Few albums embody rock’s essential contradictions as vividly as Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction from 1987. It is both high art and primal sleaze, anthemic yet nihilistic, precision-engineered yet volatile, an album of self-annihilation that became a commercial monolith to rival Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982). Released into a late-’80s rock landscape bloated with posturing

no floor More Eaze and Claire Rousay Thrill Jockey 21 March 2025 In a way, No Floor – the latest collaborative effort from experimental artists More Eaze (Mari Maurice) and Claire Rousay – is a considerable move forward for both musicians, mainly because of what they don’t do here. While so much of their past

Grey DeLisle’s new double album is chock-full of empathetic songs that are equal parts silly and sincere. DeLisle has a unique voice that makes her singing seem girlish even when she’s serious. There’s something comic and odd about the effect. This ambiguity makes the lyrics’ emotional concerns seem deeper and heavier. If one can’t laugh

That’s the Price of Loving Me Dean Wareham Carpark 28 March 2025 The last time Dean Wareham and Kramer were together in the studio was almost 35 years ago, when they recorded Galaxie 500′s swan song, This Is Our Music. On Wareham’s newest solo effort, That’s the Price of Loving Me, the two reunite, picking

First premise: Playing in a band with Craig Finn must be hard. His songs are elaborate stories that demand a listener’s attention, but his melodies are often static, sometimes drifting toward speaking (or yelling). Instrumentation must be interesting enough to shape the melody, but not wholly upstage the narrative. His main band, the Hold Steady,

First premise: Playing in a band with Craig Finn must be hard. His songs are elaborate stories that demand a listener’s attention, but his melodies are often static, sometimes drifting toward speaking (or yelling). Instrumentation must be interesting enough to shape the melody, but not wholly upstage the narrative. His main band, the Hold Steady,

Music burns as the guiding light through the nights of doubt and sorrow. Faithful to the last flicker, Jeffrey Martin, a true emissary of heartrending songs, may be found standing clear before us through the darkness. Indeed, for the past ten years, Martin, a former school teacher, has mixed penetrating truth with compelling heartbreak, using

New Directors/New Films is one of the most venerable events in America’s film scene. Founded in 1972, the annual showcase at New York’s Museum of Modern Art is a one-stop shop for fresh voices that have been making the rounds of the world’s film festivals. The 54th incarnation runs from 2 to 13 April 2025

Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams Patterson Hood ATO 21 February 2025 Patterson Hood’s passion for film has fed the numerous themed records he has released with Drive-By Truckers, from their calling card Southern Rock Opera to the myth-busting, incendiary The Dirty South. Hood’s latest solo album is a quietly powerful, frequently unnerving series of snapshots

The Standard School Broadcast John Lee Hooker BMG 28 February 2025 It’s rare these days for previously unreleased recordings by a classic blues artist to emerge – especially material of the quality to be found on The Standard School Broadcast Recordings by John Lee Hooker. Largely unheard since 1973, the eight long tracks on the

WITNESS Kronos Quartet and Mary Kouyoumdjian Phenotypic Recordings 14 March 2025 As a first-generation Armenian-American whose family was directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, composer, documentarian, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Kouyoumdjian is eminently qualified to use her skills to create an artistic portrait of the horrors of violent conflict. Likewise,

It is 1845, and a man in Paris has promised to make someone’s wedding ring appear inside an orange. He borrows a ring from his audience, which promptly vanishes inside a handkerchief. A small tree on a table is wheeled onto the stage, and the astonished audience watches as, in less than a minute, the

The question of how to get away with murder has driven many crime dramas, but none more powerfully than Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley, which hews closer to character study than thriller. Netflix’s 2024 limited series Ripley reimagines the young, inexperienced criminal of Minghella’s film as a seasoned professional akin to the

Wolfgang Flür was, famously, a member of Kraftwerk during their triumphant synthpop reign that began with Autobahn in 1973. Flür left the band in 1987, disenchanted with Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider’s preference for cycling over creating music. Flür himself, though, went back to his pre-Kraftwerk vocation of designing furniture. He didn’t release any new