Tag Archives: song-to-know

More than any other pop star of the 2000s, Lil Wayne thrived in the chaos left behind by a rapidly changing music industry. When streaming was still a dream and physical CD sales were cratering, the New Orleans rapper consumed and re-contextualized everything from the Beatles to Beyoncé. It was …

It’s a fairly familiar tale by now: An obscure album sees reissue after decades out of print, and the artist responsible gets to enjoy some overdue recognition. But in the case of Alan Braufman — a saxophonist, flutist, and composer whose 1975 debut, Valley of Search, a potent product of …

Hidden within the new Taylor Swift album we were gifted with at the stroke of midnight is a teenage love triangle, told from distinct perspectives in three separate songs: “Cardigan,” “August,” and “Betty.” “I created character arcs and recurring themes that map out who is singing about who,” she explained. …

Happy release day to Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud, singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield’s best album yet. In it, she embraces Americana and country-rock, deviating from the thrashing indie-rock she became known for in her previous work and returning to her southern roots of Birmingham, Alabama, while citing Lucinda Williams and Linda Ronstadt as …

Neil Young unloaded on Donald Trump earlier this month with a scathing public letter where he labelled the president “a disgrace to my country.”Days later, he reached deep into his vault and posted an incredible video of “Campaigner” from a 1991 Crazy Horse concert — a song written years earlier …

Over the past year or so, Ozzy Osbourne has been going through hell. He has overcome a serious staph infection, and now he’s recovering from a fall that has forced him to postpone nearly two years of tour dates. And now that he’s on his journey back, judging from his …

The house music great Moodymann quietly returned with a new track at the end of May. “I’ll Provide” revolves around a fantastically degraded low-end, a bass as garbled as it is groovy. Moodymann drops flirtatious lines from the Prince school of seduction: “I don’t know what you want from me/But …

Hip-hop is currently awash in luxury dad rap. In the last decade rap has seen an emergence men with unresolved daddy issues dealing with the mundane and costly realities of becoming fathers themselves. Jay-Z faced the thought of losing his family in the wake of infidelity on 4:44. Kanye West’s …

The super sounds of the Seventies have long been a safe space for indie-rock types with fond distant memories of chilling in the backseat while mom and dad bumped the local AM radio station on long family car trips. Eric D. Johnson of the Fruit Bats has been uniquely skilled …

The National‘s songs usually feel warmly hermetic – from their artfully enveloping art-goth sonics to the way Matt Berninger’s merlot-gorged baritone turns midlife malaise into a lush cocoon. Which makes their forthcoming new album I Am Easy to Find, due in May, an interesting change-up. The band is joined by …