Tag Archives: song-to-know

In the Trump era, the protest song can be properly angry — see Gary Clark Jr.’s “This Land.” But it can also be quiet and thoughtful, almost mournful, as if the onslaught of troubling news is simply too much to handle. Lana Del Rey’s breathy-folk response to mass shootings, “Looking …

Cousin Stizz‘s has a tendency to take the path of least resistance. Stylistically, that’s a strength. His blunt lyrics fit within a crisp, relaxed delivery, which ultimately settle into a straightforward flow. On his latest album, Trying To Find My Next Thrill, the equation works as the Boston rapper tries …

Miranda Lambert has scrubbed her life clean. “I have been spending time and I got married and I’m happy,” she recently told Rolling Stone Country. After taking an extended break from the studio, the singer has teamed up with left-field country producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Keith Urban) for her …

Revealing, complicated and contentious, musical influence is like a family tree. In the last 15 years, no musician’s roots have been dissected more than Kanye West’s. The production and lyrical sensibilities of A Tribe Called Quest and Ma$e birthed the young Chicago star and, in turn, West’s suburban anxieties and …

When Norwegian black-metal firebrands Immortal ousted their frontman, Abbath, four years ago and pledged to carry on singing their odes to the icy, imaginary realm of Blashyrkh with only their drummer and lyricist running things, it seemed like a joke. Then they released Northern Chaos Gods last year and the …

At some point, any person who has spent their teens as a professional performer starts to wonder if they wasted their good years. Often, that reflection comes later in life, when the world begins to slow down around them. For Zayn Malik, it seems to be happening at the age …

Since her 2010 debut, The Family Jewels, powerhouse Welsh singer Marina Diamandis, who records under the stage name Marina and the Diamonds, has been making smart eclectic pop music often coupled with a Hollywood-glam image that’s been compared to her friend Lana Del Rey. Marina and the Diamonds’ second album …

More than half a century has passed since Marianne Faithfull was pop music’s it girl, singing the Rolling Stones’ first original composition, “As Tears Go By,” in her light soprano. By the late Seventies, her voice deepened and she started singing anti-pop music: dusky odes to life’s dark side with …

Brooklyn band Charly Bliss made one of last year’s best debuts with Guppy, a landslide of squeaky hooks and manicured guitar fuzz. “Heaven” is their first new music since then, and like Guppy the new song invites alt-rock comparisons — in this case, Weezer’s power-chorded 3/4-time chug. But Charly Bliss …