Eric Mason
Carlisle is at his best when he juxtaposes traditionalism with contemporary sensibilities.
11mo
Mike Hadreas delivers tactile poetry and self-examinations, extracting catharsis from isolation.
1y
Like Preacher’s Daughter, Perverts is a moving character portrait. This time, though, Cain’s protagonist finds peace and quiet not in literal death, but in the death of love.
1y
The singer unravels her typically unbothered persona, expressing a newfound degree of doubt and romantic turmoil.
2y
Throughout What an Enormous Room, Scott ruminates on the joyous upheavals that come with marriage but also exhibits a freshly intensified fear of loss.
2y
While the lyrics offer a precious few glimmers of defiance, Hackman’s production choices, featuring mostly instruments played by the musician herself, have the verve to suggest not only an artistic resurgence, but a personal one.
2y
With Phone Orphans, Veirs exposes her creative process and, in doing so, maps out the rich topography of her psyche.
2y
Liza Anne’s Utopian is a riotously fun assertion of self-worth.
2y
With their third studio album, the artist expands, refines, and masters their creative vision.
2y
The singer’s ability to pack so many gut-punches and inspired ideas into half an hour remains uncannily impactful.
2y
Vocal hooks take a backseat to an impressionistic rendering of desire on Amber Bain’s latest.
2y
The album is the culmination of the French singer’s ambitious approach to pop conventions.
3y
Instead of foregrounding Clark’s knack for wordplay and humor, the album announces the singer as a virtuosa, engaging with country music’s well-worn tropes with both skill and refinement.
3y
The singer’s sixth studio album offers a widescreen perspective of humanity, optimism, and purpose.
3y
A sense of loss remains pervasive and all-encompassing on the trio’s third album.
3y
The lyrical clichés that occupy much of Endless Summer Vacation do little to scratch away at the album’s blithe veneer, though at the very least they deliver on its promise of fun.
3y
The album captures the visceral and tender dimensions of dance, pushing the boundaries of the musician’s artistry.
3y
Harding continues to exercise her versatility and restraint, delivering an album that invites close attention and rewards it with understated surprises.
4y
On Classic Objects, Jenny Hval steps outside of herself to consider her position as an object of capitalism and patriarchy.
4y
15 years into her illustrious career, Adele’s attention has shifted to her creative pursuits, and on 30, she displays the confidence to share her boldest vocal, stylistic, and thematic interests.
4y
Raise the Roof employs many of the same elements as the duo’s critically acclaimed 2007 album Raising Sand—blissful harmonies, gender-swapped covers of love songs, hazy folk atmospherics—but with an increased attention to the cultural history of the songs they’ve selected.
4y
Orla Gartland’s Woman on the Internet attempts to challenge social norms but gets mired in lyrical abstractions.
4y
From the start of their careers, Kings of Convenience have approached romance with suspicion. It was only natural, then, that the Norwegian folk-pop duo’s long-awaited fourth album, Peace or Love, would situate love as the antithesis to peace, as a force that works largely to bring trouble and pain.
4y
While Batmanglij has reduced the vast variety of sounds and distortion of his debut, the warmth of his vision remains.
5y
A self-proclaimed voyager, Birdy spends little time dwelling on the specifics of her heartbreak or fully mapping the album’s emotional landscape, instead embracing the bliss of escape.
5y
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