Chan Marshall, who’s performed as Cat Power since the mid-90s (she adopted it from the name of her first band), refreshes even the most weathered motifs with her smokestack voice. While she’s amassed a formidable catalog of soulful originals, she’s most renowned for refracting other artists’ radio hits and obscure B sides through her singular […]
Tag: Frank Ocean
Posted inMusic
Multifaceted Chicago musician Thomas DaVinci makes his case for greatness on Home Grown
Chicago singer, producer, and rapper Thomas DaVinci is a chameleon, able to adapt his supple voice and fluid flow to any instrumental track. On his album Home Grown, which he self-released in May, he applies his versatility to a broad swath of stylish sounds, including a few that wouldn’t quite fit together without him. Granted, […]
Posted inMusic
Philadelphia indie rocker (Sandy) Alex G closes a prolific decade with the stunning House of Sugar
Philadelphia indie-rock alchemist Alexander Giannascoli understands better than most musicians who’ve emerged in the past decade how to convey the slipperiness and complexity of emotion in song. The 27-year-old kicked off his career in the early 2010s with a streak of albums he self-released or put out through small cassette labels, and they all wound […]
Posted inMusic
Johari Noelle packs years of soul into her first five songs
Chicago native Johari Noelle has shaped her polished debut EP with years of choir and theater, half a season on reality TV, and nearly 18 months in the studio.
Posted inBlogs
Toronto’s rave ban, Mexico’s surf scene, Juliana Hatfield on Lorde, and more: music reading from around the Web
The Reader cherry-picks some favorite music stories from the past week of the Internet.
Posted inBlogs
Frank Ocean pleads for a lover to stick around on Blonde standout track “Self Control”
R&B singer Frank Ocean has returned after a four-year absence, but one of his best new songs concerns a lover on the cusp of disappearing from his life.
Posted inBlogs
Chance the Rapper will release a new album, Surf, with the Social Experiment by the end of the year
Chance the Rapper has announced that he’ll release a new, free album with his band the Social Experiment by the end of 2014.
Posted inMusic
Unlicensed to ill
Bootleg rap and R&B vinyl is thriving, even though most of the music is easy to buy or free to download.
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Earl Sweatshirt’s humane, heartbreaking Doris and 14 more record reviews
Earl Sweatshirt’s humane, heartbreaking Doris and 14 more record reviews
Posted inBlogs
The unstoppable Pharrell Williams
The brilliant one-trick pony superproducer is back on top.
Posted inMusic
Tim’m West and the masculine mystique
Tim’m West has shown that there’s more than one way to be a black gay man.
Posted inBlogs
My favorite albums of 2012, numbers ten through one
The final installment of 40 favorite albums of 2012 countdown
Posted inBlogs
Outkast isn’t reuniting—deal with it
What the Outkast member’s Frank Ocean remix and the response to it says about our growing desire to see our wildest musical dreams come true
Posted inBlogs
Frank Ocean and pop music’s online identity in 2012
Frank Ocean leads the charge in making the Internet and pop music safer for sincerity
Posted inBlogs
My Best of 2012 Spotify playlist—five hours of the year’s most pleasure-inducing music
Where else can you hear ZZ Top’s “I Gotsta Get Paid” and E-40’s “I’m Laced” in the same place?