Playboi Carti sent Rap Twitter into a frenzy this week when he tweeted what appears to be an album cover. This image, viewable above, seemed to hint that the follow-up to Carti’s great and influential 2018 debut album Die Lit was near. (At one point Carti’s next album was supposed to be called Whole Lotta […]
Hayley Williams – "Why We Ever"
At this point Paramore’s Hayley Williams has already released eight songs from her solo debut album Petals For Armor. If the rollout method has diffused the anticipation a bit, it has also given each track its own chance to shine. Today, the spotlight turns to “Why We Ever,” a synth ballad that gorgeously transforms into […]
Self Defense Family – "Florida Trip" & "Tissue Thin"
Albany post-hardcore collective Self Defense Family put out their Performative Guilt EP nearly a year ago to the day. And now, after trawling through their archives, they’re back with two songs collected in a new release called Kitten Beach. As the band explain in a statement on Bandcamp: We’re cleaning out our hard drives for […]
The Magnetic Fields – “(I Want to Join A) Biker Gang”
Next month, the Magnetic Fields will release an album that isn’t an album at all. Quickies, the new collection from Stephin Merritt’s longtime cleverness-pop project, is a box set that’ll feature 28 songs — all under three minutes — spread over five EPs. We’ve already posted the early tracks “The Day The Politicians Died” and […]
The National's Matt Berninger Covers Mercury Rev's 'Holes'
The National’s Matt Berninger and his friend and film composer Stephan Altman performed “Holes” by Mercury Rev on A Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night (April 16). A longtime friend of the evening program, Berninger did a beautiful rendition of the 1998 song, especially with support from the accompaniment of Altman’s piano. Berninger also […]
Bedouine – "The Hum" (Margo Guryan Cover)
Back in 1972, Queens singer-songwriter Margo Guryan wrote “The Hum,” a sarcastic lament inspired by the Watergate scandal. It’s exactly the sort of jazzy, folksy baroque-pop song that informs Azniv Korkejian’s music as Bedouine, so it makes sense that the Artist To Watch has decided to cover “The Hum” in 2020. It makes even more […]
Austra – "Mountain Baby" (Feat. Cecile Believe)
In a couple weeks, Katie Stelmanis is releasing a new Austra album, HiRUDiN, the follow-up to 2017’s Future Politics. We’ve heard two tracks from it so far, “Risk It” and “Anywayz,” and today she’s back with another one, “Mountain Baby.” It’s an elastic pop song that features contributions from a children’s choir from Toronto and […]
Peter Cottontale – “Pray For Real” (Feat. Chance The Rapper & Tobi Lou)
Peter Cottontale, the Chicago producer and keyboardist, has been working with Chance The Rapper ever since Chance released his debut mixtape 10 Day in 2012. These days, most of us would recognize Cottontale as a member of Chance’s band the Social Experiment. (He’s the guy with the afro.) But Cottontale also makes his own music, […]
Naeem – "Simulation" (Feat. Swamp Dogg & Justin Vernon)
One of the best songs on Bon Iver’s i,i, “Naeem,” was named for one of the many artists in the orbit of Justin Vernon’s 37d03d collective. That artist is Baltimore-born Naeem Juwan, who in a different lifetime used to record salacious rap music under the name Spank Rock. Now based in LA, Jawan has rebranded […]
Courtney Marie Andrews – "Burlap String"
Americana singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews is coming back in a couple of months with Old Flowers, the follow-up to her acclaimed 2018 album May Your Kindness Remain, which she recorded after the dissolution of a nine-year relationship. We’ve already heard one track from the collection, the lovely, vulnerable “If I Told You.” And now she’s […]