Pop Culture

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s music lies at the intersection of new age, pop, ambient, and everything in between. Her body of work is defined less by genre than by a common theme—the musical resonance of the body. In her 2021 interview with me forPopMatters, she described her music as an “ode to the wonderment that I

Caught in a cross-section of decorative Russian tragedy and numinous 1970s psychedelia, First Love makes an initial impression as deep as a thumbprint; the true effects of the film are only felt long after its close, when its floral brume can finally settle into the skin. Such are the subtleties and minor notes of the

In a 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, Ava Max referred to herself as “the most mismanaged pop star ever”. Lately, Max’s presence has been inconsistent. Her third studio album, Don’t Click Play, was released with minimal promotion in the aftermath of a cancelled tour. “I almost lost myself,” Max told Rolling Stone, referring to the

The punk movement that swept across the United States and the United Kingdom was a revolution based on nerve, power chords, and swagger. Under that paradigm, the 2025 record Opaque by Street Eaters strives to create a compelling throwback: a tactic that works for the majority of the album. Themes like alienation, frustration, youthful abandon,

Josh Ritter has never been in a hurry with songs. Over the last two decades, the Idaho-born songwriter has learned to let them arrive when they’re ready—much like unannounced guests or weather patterns rolling across a vast Western sky. In that space of waiting, he has filled his life with novels, paintings, fatherhood, and touring,

During our tender years, the bursting of sacred bubbles can be devastating, especially when it comes to our heroes, who rarely live up to expectations any better than we do. Yet life’s hard truths can deliver wistful amusement with age, rather than disappointment. Discovering that the suave, debonair, 1990s playboy-about-London Neil Hannon – man and

Keep Quiet hides its intentions for the briefest of moments. The picturesque opening image, a field of golden reeds, is disturbed by a melancholic tune, followed by the clang of prison cell doors, the stern voice of a prison guard, and the sound of handcuffs being removed. Come the film’s end, this opening collision between

Before releasing his first solo album, Lingyuan Yang was already an established musician and composer, earning a BFA from the New School in New York City, writing the string quartet compositions The Heart of Ge’Nyen and Interference (performed by JACK Quartet), in addition to Yin-Yang, a wind and string quartet premiered by the Mannes American

I Believe in You, My Honeydew Josh Ritter Thirty Tigers 12 September 2025 In I Believe in You, My Honeydew, Josh Ritter still sounds refined, if not a little rough around the edges. He recorded the album with longtime collaborators, the Royal City Band, which features Zachariah Hickman (acoustic and electric bass, thumb piano, mandolin),

As an artist, David Byrne has spent decades dazzling listeners with showy theatrics, while subtly disguising his role as a commercial popsmith. Byrne‘s latest record, Who Is the Sky?, does a great deal to rectify this transgression by showcasing a work rippling with commercial and colorful sensibilities. It belongs to a burgeoning genre of music

With Euro-Country, Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, the artist who performs professionally under the acronym CMAT, is making a statement. The Irish artist is blossoming creatively, commenting on politics and grappling with grief and loss, both individual and shared. It’s all choreographed to a contagious mixture of alt-country, soul-pop, and indie pop sensibilities, producing one of the

“Best get new dreams, these old dreams won’t last.”“Soon enough, work and love will make a man out of you.” After their self-titled debut and Sub Pop-released follow-up Shine a Light, Constantines seemed primed for a significant breakthrough. The Guelph, Ontario-based band’s fiery, energetic brand of punk was indebted to greats like Fugazi and the

In 1993, Michael Jackson was weighing his next move in the film industry. He set up a series of meetings in Los Angeles with his longtime collaborator, the Oscar‑winning producer and animator Will Vinton. “I always thought animation would be perfect for him,” Vinton recalls. “The projects he’d tried up to that point hadn’t really

The anniversaries keep piling up as the years tick by. In 2024, it was 30 years since Kurt Cobain’s death by suicide. In 2026, it will be 35 years since the release of Nevermind. That makes me feel both old, although I was only 12 then, and sad, as I don’t think there’s been a

Hodari is “Iradoh” spelled backwards – a wordplay on “irado”, Brazilian slang for something dope or badass, though it literally means “angry”. This duality of naughty playfulness and raw emotion runs through Hodari’s music. Based in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, Hodari is a singer, songwriter, musician, and model whose music lies at the intersection

The Cinema of Extractions: Film Materials and Their Forms Brian Jacobson Columbia University Press February 2025 There is a scene in the first third of Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (2024), which sees László Tóth (Adrien Brody) shoveling coal after being fired from a remodeling project by an irate Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). Knowing

The term “New Wave” is open to many interpretations, but a simple description might be this: a more pop-oriented version of punk rock, with its anarchic edges smoothed and replaced by synthesizers and hooks. Musical artists of all stripes who weren’t quite raw enough to sound like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Ramones, or the

It is rumored that Marsha P. Johnson *threw the first brick at the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Although the historical accuracy of that claim remains debated, the symbolic weight of Johnson’s presence at Stonewall is undeniable. Yet Stonewall was only one chapter in a life defined by resistance. Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P.

Listening toExcess of Loss, the new album from Xol Meissner, one can’t help but be transported to a different time and place, where the haunting baritone vocals recall Scott Walker, Nick Cave, and Jacques Brel, and the instrumental accompaniment consists of a hammered lap steel. The combination invokes a dream-like state that is dark and

Their first record in more than two decades, More drops Pulp headfirst into 2025. They aren’t trying to sound young, but showcase their truth as they see it from an older, more refined point of view, much like John Lennon did on his 1980 comeback, Double Fantasy. However, much like the Lennon work, it’s hard

Drew Lustman may be electronic music’s most restless experimentalist. Since he first burst onto the scene with 2009’s Love Is a Liability in the first flush of the post-dubstep implosion, he’s worked in everything from big room house anthems to steely glam post-punk over the last 16 years. His restless, relentless innovation means there’s simply

In the March 1920 edition of The Catholic World, writer and journalist Fitz-James O’Brien was memorialised as “the Celtic Poe”, a phrase that combines a compliment with a category error. “Celtic” is a label for languages, mythologies, and revivals; it’s for peoples, not persons. Indeed, it is an aesthetic posture barely evident in the author’s

As I wrote in a blog, “Longing in music takes many forms, whether in the sharp whine of a pedal steel guitar, the weary cry of a muted trumpet, the pulsating digital beat of an 808 kit, the blending of human voices suggesting loss and grief—and most obviously, in lyrics.” Songs with questions, instructions, or

Kai Crowe-Getty used to rock out when he fronted the band Lord Nelson, but he’s more introspective on his solo debut album, The Wreckage. Oh, he still rocks out, just not as much, and he is far removed from being a sensitive singer-songwriter.His music more closely resembles that of Neil Young’s country rock period of

Jazz guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson has plied her trade in a variety of configurations: as a solo guitarist, with vocalists, string ensembles, quartets, you name it. However, she’s currently in the midst of what may be her most acclaimed and creatively fruitful period. As the leader of the jazz sextet Amaryllis, Halvorson released Amaryllis

There’s something incredible that happens when you listen to an ABBA song; you’d think, at some point, they’d run out of melodies to sing or emotions to detail, but it never seems to happen. The unparalleled heights of their discography (“Dancing Queen”, “Mamma Mia”) stand solid next to their little-known ones of emotional turmoil (“The

A Room With a Door That Closes Maiya Blaney Lex 13 June 2025 For artists, your room is everything. As Brian Wilson so poignantly puts it on the ethereal “In My Room”, “There’s a world where I can go and tell my secrets to / In my room / In this world I lock out

Canadian television has long wrestled with the paradox of national identity: Are we the friendly, quietly quirky neighbor to the north of America, or are we something stranger, rawer, and more fractured? Two of Canada’s most iconic rural comedies, Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys, seem to answer that question in opposing ways. Both shows,

While the African heavy metal scene may not be as developed as other regions, the underground movement has steadily gained traction in recent years, offering a unique and powerful countercultural voice that rejects mainstream norms. From the politically charged lyrics of Tunisian thrashers Znous to the atmospheric post-metal soundscapes of South Africa’s Chaos Doctrine, African

When Cruising was released in 1980, it was reviled. Protested by the gay community, dismissed by critics, and largely ignored by awards bodies, it was seen as exploitative and grotesque. Yet today it stands as one of William Friedkin’s most provocative and enduring works: a film whose ambiguity, physicality, and bold aesthetic choices mark it