Pop Culture

Cinema has often romanticised or dramatised vengeance, playing down the old adage, “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” This sentiment warns that vengeance only leads to one’s own ruin. In Suzanne Andrews Correa’s The Huntress (La Cazadora), inspired by true events, Luz, played by Adriana Paz, is severely emotionally and

To Whom This May Concern Jill Scott Human Re Sources / The Orchard 13 February 2026 When Jill Scott came to London to perform in the late 2000s, I convinced my father to come along by noting Scott’s musical namesake, the 1970s jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron. I was treading hallowed ground by invoking an artist

The music that Bern-based outfit Da Cruz has been making for the last couple of decades or so has always been rooted in the upbringing of frontwoman Mariana Da Cruz. Born near São Paulo, Mariana leads the group–producer Ane H., guitarist Oliver Husmann, and percussionist Pit Lee–in performances that draw on Brazilian styles with African

A well-known idiom says, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” The habitual tendency for horror movies to disappoint, stoking strong feelings of frustration and despair, creates the illusion of a third certainty. This is not unique to horror in general, but the genre is as specific as

The new album from young jazz vibraphone star Joel Ross is called Gospel Music. For most of its two-LP running time, however, it is not an exploration of “gospel music”. Ross grew up playing that style in a Black church in Chicago, but we know him as a premier contemporary jazz improviser with a taste

They Started As One (Kind of) Band Brace yourself if you do a web search for the Depraved. Search results weren’t an issue in the mid-1980s, when this hardcore punk band were rocking the town of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. Now, even if you add “punk” to your terms, DuckDuckGo (not the information-eating maw of

Bill Callahan is an alternative country and indie rock institution, so it is difficult to think about a time when he will no longer be around. However, Callahan‘s legacy is clearly at the forefront of his mind with his newly announced record, My Days of 58, out 27 February 2026 on Drag City In that

Thanks to its political connotations, the phrase “No Labels” has become a nasty word. However, Nashville by way of Boston guitar rockers Twen have embraced it for entirely different reasons; they have no record label, and don’t want one. “Twen” was a German youth magazine from the 1960s. There is indeed plenty of 1960s influence

Emmylou Harris’s catalog is eclectic, but some releases stand out for showcasing her unusual approach to reinvention. Her 1998 live album, Spyboy, is one of them. In 1995, Harris, a foundational figurehead in contemporary Americana and country, released Wrecking Ball. Her collaboration with producer Daniel Lanois, known for work with U2 and Bob Dylan, helped

Returning to Myself Brandi Carlile Interscope / Lost Highway 24 October 2025 Of course, Brandi Carlile needs to get back to herself. She’s been busy since her last solo album, 2021’s masterpiece In These Silent Days. Carlile has produced albums, hosted festivals, helped revitalize Joni Mitchell’s career, collaborated with Elton John, and more. In her

Mercy Armand Hammer and the Alchemist Backwoodz Studioz 7 November 2025 At a recent show near Detroit, touring to support his masterful GOLLIWOG, Billy Woods commanded the dark stage, shrouded in mystery. His presence on stage is so hypnotic that I found myself not so much nodding along as staring in awe. He and the

While many often reduce the whole of French cinema between 1959 and 1968 down to the machinations of the Nouvelle Vague, it’s a mistake to overlook the many filmmakers who weren’t hip to that movement, including Robert Hossein. The actor-turned-director is the subject of a wonderful new box set from Radiance, Wicked Games: Three Films

It’s been a while since K-pop fans have been “accusing” K-pop of becoming too “Westernized”, stagnant, or bland. Many fans blame BTS for this: ever since their The Most Beautiful Moment in Life era, the group had already begun drifting away from K-pop‘s ornamental maximalism toward a more introspective, narrative-driven pop — something that felt

The multi-disciplinary artist Oliver Ray—writer, poet, and singer-songwriter—has an edifying Substack page called Rimbaud’s Lost Papers, where his posts range from Achilles to the American abstract painter Mark Rothko to French theorist René Girard, showcasing his kaleidoscopic and esoteric mind. From 1995 to 2005, Ray was a member of Patti Smith’s band, during which he

Ratboys have spent more than a decade growing from a dorm-room songwriting duo into one of indie rock’s most consistently compelling bands. Formed in 2010 by Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan while the pair were students at the University of Notre Dame, the project has steadily expanded in both membership and ambition, eventually settling into

Kula Shaker formed in the 1990s and came to prominence during the Britpop era. The group’s debut K was released to the music-buying public in 1996, followed by Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts. Fronted by guitarist/frontman Crispian Mills, Kula Shaker similarly comprised Paul Winter-Hart and Alonso Bevan on rhythm, not forgetting keyboardist Jay Darlington, who toured

The Olympians released their eponymous debut record about ten years ago. Helmed by Toby Panzer, the instrumental album performed by an ensemble comprised of Daptone Records all-stars, combined funk rhythms and horns with Greco-Roman mythology. Songs about the Gods and their emotional journeys (“Apollo’s Mood”, “Diana By My Side”, Sagittarius by Moonlight”, “Pluto’s Lament”) were

January tends to be a slow time for new releases, as no one wants to be forgotten by the time the Best Albums of the Year lists start rolling out in December. Luckily, electronic artists don’t sleep, nor do many lose much sleep over awards shows and golden statues. January 2026 has been no exception,

Thirst, Slow Crush’s first album in four years, is a collection of ten tracks that draws heavily on shoegaze’s “wall of guitars and constant noise” aesthetic. There are also elements of rock and doom metal, shoegaze’s slower, heavier cousin. Bassist and frontwoman Isa Holliday’s vocals drift through the band’s crashing sound, giving the songs an

Dick Clark sits there on the set of American Bandstand looking as smooth as ever, his neat tie and slim pocket square just visible from the breast pocket of his well-tailored suit. His hair neatly combed and slick, he presents just a slightly older version of the teenagers that surround him. “Teenagers” – even the

When I say that Syd dePalma’s new album, Paris, is dreamlike, I mean it literally. Echoes abound, sculpting recognizable rock, folk, and pop stylings into imaginative new shapes. As he plays with light and shadow, the borders between fantasy and reality blur. The familiar soars. An eerie melancholy fills even the most straightforward of dePalma’s

3 April 1961 must have been a quietly epic day at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. That was the day folk blues singer/guitarist Furry Lewis recorded material for two albums—Back on My Feet AgainandDone Changed My Mind. Back on My Feet Again, recorded by Scott Moore (the guitarist on Elvis Presley‘s Sun Records), has now

In the liner notes of his new album Manifeste, pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan writes, among other things, that his role as an artist is to facilitate catharsis. This idea goes back to Aristotle and has been explored by countless artists and philosophers across countless media since. Even so, I am sure I have never

Pop-punk fans are notoriously fickle. They are often unwilling to embrace bands who evolve their sound as they mature as artists and people, dismissing later records with the dreaded, immature, “Their first one is the best one” designation. With at least one stone-cold classic in their discography, 2014’s Never Hungover Again, Joyce Manor are experts

On a hot afternoon in August 1982, Blondie stepped onstage at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia to play a snappy set, heavy on the hits but with room for a few deep cuts and a Rolling Stones cover. Their performance was about an hour long, smack dab in the middle of a summer festival that also

Liverpool has produced many great bands, but for Cast, there is only one worth listening to. There’s no greater testament than the title of their latest record, Yeah Yeah Yeah. “Don’t Look Away” is punctuated by John Lennon-esque sneers, particularly during the chorus. To call the comparison derivative and clinical is too simplistic; compared to

Criterion’s sets ofMartin Scorsese’s World Cinema Projectwere something I looked forward to since the project began. These boxes collect restorations of classic films from byways of world cinema, largely untraveled and unknown even to those of us who seek out “foreign films” made far from Hollywood. In countries that tend to dominate the narrative of

Lucinda Williams has always sung with a leathery ache in her throat. Even when proclaiming the wonders and beauty of the sweet old world in which we live to a suicidal protagonist, there was pain in her voice. Of course, that’s part of being a blues singer. Williams may rock, but she’s always been bluesy

When you have an established sound and a devoted, ever-growing fan base like Joyce Manor, the thrill of creating is finding the sweet spot between avoiding repetition and staying true to the sound that endeared them to fans who revere records like 2014’s Never Hungover Again, now considered a classic of the genre. Surprisingly, that

North Carolina Americana fraternalists the Avett Brothers have pooled their powers with Mike Patton (yes, that Mike Patton), the avant-metal contortionist, on a stripped-down, barstool-weepin’ roots LP that’s not as conceptually unhinged as the premise suggests. The secret history here is that the adolescent Avetts were way more likely to have Helmet‘s Betty rattling in