Archy Marshall is an agent of mystique and low profile in a media climate where that is hard to accomplish. Being a very enigmatic character, he has nearly as many stage monikers as projects released. These include Edgar the Beatmaker, Zoo Kid, his birth name (which he assumed to produce his 2015 visual album “A New Place 2 Drown”...
Kelela’s asymmetrically shaved head has become a marker for the singer. As of late, she has accented the end of her locks with diamonds, inducing regality and elegance, two descriptors which encapsulate her ambitiously graceful debut, “Take Me Apart.”
On the cover, a nude Kelela sits in repose, her petite face shrouded like a half moon by her long flowing...
Gwen Stefani has attempted to bring the Christmas feeling a little early with the release of her latest album, “You Make It Feel Like Christmas,” featuring her own takes on classic songs such as “Silent Night” and “Let it Snow,” alongside six new tracks.
Stefani opens up the album with a joyful rendition of “Jingle Bells,” which features her...
Emily Sprague is no stranger to pain. In early 2014, the singer-songwriter behind Florist — a “friendship project” composed of Sprague, Rick Spataro and Jonnie Baker — broke her neck and suffered arm damage in a hit-and-run accident. On their debut studio album two years later, “The Birds Outside Sang,” Florist is candid about this pain, but not without...
Empty vodka bottles, clothes on the floor and rearranged furniture leave traces of a party that poses the thought: What happened last night? Fumbling over the furniture and bottles as you trace through the remnants of the party recollecting not what transpired, but rather who were you last night. Lorde, in the sobriety of the morning after, echoes this...
Shakira’s eleventh LP, “El Dorado,” accomplishes a tough challenge for an artist of her stature. Being an international icon is a tough mountain to climb, with easy traps to fall into that can make records sound forced and awkward. Shakira, in an interview with Jon Pareles of the New York Times, explained her frustration after the lukewarm reception of...
Harry Styles released his first solo album since his days in One Direction. In an interview with The Sun, Styles claimed, “I wanted to put out a piece of me that I haven’t put out before.” And his self-titled album is surprising to hear because of the vulnerability and raw emotion embedded in his soft rock. Where ZAYN turned...
Since forming in 2012, Girlpool — Harmony Tividad, then 18, and Cleo Tucker, 17 — have adhered to the age-old maxim that honesty is the greatest policy. Vulnerability, not technical know-how, has always been their greatest asset. The Los Angeles duo’s debut album, 2015’s “Before the World Was Big,” showcases this exceedingly well in its plain-faced lyricism, be it...
In bridging his work as a solo artist and inviting a whole gaggle of friends, Spencer Radcliffe’s acute songwriting capabilities are broadened with “Enjoy the Great Outdoors” — a suitably titled 10-track record of indie rock tunes inundated with arcadian placidity. The “Chicago-by-way-of-Ohio” (according to Boston label Run for Cover Records) based singer-songwriter’s latest project renders a host of...
Every time a well-established band comes out with a new record, a wave of fans come out of their dark corridors and proclaim that the band have lost their way — that they don’t sound like their “old selves.” For Paramore, it’s difficult to sound like their old selves. In 2010, the band parted ways with brothers Josh and Zac Farro (the latter...