Laura Snapes
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Katie Crutchfield's gorgeous sixth album affirms that real lives are lived not in clear chapters, but as a zig-zag of pitfalls and revelations one can only hope to learn from.
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The pop singer has superstar ambition and a knack for clever genre collisions. But while her new album sometimes matches intensity with innovation, it more often grinds her nuanced story to a paste.
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Written after her divorce from her longtime producer, Veirs' new album vibrates with a sense of potential, balancing the weight of experience with the rewards of staying attuned to wonder.
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As a kid discovering music, you assemble a hodgepodge of other people's opinions. But there's a lot of joy to be found when the urge to agree with the critics melts away, writes critic Laura Snapes.
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Ever since Boxer, the band's pledged to release a record channeling the cataclysmic energy of its concerts. With the first single from Sleep Well Beast, it's finally come through.
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In the lead single from her new, self-titled album, the folk singer addresses another person while turning inward. "If I had my way, every song would eventually lead to empathy," she says.
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For the singer, introspection became a lens that nearly ended his career. Focusing on the lives of others changed that. "In a world of mouths," Lekman sings on his new album, "I want to be an ear."
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The Melbourne artist's Susan persona, whom she calls "a manifestation of social media metadata," gets a taste of freedom in a Butoh-inspired video.
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After more than a decade on the road, the prolific punk singer (of Swearin' and p.s. eliot fame) releases her solo debut in a bold attempt to unhitch love from nostalgia.
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Fussell's cover of the Jimmy Lee Williams song marks a move into more existential territory: The maturing artist is now less a force of nature than someone keen to sync with its rhythms.