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?
All in The Re-Critic
The Existence and The Bliss
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.
Simply (Un)Complicated
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.
Summer Album Blues
Everything is changing. Some of our music-related touchstones may be lost for good. But that’s probably not so bad.
Eighteen Seconds on a "Lovely Day"
“I don't think I've done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia.”
-Bill Withers
The Untold Truthiness of Fall Out Boy
What’s better than being real? Being almost real.
A Blueprint For Gleeful Anarchy
How Kevin Barnes used four tracks to outline an extravagant penchant for breaking the rules.
An Open Letter To You
A whimsical tale of writer’s block, terminal illness, and a triumph of the human spirit. Or, you know, maybe nothing quite that grandiose. Who can say?
EZ Rock for the Indie Set
In 2011, Dan Bejar and his band Destroyer did something unthinkable: they made soft rock. And it really, really worked.
Too Good To Fail
Liking a band’s output and being fully engaged by it sometimes turn out to be two very different things.
The Hero Country Deserves
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?
Selling Out is So Over (Part 2)
Our attitudes about what we used to call “selling out” have changed for the better. In a way, McDonald’s is to thank for this shift in attitude. … Ughhhh.
Selling Out is So Over (Part 1)
The Shins took the bold step of getting paid for the use of one of their songs in 2002. So why did some people hate them for it?
Ahead of the Woke Curve
Seattle’s Perfume Genius offered an exquisite, at times difficult, portrayal of what true empathy could sound like…but it arrived long before anyone was looking for it.
The Currency of Cool: A Troubling Trend in Modern Criticism
Is criticism an art in itself? We think so, and we’d love to explain the significance of that analysis by using the context of the current Billie Eilish geostorm as a jumping off point.
Somewhere, Blitzen Trapper is Dreaming This Right Now...
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.
Discovery As An Act Of Rebellion
If you haven’t yet discovered Discovery, get hyped on a crystal ball of an album that broke rules while prognosticating the shape of pop to come.
Wolves At The Door
My Latest Novel’s debut still seems like the breakthrough album that should have been, and years later it remains a confident and assured work that plays by no one’s rules.
An Open Door for Willing Ears
Hard time appreciating jazz? Me too. Here’s how I got around it.
Bracing For Impact
In which we find our protagonist ending the year with a pre-emptive strike against a burgeoning (and possibly wholly imaginary) onslaught of opinions against vinyl as the music-buying market becomes increasingly complicated by waves of new and revived technologies.