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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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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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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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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Earlier this month, musicians — invited by Bon Iver and The National — gathered at a former East German radio facility for an unconventional festival that pieced its story together as it went along.
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"It can be really tough to be bold," says the Norwegian art-pop singer of her approach to performance. On her sixth album, Blood Bitch, she aims to balance provocation and complexity.
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On the 20th anniversary of the release of "Wannabe," the single that launched the girl power juggernaut on the world, the writer Laura Snapes recalls her pre-teen obsession with the Spice Girls.
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These 11 tracks creep up on you, as Mitski Miyawaki's coiled melodies suddenly explode into cavernous freak-outs or build to a crescendo of unbearable catharsis.