Music Features

Yemi Alade had a cold. Last month, the Nigerian star, who recently passed the one-million-subscribers mark on YouTube, flew to Los Angeles to work on a project by Beyoncé. But when Alade landed, she discovered she no longer had a singing voice. “I couldn’t understand what had happened to me,” …

If you’re in need for a smooth summer soundtrack, Yoshi Flower’s hazy and tender Peer Pleasure is the perfect album for just that. The song “Coffee” is the most pop selection from the eclectic collection, offering a subtle jolt of musical caffeination without losing its smooth sensibility. On the track, the singer …

5 Seconds of Summer have gone on quite the musical journey in the last five years. The Australian pop band were initially primed to be the successors to One Direction’s boy-band throne, but soon, their pop-punk taste took over, and the group received co-signs from (and co-writes with) such luminaries …

The rascally charm of nomadic country-blues singer Boo Ray is on full display in the rollicking “20 Questions,” the standout track off his latest album Tennessee Alabama Fireworks. A strutting blast of Muscle Shoals R&B, the song teems with bright horns and slinky organ, as Boo Ray tries in vain …

Singer-songwriter Lizzie No first introduced herself as a sharp self-examiner on her folksy 2017 debut, Hard Won. The swooning lullaby that served as that album’s title track was about the inglorious labor of working on yourself, a bittersweet celebration of finally feeling at peace with oneself after years of trying. On …

Mac DeMarco is hanging out at home in Los Angeles, playing video games on the couch, when he picks up the phone. “I don’t really know what’s going on, but let’s rock and roll!” he says. This might be the most Mac DeMarco way possible to begin a conversation. His …

Even with pop acts straddling ever so many styles, sometimes within the course of one song, it’s easy to imagine the iTunes “genre” column drawing a blank over 24-7 Spyz’s “Home.” The track opens with gently played guitar notes, which abruptly stop before being overtaken by pummeling, metal-dungeon drums and …

“Back then, I just wanted to write songs I could be proud of and be able to play in five years,” Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong told Rolling Stone in 2014 of his mindset two decades prior. He would of course achieve that and a whole lot more. In 1994, …

Late last month, with little notice, three Beach Boys compilations appeared on Spotify and other streaming platforms:Wake the World: The Friends Sessions; I Can Hear Music: The 20/20 Sessions;andOn Tour: 1968 (Live). Almost none of the recordings had been previously released. They include originals and covers, captured in live soundchecks, …

It’s easy to be cynical about the city you’ve grown up in changing all around you, or to look with pure disdain at the rapid changes to a place you love. On the fuzzy, emotionally wrought “Seventeen,” Sharon Van Etten looks at the New York City of her past and …