Music Reviews

‘No Songs Tomorrow’ Compiles the Best of 1980s Darkwave

No Songs Tomorrow, a new compilation from Cherry Red Records, offers a new perspective on darkwave, coldwave, and other ethereal delights from the 1980s.

Gabriel Birnbaum’s New LP Is Filled with Deep Emotion

Phish Inspire Instrumentally, Falter Lyrically on ‘Evolve’

The Mysterines’ New LP Is Moodier, Darker, and Slower

Gracie Abrams and the Secret of Confessional Writing

All-Star Lineup Celebrates Linda Thompson at City Winery NYC

Cicadastone’s ‘Future Echoes’ Is Grunge’s Rip-Roaring Last Stand

MUNA’s New Live Album Is a Joyous Hometown Victory

Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion Reunite for Genre-Defying LP

Music Features

A Comeback Story for the Ages: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication at 25  

Red Hot Chili Peppers made an LP on their own terms with Californication. They silenced the doubters and launched the second act of their extraordinary career.

Summer 2024 European Music Festivals Light Up Major Cities

Phish Inspire Instrumentally, Falter Lyrically on ‘Evolve’

Upon the Edge of No Escape: Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ at 45

Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Opus Remains Powerful and Prescient

Gracie Abrams and the Secret of Confessional Writing

K-Pop Finally Has Its Meta-Moment with the Dynamic Art of ARTMS

Film

A Mind-Opening Preview of Fantasia Film Festival 2024

Our preview of Fantasia Festival 2024 highlights ten films that stimulate viewers’ emotional, cultural, and social intellect.

Godzilla the Union Buster

Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinematic Melodrama: ‘Victims of Sin’

Retro Monsters and Sexual Politics Dominate These Three Sci-Fi Movies

‘The Underground Railroad’ and Cinema’s Origins in White Supremacy

‘Bad Shabbos’ Revels in Its Black Comedic Soul 

Two Southern-Fried Slices of Sordid ’60s Hicksploitation Films

Books

The Art of Psychological Warfare

From marketing manipulation to all-out psychological warfare, Stories Are Weapons clarifies how our world – and worldview – is seldom our own.

Strolling Down the Beatles’ Penny Lane and Through Strawberry Fields

Aminder Dhaliwal’s Latest Shows That Our Culture of Work Is a Malice Burning Us Alive

2 Tone: Race, Music, and Pop Culture in Thatcher’s UK

Alice Munro’s Men

Television

‘The Underground Railroad’ and Cinema’s Origins in White Supremacy

In adapting the alternative history The Underground Railroad, Barry Jenkins and his crew made cinema – a medium with origins in white supremacy – work for them.

‘The Boys’ Season 4 Is a Bloody Descent into Hell

Crime Sells in TV: ‘The Responder’, ‘Shardlake’, and ‘Eric’

‘World of Giants’ Is Cold War Sci-Fi Espionage with a Small Difference

They Tenderly Scream “Camp” and We Lovingly Scream Back

Interviews

K-Pop Finally Has Its Meta-Moment with the Dynamic Art of ARTMS

The K-pop market is oversaturated, but ARTMS cut through the technicolor noise by remixing and defying lore conventions to create something drastically new.

Joan of Arc Are Resurrected at Last (Just Ask Tim Kinsella)

The Ophelias Want to Devastate You

Slum Village Boldly Take Hip-Hop to the Disco

“I Just Want to Hear Everything”: A Conversation with Paul Weller

Lists

Summer 2024 European Music Festivals Light Up Major Cities

Sure, Glastonbury and Rock Werchter dazzle with pastoral grandeur, but if you’re more of a city-dweller, check out the best European music festivals this summer.

MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of June 2024

The 50 Best Albums of 2024 So Far

25 of the Best Country Songs of the 1990s

MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of May 2024