For the past few months, dance-adjacent R&B singer and Artist To Watch Amber Mark has been sharing new self-recorded covers and originals as part of her COVERED-19 quarantine series. These have included “Waiting (Demo),” “1984,” and a cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box.” And now, for the series’ final installment, she’s chosen an unexpected cover: Sisqo’s […]
Chief Keef & Mike Will Made-It Announce Collaborative Album, Share Single "Bang Bang": Listen
Last week, the Chicago rapper Chief Keef turned 25. That is insane. Keith Cozart has been one of the most influential figures in rap music for nearly a decade, and it’s hard to even picture how the present-day musical landscape would sound without him. And yet the man has only been old enough to rent […]
CHAI & Hinds – “United Girls Rock’n’roll Club”
The eccentric Tokyo DIY-pop group CHAI and the poppy Madrid garage-rock group Hinds have joined forces for a new collaborative single. “‘UNITED GIRLS ROCK’N’ROLL CLUB’ is a song that screams GIRL POWER!” CHAI and Hinds say in a press release. “You might be from different countries, different languages, but at the end of the day, […]
Coheed And Cambria Made A “Jessie’s Girl” Sequel With Rick Springfield
In 1981, Rick Springfield, the Australian actor and musician Rick Springfield had moved on from his ’70s teen-idol days. Springfield’s acting career was doing just fine — he’d joined the cast of the massively popular soap opera General Hospital — but his music career seemed to be over. But then Springfield wrote “Jessie’s Girl,” a […]
Joensuu 1685 – "The Most Luckiest Man"
Back in March, the Finnish space-rock voyagers Joensuu 1685 returned with their first new song in a decade, the aptly titled “Hey My Friend (We’re Here Again).” A couple months later, “Light In The Heart Of Our Town” followed along with the official announcement of their long-awaited sophomore album, ÖB. Today, they’re back with another […]
Unreal City Release Crushingly Heavy New Album 'Cruelty Of Heaven': Stream
Your Friday is about to become a whole lot more intense. Unreal City, from Pittsburgh, play a guttural, monstrous form of heavy hardcore, and they’ve just come out with a new album that hits like a brick to the face. The band’s members have some serious pedigree. Singer Joseph Sanderson also leads Eternal Sleep, and […]
'Imploding The Mirage' Is The Killers' Best Album In Over A Decade
The Killers have been rolling out their new album Imploding The Mirage since November 2019, before the first coronavirus cases were identified in China. They released its lead single “Caution” on March 12, the day after the NBA suspended its season and Tom Hanks revealed he had the virus, when life suddenly and startlingly began […]
HÆLOS – "Hold On"
Last year, HÆLOS released their sophomore album Any Random Kindness. They’ve returned somewhat quickly by their standards, embarking on a series of linked singles this summer. First, in June, there was “Unknown Melody,” a song that subtly pushed their sound into a brighter, dancier horizon. “Perfectly Broken” followed last month, and it too marked a […]
BTS Release First-Ever English-Language Single "Dynamite": Listen
One of the strangest, coolest things about the rise of BTS, the massively popular South Korean boy band, is that they’ve managed to become one of the world’s biggest groups without doing much to Westernize themselves. BTS, like most K-pop groups, sing the occasional English phrase. But before the pandemic, they were able to fill […]
Nas Releases New Album 'King's Disease': Stream
Once upon a time, when Nas said he had a new album coming out, you rolled your eyes and said you’d believe it when you saw it. (Remember when Nas and DJ Premier were making a whole album together? When they were on the cover of Scratch together? Still waiting on that one!) But just […]