For most of the '00s, Panda Bear helped define the sound of youthful, ramshackle indie rock. On Noah Lennox's eighth album, Sinister Grift, the artist focuses on the shifting relationships and faltering memories of midlife, with a fleshed out band behind him.
Kendrick Lamar won his rap war with Drake last year by just about any measure, but this week, Drake got a small measure of revenge when his new album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, knocks Lamar out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts.
This year's race — which includes beloved stars, up-and-coming talents and a pair of songs from a successful but controversial musical — feels wide open. That doesn't mean all the songs are equally worthy.
On the rebound from a public defeat, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U reverts to the sound of Drake's early years, charting a tentative course back toward the rap throne.
Last week, the hottest ticket in NYC wasn't the SNL 50th anniversary concert. It was the three nights Paul McCartney played at a tiny downtown venue that usually hosts up-and-coming indie rock bands.
Horsegirl's sophomore album Phonetics On & On is a compulsively replayable record full of arrestingly catchy, bare-bones songwriting and twee treasures.
As a kid, Grande loved singing karaoke with her family. "I looked up to Whitney and Mariah and Celine endlessly," she says. "I think that's a large part of the reason why I learned to sing."
Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar won the night's biggest awards, but the real takeaway from the Grammys is that a wave of younger stars has arrived on the pop scene, fully prepared to own the spotlight.
At Sunday night's Grammys, will Beyoncé finally win album of the year? Will Taylor Swift take that prize for the fifth time? Or will a new generation of pop stars claim the moment?
From Twin Peaks to his films to his own recording career, the director understood how much sound mattered — not only to the audience, but to the characters in his stories.
