The singer’s first posthumous album deserves to be remembered as the bravest of her career.
music criticism
Posted inFeature
40 Years Later: Sade, “Promise”
“Promise” isn’t necessarily about love, or even about surrender, but about giving your heart over, repeatedly, and enduring the failures that come with the exchange.
Posted inFeature
30 Years Later: Groove Theory, “Groove Theory”
“Groove Theory” tries to make the work of staying in love feel as easy as possible, even when it isn’t.
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20 Years Later: Little Brother, “The Minstrel Show”
Like minstrelsy, Little Brother’s album shows you one hand, convinces you of one thing, while something else works behind the scenes.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Jazz Off the Record
“In the late 1960s, the recording industry lost interest in America’s greatest art form. But in a small, dark club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, jazz legends were playing the best music you’ve never heard.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Feel-Ins, Know-Ins, Be-Ins
“A newly reissued recording proves that the late saxophonist Pharoah Sanders could get the grandest of effects from the humblest of riffs.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Confessions of a Conscious Rap Fan
Mychal Denzel Smith’s musical upbringing sounds a lot like mine: copious amounts of hip-hop that was deemed “underground,” “backpack,” or (perhaps most conspicuously brandished) “conscious.” Elitism disguised as authenticity. Yet, with the recent returns of Black Star and Kendrick Lamar, Smith found himself unmoved — and in this crystalline essay, he unpacks exactly why. The […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Lies Beneath Hip-Hop’s Swagger
Over the weekend, The New York Times Magazine published a twist on its annual “Songs That Matter” package: “Songs That Got Us Through It.” The newest is overall a remarkable project, stuffed with keen criticism. But Smith’s piece, which feels for the pulse of aggression in today’s and yesterday’s hip-hop, stands out — as bracing […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Story
What Happens If I Don’t Like Fiona Apple?
It seems like everyone in the world loves “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.” So why don’t I? On the isolation of disconnection.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
How Did the Blues Become the Blues?
In one simple sentence in 1914, Columbus Bragg, an African American writer, helped codify the Blues genre, though he’s largest forgotten.