November 14th at Nashville’s Mercy Lounge and hits Asheville, NC and West Columbia, SC before taking a pause for the month of December. After the new year, the tour resumes Charlotte, NC and runs through January 30th. Allie, Ex Gold, and Truth Club will provide support and various stops along the way. Grab tickets for the trek via Ticketmaster. Coinciding with the tour announcement, the “Hold U” songstress also unveiled a candid cover of Frank Ocean‘s Blonde-era hit “Ivy.” Recorded from the comfort of her home, De Souza is bathed in pink-ish light as she performs the song in her hallway. Advertisement ...
The 22 Worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs
This article originally ran in 2013 and has been updated. As of 2021, Kraftwerk and Tina Turner have finally graduated from our list of worst snubs, while Daft Punk and others now qualify. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has revealed the inductees for its class of 2021. They include JAY-Z, Foo Fighters, The Go-Go’s, Carole King, Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren, Kraftwerk and LL Cool J. Sadly, nominees Rage Against the Machine, Kate Bush, Chaka Khan, DEVO, Iron Maiden, New York Dolls, Dionne Warwick, Fela Kuti and Mary J. Blige will have to wait another year for possible induction. Advertisement Those left out, however, aren’t exactly in poor company. Many great artists have been shut out from the warm confines of the Cleveland institution. Here’s a list of 22 artists who have...
Coldplay Cover PinkPantheress’ “Just for Me” for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge: Watch
Coldplay stopped by the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge today and performed a set that included a stirring cover of PinkPantheress’ “Just for Me.” Watch the session below. On a circular stage littered with lights, Chris Martin transformed the electro-pop stalker vibes of the rising star’s to hell with it cut into a reflective, piano-strewn ballad. “I found the street of the house in which you stay,” he crooned before his bandmates joined in for the final chorus and coda. “My diary’s full of your name on every page/ ‘Cause I read somewhere you’ll fall in love with me/ And I’ll try and try again one day, you’ll see.” “I was learning about PinkPantheress, and she’s so great and talented and wonderful and from the West Country,” Martin said during the radio interview that coincided with the numbe...
SASAMI Announces New Album Squeeze, Shares “The Greatest” and “Skin a Rat”: Stream
SASAMI has announced her new album, Squeeze, due out February 25th via Domino. As a preview, she has also shared a pair of lead singles: “The Greatest” and “Skin a Rat.” Spanning 11 tracks, Squeeze is partially inspired by the Japanese yōkai folk spirit called Nure-onna (translation: wet woman), a vampiric deity that has the head of a woman and the body of a snake. The album’s eclectic sound varies between nu metal, country pop, folk rock, and classical music while drawing inspiration from artists ranging from System of a Down to Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac to Bach and Mahler. Intended to help listeners process their “anger, frustration, desperation, and more violent, aggressive emotions,” Squeeze was constructed as an opera or orchestral work containing different “movements” that m...
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Is Completely Oblivious to Its Own Plight
On “Trouble In Town,” the third track on Coldplay’s 2019 LP Everyday Life, the band places a rather disturbing sound clip of a police officer rudely interrogating someone — this comes after Chris Martin’s solemn lament on unequal power structures and how they always “add more police,” and before a full-band psychedelic freak out of an outro, which is not necessarily what you’d associate with Coldplay. This was not an anomaly on the record; Everyday Life featured Coldplay at their most experimental, their most vital, and playing the riskiest music they’ve made in years. But what’s more, is that it sounded like Coldplay had changed, that over a span of 20 years as a band, they were almost more weathered and rugged. Fast forward to two years later; Coldplay have released their ninth studio al...
EP: Falana – Rising
“Rising” features singer Sir Dauda on the second song dubbed “Energy“. About the 7-track project, Falana says: This EP has been a long time in the making. I am so grateful for every one of you who has patiently been on this journey with me. I am really proud of this project and excited to share it. The process of making this project has taught me so much about patience, surrender, and being present and that is worth more than anything! All tracks were mixed and mastered by Lavar Bullard, except for track 7 which was mixed by Brian Malouf and mastered by Greg Larbi at Sterling Sounds. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Be...
EP: Boybreed – Genie In A Kettle
BoyBreed returns are with a new project titled “Genie In A Kettle” Cultured, wholesome, grown, sexy; these are a few words that help convey the end to end quality of Boybreed’s latest “Genie in a Kettle” project. As hinted by the title, the pair equate themselves to an Arabian wish-granting spirit popularized by Disney’s 1992 animated flick -Aladdin. In this case, however, they dedicate their magic to fulfilling a slew of erotic and romantic fantasies on six records of pure Afro-sensual goodness. “In- advertently, Genie in a Kettle grants the wishes of fans in their millions, who have thirst- ed for a new Boybreed collection while clutching onto the timeless 2019 debut- Made in the Tropics. With ocean-depth gratitude for their faithfuls, the twins share: “We ...
Tom Morello on Solo LP The Atlas Underground Fire: “This Is a Record About Survival”
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Tom Morello catches up with Kyle Meredith to dive into The Atlas Underground Fire, the continuation of his “sonic conspiracy” with artists that include Chris Stapleton, Phantogram, Damian Marley, and Mike Posner. Advertisement Related Video In particular, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist talks about covering AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” with Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen. He also discusses how the record was an emotional life raft during the darker days of the pandemic, searching for the future of the electric guitar, and his work getting women musicians out of Afghanistan through his Girls with Guitars foundation. Els...
