Music Features

Metal and classical music, two genres that thrive on grandiosity, virtuosity, and a certain kind of unabashed awesomeness, are a natural fit. Metallica’s S&M series proved that on a mass scale, but the styles are also meshing in the underground. You’ll rarely see the metal/classical affinity demonstrated so plainly as …

In the new book This Thing Called Life, journalist Neal Karlen tells the story not just of Prince‘s life, but of a rare, decades-long friendship between a writer and an iconic artist. Karlen knew Prince growing up in Minneapolis and was his only confidant in the press for more than …

Blue Hawaii capture the rapture and rhythm of Nineties vocal house on “Feelin,’” which appears on the duo’s recent EP Under 1 House. “Feelin’” opens with satisfyingly crunchy drum programming — there is enough thwack to demand your attention, and little clatters and clanks that make you want to listener …

As part of our newly updated survey of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, we’re publishing a series of pieces on the making of key albums from the list. Kendrick Lamar‘s To Pimp a Butterfly came in at number 19. The first time the Parliament-Funkadelic legend George Clinton heard …

A few weeks ago, the members of little-known band Butcher Brown got a life-changing opportunity. ESPN had decided that the previous theme for Monday Night Football —Hank Williams, Jr.’s “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” — felt off since virtually no fans, rowdy or otherwise, would attend football …

Don’t call it a comeback. LL Cool J‘s powerhouse fourth album, Mama Said Knock You Out, came out 30 years ago this week and its rhymes and production techniques still resonate today. At the time, the record was a response to critics and fans who thought he’d sold out or …

Christian Lee Hutson recorded so many versions of his new album, Beginners, that the day before it was finally released last month, the singer-songwriter joked with his friends about a dark possibility: “There’s still time to record it one more time.” Hutson, 29, first began work on his new plaintive …

“Girls, come on over,” Sadie Dupuis beckons in the opening lines of her new stay-at-home anthem, “Ghost (of a Good Time).” In the video, the poet and songwriter wears a witchy costume, surrounded by candles and ghosts. “I’m too loath to twist and shout/RSVP to be not going out,” she …

No artists are better equipped for our quarantine-induced digital dependency than the 1975. They were so prepared that they already had a song about “getting naked on FaceTime” — as singer Matty Healy put it — written and ready to go for their upcoming album, Notes on a Conditional Form. …

Sports are shut down, but there is still room for underdog stories: “She,” a single from the 52-year-old Stokley Williams, quietly leapfrogged two long-running hits, Chris Brown and Drake’s “No Guidance” and Wale and Jeremih’s “On Chill,” to reach Number One at R&B radio on Monday. “No Guidance” and “On …