The term “world music” has never been adequate to the task we’ve set it—even in its most benign reading, it implies a division between the listener and the rest of […]
Author Archives: Noah Berlatsky
Posted inMusic
Santigold is still headed toward a new world on Spirituals
When Santigold emerged in the late 2000s, her hip alterna-pop seemed to waltz out of left field, incorporating elements of every genre she could put her hands on: punk, hip-hop, […]
Posted inFilm
Look Both Ways
Wanuri Kahiu’s Look Both Ways in other contexts might simply be a fairly inoffensive feel-good romance riff. As it is, though, the film’s lack of courage is painful and unforgivable.
Posted inMusic
Kehlani sails into perfect sun-dappled R&B
Kehlani’s second album, 2020’s It Was Good Until It Wasn’t (Atlantic), features the brooding, moody, left-of-center R&B that’s become their signature. The singer’s new LP, Blue Water Road (released this […]
Posted inFilm
Bodies Bodies Bodies
I’m sure Bodies Bodies Bodies will have many enthusiastic fans. I’m just at the stage in life where I don’t take much pleasure in watching the kids hurt themselves.
Posted inMusic
Chicago singer-songwriter Claude makes dream pop for the youth, young and old
“I’m a twentysomething / Don’t you think it’s about time?” Chicago singer-songwriter Claudia Ferme, aka Claude, sighs on “Twenty Something,” which opens her debut full-length, A Lot’s Gonna Change (American […]
Posted inFilm
The much worse predator
It’s unlikely that someone’s going to see The Reef: Stalked and go out and murder a bunch of sharks. But the fact that we tend to see nature as victimizing us rather than the other way around does have an effect on the present and future of the planet.
Posted inFilm
DC League of Super-Pets
The smaller humans who saw the preview were delighted, and their parents didn’t seem to be suffering.
Posted inFilm
Odd Obsession has returned
If you want to see Crispin Glover’s Olivia Newton-John impersonation, head around the bunny-headed Jesus, past the John Wayne Gacy display, and watch your head down the stairs.
Posted inMusic
Bedroom-pop singer-songwriter Cuco keeps the good vibes flowing
California singer-songwriter Cuco (aka Omar Banos) makes distinctively woozy bedroom pop that mixes vocals in Spanish and English with laid-back beats, fuzzy guitar reverb, synth wash, 808s, and the occasional […]
Posted inMusic
DakhaBrakha create eclectic folk music for an antifascist Ukraine
It’s impossible to listen to DakhaBrakha right now outside a political context; they’re a Ukrainian folk band based in Kyiv. After Russia launched its full-scale war on their country in […]
Posted inFilm
The Black Phone
The effort is appreciated as far as it goes. But it doesn’t matter how enthusiastically you dial if you end up with a bore on the other end of the line.
Posted inFilm
Cinema Deathmatch: Round One explores moral-panic entertainment
Critics sometimes say that films like Running Man and Battle Royale implicate the viewer. When you watch them, you’re supposed to recognize the ickiness of your own enjoyment of uber-violence. But isn’t the ickiness also part of the enjoyment?
Posted inMusic
Rapper-producer Namir Blade rockets into an Afrofuturist haze
Nashville rapper, multi-instrumentalist, and part-time extraterrestrial Namir Blade follows in the space wake of his beloved Sun Ra less through style than through vibes. His new self-produced album, Metropolis (Mello […]
