Being eliminated from the “Dream Academy” reality-TV series that produced Katseye might be the best thing that ever happened to 22-year-old Slovakian native Adéla Jergová: After a summer of lighting up festival stages from Lollapalooza to Reading, the arrival of “Prima” makes it more obvious than ever that a group couldn’t contain her. While her […]

Well, just how good can grief be? That’s a question raised by Sara Bareilles’ “Good Grief,” which, true to its promissory title, deals primarily with loss and death and the kind of tough stuff that folks in a marketing meeting might suggest slightly downplaying when one is releasing one’s first studio album in seven years. […]

If there’s anything Phoebe Bridgers knows how to do, it’s land a punch line. There are a lot of them in “Lost Weekend,” her first solo record in six years, and she doesn’t waste any time in getting to the first of the album’s many great jokes. Possibly the most quotable couplet comes right in […]

On the surface, Ariana Grande’s “Petal” is a sister album to its predecessor, 2024’s “Eternal Sunshine” — it was made with the same two collaborators, Ilya Salmanzadeh and Max Martin, and it also was entirely written, performed and produced by the three of them. Usually, that formula means a chapter two: more of the same but […]

“Stoner R&B” is not an insult: It’s the opposite, a loose term to describe a sprawling genre of music that includes everything from Dijon and Frank Ocean to Brent Faiyaz and Jhene Aiko. It’s R&B that has smoked a strong blunt, with languid grooves, heavy bass, psychedelicized production and an unhurried vocal approach. Unlike the […]

When an artist is as prolific — and as easily bored — as Charli xcx, “How much is too much?” becomes a significant question, and one she herself addressed in “The Moment,” the mock-umentary on her “Brat” era released earlier this year. That remarkably self-aware film, in which she plays a sort of parallel-universe version of […]

The first question most Jack White fans are looking to have answered to when it comes to his new album, “Frozen Charlotte”: Is it effectively a “No Name 2.0”? Nearly everyone is hoping for a “yes,” on that one. In his solo career, White spent a few years notably bouncing around, veering between acoustically oriented […]

Only a very few performers put out their debut album having already established themselves as frontrunners for the Grammy for best new artist. Sienna Spiro is in that category, and let’s just say that “The Visitor,” her first full-length release, does nothing to diminish her chances in the category. As the title hints, it’s an […]

“Sometimes I like to just hide in the shadows,” mutters Madonna at the start of “I Feel So Free,” the opening track on her 15th album “Confessions II.” “Create a new persona. A different identity. I can be whoever I want to be.” As hard as it may be to picture Madonna hiding in the […]

Dear 2026: You seem pretty rad, for a year so potentially in malaise. At least, that’s the way we feel every time we turn off the news and turn on the music that takes us away from all that. The best albums from the first half of 2026 didn’t always shut out the outside world […]