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With his dynamic voice more front and center than in the band’s work, Adebimpe guides listeners on a journey through his own team soho recent grief and heartbreak to find the possibility of a more knowing joy on the other side. But maybe the Maels are getting a bit sentimental in their old age. This time around, everything from getting stuck at a long red light to running up a hotel tab is fair game. Insidious, circular song structures that lodge themselves in your head? This sparkling follow-up to last year’s concept album Deira—named for the beachfront hotel on the Gaza Strip his father designed, an architectural gem reduced to rubble—zeroes in on the energies of romance and resistance that make Saint Levant one to watch.
Domino Kirke — The Most Familiar Star
“But sometimes there’s a power imbalance, especially if they’re 10 or 15 years older. “When you’re in your early 20s and forming your adult voice, it’s easier to have your hand held by someone instead of learning who you are,” she says. Indy also credits her New Zealand background for instilling traits which have proved beneficial in the cutthroat music industry, like talking to anyone and not taking herself too seriously. Having her guidance has helped me so much with remembering to protect my art and remembering it’s my art.” I’ve had to fight for a melody or guitar part to be a certain way. Having released three records, topped the charts and toured the world, Lorde, 28, has urged Indy to trust in her personality, experience and musical instincts.
How do you face the horrors of modern life? He honors Puerto Rican music from salsa (“Baile Inolvidable”) to jíbaro sounds from Borinkén’s mountains (“Café Con Ron,” which features a plena collective Los Pleneros de la Cresta) and the out-there reggaeton that made him (“EoO”). I had no take to rock.
If White Roses, My God—Alan Sparhawk’s first solo record following the passing of his wife and musical partner Mimi Parker—was an exorcism of sorts, this follow-up may be a truer expression of grief. But hey, at least there’s great music to get us through it all. We’re halfway through 2025, and it’s been…well, eventful, to put it politely.
William Tyler — Time Indefinite
It would be easy to draw real-life comparisons from that pivotal moment. ’” the 26-year-old New Zealand musician recalls, about her first acting gig. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to be Ariel. “I’m noticing everywhere, so many people, interviewers, journalists, critics, documentarians, people who are in very different positions, they grew up with us,” says Tommy.
- SPIN’s favorite albums of the year (so far) include new and seasoned artists from around the world, and cover multiple genres including hip-hop, jazz, indie rock, funk, and folk.
- I’ve had to fight for a melody or guitar part to be a certain way.
- Ethereal and earthy, constantly changing shape yet anchored in pop forms, it’s a lovely, lively, looser take on modern shoegaze.
- There has rarely been a point in time when individually or as a group, they haven’t had a lawsuit pending.
- While Isbell had been planning on making an acoustic solo album before he wrote the 11 tracks that comprise this album, these songs—particularly “Eileen,” “Gravel Weed,” and “True Believer”—are most likely not what he originally had in mind.
Rosalía Readies Massive ‘LUX’ Arena Tour
You’re sitting with your band. “Our band was on top of the fucking world,” says Sixx whose sarcasm is so sly, it slips right past me. “We stayed at the Red Lion Inn! It was such a cool time because it was just us and the fans, and that was special.” In the meantime, John pinch hits for them. They can’t hear anything if you don’t shout, a result of being insistent on no ear protection during their shows. In ripped jeans, black T-shirt, a grip of necklaces, bandana tied around his forehead and another hanging from his belt loop, Nikki Sixx looks primed also.
Whether or not you were a glam metal fan in the ‘80s, Mötley Crüe was an unmissable part of life, especially for Gen Xers. Culled from the band’s personal archives, fans will find everything from memorabilia and mementos to classic photos, flyers, postcards, ticket stubs and much more. New music from Mötley Crüe is unexpected and curiosity piquing. Recording with Mötley Crüe was the first time John 5 recorded, “live off the floor” in the studio he says. They are a part of my life,” he says. John 5, revered as a musician, generates nothing but good will, and always has.
Dramatic and cinematic, the album draws from the emotional sweep of musical theater yet leans into open-hearted storytelling without feeling overwrought. Luke Spiller cuts quite a figure as the Struts’ frontperson, but on his debut solo album, Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes and Wine, it’s clear the charismatic Spiller has been holding back—until now. But the album transcends the individual to become a sum of its parts that works, in the band’s own words, “Like Magick.” This isn’t a side project. Inspired by jazz titans Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, as well as writer/revolutionary Amiri Baraka, it’s an unruly, surprising, and exuberant mix of unfettered expression, mixing free jazz, fusion, hip-hop, and dub with shrewd abandon. Even when Knives serves up a festive Latin groove on “Sometimes, Papi Chulo” or ’80s funk on “Everyone I Love is Depressed,” Ennals’ verses are full of suicidal thoughts and gallows humor, doubling down on the visceral emotion and omnivorous musicality of 2022’s King Cobra. Polymath producer Infinity Knives occasionally calms things down with acoustic guitars or opera singers, but everything Ennals says on the Baltimore experimental hip-hop duo’s second album is grim, hilarious, or both.
The accomplished guitarist has stepped nimbly into the high-heeled boots of the group’s former guitarist, Mick Mars — albeit with platform crocs. And I want the listener to walk away from that thinking, like Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ said, ‘Scarred But Smarter.’ I want you to go forward into your life with the tools that you have gained from being harmed or being hurt or harming or hurting somebody else.” “‘True Believer,’ that would be a terribly sad song if there wasn’t any hope,” he says.” And there’s supposed to be this sort of determination. Tension alone doesn’t work in a narrative, nor does it work musically, he says. He tells me that in writing a song, one that tells a story with the goal of making the listener feel good, one they’ll come back to, you have to create tension and release. She also created the album’s cover art.
But dudes don’t have a monopoly on heartbreak, yearning, and hard times. As the title suggests, the album’s 10 songs are shaped by Spiller’s relationships. Had I been a fan of Arcade Fire, maybe this seventh album of theirs would have pissed me off, as it has for more than a few former lovers of Montreal’s formerly shiny indie rock royalty. “He looked at me and had a hard time speaking. And brought to life with guitars and violins, the toe-tapping tune is both heart-rending and empowering. You’ve got to let people learn the hard way.”
That idea seeps into every corner of his new album, Swimming, which he recorded at Sylvan Esso’s studio with a crew of North Carolina musicians. Dudes singing songs about heartbreak, misunderstood heroes in decidedly un-glamorous parts of the country, dreaming of something bigger and hitching their way there eventually. Cline’s fourth album for the storied Blue Note label showcases his command of jazz history, from hard bop to noirish ballads, but he still finds moments, on “Surplus” and “The Bag,” to stomp on a distortion pedal and let loose. Lately, Cline prefers larger combos where his guitar duels and harmonizes with horn players, and he shares the spotlight with German saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock to great effect on Consentrik Quartet. Avant guitar genius Nels Cline has always been a generous ensemble player in bands like Wilco and the Geraldine Fibbers, but as a bandleader he’s often explored his instrument freely and noisily with just a bassist and drummer. Ethereal and earthy, constantly changing shape yet anchored in pop forms, it’s a lovely, lively, looser take on modern shoegaze.
Brian Ennals declares “Netanyahu is the new Hitler” in the first 30 seconds of A City Drowned in God’s Black Tears, and continues to have absolutely no chill for the next nine songs. While the album has a vicious bite with its bleak reflections on modern life, it isn’t all vitriol. While rehabbing a concert-related injury, the group’s dynamic and magnetic frontperson Shirley Manson recalibrated, channeling emotions and observations into the music her bandmates sent her. Garbage’s latest album, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, is a visceral release of anger and frustration, but also love and gratitude. FKA Twigs has been healing, moving from wrenching honesty toward songs about joyous dancefloor revelations.
