'Rock's Greatest Duo is Back with God Games

The first Black Pumas self-titled album was an instant favorite of mine. Every song on it was groovy and catchy, making me feel like driving a convertible away from an explosion while smoking a cigar.

“Everybody grieves different.” We can empathize, but not fully sympathize, with one’s loss. Javelin, however, allows us to do both.

There is no question that independent/local/regional bands are grinding out there and putting out better music than much of what’s heard on the air waves and satellite radio. One such band is Kansas City’s Various Blonde, who could and should be on the radio and on your playlist.

In a world where country music continually pedals the “pickup truck and tequila” narrative, Nashville songstress Margo Price dares to do things differently and unapologetically her way.

In this dissertation I will…just kidding. Kind of. Readers beware: if you’re looking for an unbiased review of boygenius’—the indie supergroup featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker—newest album The Record, this won’t be it.

M83”s ninth studio album, Fantasy, is a beautiful conundrum. The album is filled to the brim with rich, sweeping synths and deliberate, thought-provoking imagery.

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Pop’s most prolific princess returns with another sprawling collection of confessional songs ruminating on life, death, love and loss.

I have never had writer’s block quite like this when reviewing an album. I have spent weeks sitting on my thoughts, trying to marinate my mind with the record and its use of sound. It’s so familiar, until it isn’t.

Confession: I have not listened to a Paramore record before this one. Obviously, I’ve heard “Ain’t it Fun,” “Still Into You,” and “Misery Business” from the radio and various TikTok trends, but I can’t say I’ve sat down and listened to any of their five previous albums.

Think you’ve heard every iteration of the “pandemic album”? Think again. Electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso is back with No Rules Sandy, the follow-up to their 2020 album, Free Love.

It’s no secret that the aughts are back: the teens are reviving low-rise jeans, Crocs are no longer worn ironically, and the nostalgia around an age before the pervasiveness of social media has never been stronger. So how do you make music that encapsulates that feeling without being completely derivative? Enter Maggie Rogers’ newest album, Surrender.

Grab your sunglasses, pack your sunscreen, and make sure you’ve still got your summer weekends all freed up, because Two Door Cinema Club has done it again!

On the heels of Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights 20th anniversary comes the band’s seventh studio album, On the Other Side of Make-Believe. Ebbing the flow of any fanfare that will arise from celebrating TOTBL, one of the best indie/alt-rock album releases of the 2000s, Make-Believe has ushered in a new era of Interpol music.

King Princess makes her grand return with her long-awaited sophomore effort, Hold On Baby. Under her moniker, songwriter and producer Mikaela Straus has created some of her most earnest work yet.

From the outset, Arcade Fire’s latest album, WE, is about looking, reflection and perspective.

How do you reconcile newfound love and freedom with unimaginable loss? It’s a question most would struggle to answer, but one Angel Olsen—master of heartache and grief—tackles head-on in her new release, Big Time.

Rock’s witchiest star (okay, aside from Stevie Nicks) is back in a blaze of glory. Florence + the Machine’s Dance Fever is the long-awaited fifth studio album for the London-based band, helmed by coven leader Florence Welch.

It’s not often that an album you eagerly anticipate takes 10 years to be released (make it 11), but for St. Louis’s LucaBrasi, it’s understandable.

Muffled voices, birds chirping and slight strumming greet us in the intro of Kevin Morby’s latest album, and they guide us into the album’s namesake, This Is A Photograph.

Indie-rock darling Sharon Van Etten breaks new ground and gets deep in her latest full-length release, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong.

This album is a masterpiece, and I do not say that lightly. It is far and few between that an album is able to nuzzle itself inside your brain like It’s a Dream can.

Indie-rock outfit The Districts returns with their newest LP, Great American Painting, an exploration of the paradox of the modern American Dream.

Three decades into their career, Spoon continues to impress with their newest project, Lucifer on the Sofa.

Los Angeles-based, loud-and-proud rock duo Deap Vally returns with their sixth studio release, Marriage.

On their newest LP release, Brooklyn-based Big Thief delivers a sprawling display of the band’s talents, with each member bringing something new and unexpected to fans of their previous releases.