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(Blonde Dissected, pt 1)
New contributor Anne enters the maze of Blonde’s obliqueness and the pull of its gravity in attempting to sort out what makes Frank Ocean’s 2016 sophomore LP so prescient and timeless.
(Blonde Dissected, pt 2)
One of the ways to parse the meaning of Blonde is to look at the many voices present in the work. A mother’s voice rings out as one of the clearest and loudest for a brand of social justice that starts in the mirror.
One went electric, one went ironic. Where is the fork in the road between these two artists who beat their own paths through the artistic wilderness?
How important for a writer is the rush of inspiration in the moment? Maybe easing up and allowing in the comfort goes just as far. Maybe it goes even further.
Tobias Jesso Jr.’s 2015 debut (and only album so far) still offers waves of easy pop looseness to get lost in, but it’s not afraid of a little texture and confrontation.
Healing Potpourri is a Bay Area seven-piece who’s on the trail of that most elusive of feelings: wistful pleasure. Ride with them on the way there on their newest LP.
Everything is changing. Some of our music-related touchstones may be lost for good. But that’s probably not so bad.
Raphael Saadiq’s debut solo album is a beacon for another direction for neo soul. Revisiting it now feels like a glimpse into a future we never achieved.
Our new contributor Zach presents an argument for the value of end credits and the rituals of the arthouse theater experience.
The secret to unleashing Iggy Pop’s efficacy as a godhead turned out to be collaboration…and it helped that the collaborators were also geniuses.
What’s better than being real? Being almost real.
Soul Coughing serve up a slice of corn-fed nostalgia, but the things that make it truly special come to life inside the memories and aspirations of a young fanboy.
Some bands you have fun with, and some you remember forever. Art-pop aficionados, unite!
Orville Peck represents a tectonic shift in country music that could have game-changing implications. So why doesn’t it feel like he’s making strictly country music?
While the blogosphere was deluged in a veritable tidal wave of folk and indie rock music, making an album that would stand the test of time turned out to be an exercise in making one that was indisputably untimely.
Hard time appreciating jazz? Me too. Here’s how I got around it.
Over a decade later, it might finally be time to reckon with the fact that Human After All is actually a pretty fantastic piece of work.
Boarding House Reach is a bridge too far, but not for the reasons you might think.
Bowie's final work, inscrutably profound but simple - a puzzle to be put together, like the man himself.
When the Universe tells me I need to write about Fleetwood Mac, I tend to listen. Let's get real about the legacy of Rumours.
British Sea Power gave us a classic by daring to create a new mythology when the rest of the world was infatuated with American rock escapism and reeling from the shock of a post-9/11 reality.
Vinyl collecting, magical thinking, and the ongoing search for an impossible perfection.
"How could it be then, that the perfect set of musicians in an amazing band made exactly the right album…at exactly the wrong time?"
Uh-oh, Re-Critic's going HAM in this one, broh...