Why David Bowie the unknowable endures
Though David Bowie died more than two years ago, his media franchise churns on, as vibrant as ever. Since his death, a half-dozen books have been published, from Dylan Jones’...
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MGMT returns to pop with new twists on ‘Little Dark Age’
MGMT’s “Little Dark Age” (Columbia) is being hyped as a “return to form,” but that’s misleading. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden never aimed to become pop stars, though for a...
Music community rallies for R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey after near-fatal stroke
When reached by phone in Portland, Scott McCaughey’s affable voice comes through in between deeper breaths than usual as he walks back from a coffee shop to his home. It’s...
Justin Timberlake fades in ho-hum Super Bowl halftime show
No Prince hologram, no 'N Sync reunion, and no wardrobe malfunctions. Compared to what might have been, Justin Timberlake's performance Sunday during the Super Bowl LII halftime was a ho-hum...
Justin Timberlake struggles with new direction in ‘Man of the Woods’
It was more than a decade ago when Justin Timberlake promised to bring “SexyBack” and demonstrated how a boy-band alum could morph into pop star 20-something maturity. But since then,...
Bruno Mars sidelines hip-hop with Grammy sweep
Bruno Mars crashed the expected hip-hop party Sunday and walked away with all the big Grammy Awards. Though the preponderance of hip-hop artists among the nominations announced several months ago...
Ty Segall gets a little carried away on ‘Freedom’s Goblin’
Ty Segall is only 30, but it feels like he’s already in the retrospective, revisiting-past-glories phase of his short but prolific career. In addition to dozens of side projects, singles...
First Aid Kit ‘divorce’ leads to renewed music
Klara and Johanna Soderberg of the Swedish duo First Aid Kit don't sugarcoat what went down between them after the release of their 2014 album, "Stay Gold." The album was...
Tune-Yards digs deeper but keeps dance beats flowing
On Tune-Yards’ latest album, “I Can Feel you Creep into my Private Life” (4AD), Merrill Garbus unflinchingly interrogates herself. As she pulls apart her contradictions and self-delusions, she calls upon...
Hinds want to prove that music for women ‘isn’t just a phase in their life’
Few songs are as universally loved, as giddily anthemic as Cyndi Lauper’s version of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” It’s a song that cuts across genre, gender and generational...