Megan Thee Stallion onstage in June at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, a stop on her Hot Girl Summer Tour. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Live Nation hide caption
Music Reviews Music reviews of new albums in pop, rock, folk, jazz, blues, classical, world, and hip-hop.
Music Reviews
Megan Thee Stallion performs during the 2022 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival. Rich Fury/Getty Images hide caption
The regional Mexican artist's new album, Éxodo, pushes his sound further. Arenovski hide caption
Don Toliver, a Travis Scott signee who quickly defined his own lane, takes his half-sung raps to colorful new realms on HARDSTONE PSYCHO. Jack Dalton/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Kendrick Lamar performs during "The Pop Out — Ken & Friends," his June 19 concert event at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Timothy Norris/Getty Images for pgLang, Amazon/Getty Images North America hide caption
For most of the film, hampton is a grinning, tomboy femme fly on the wall. She’s much more in documentarian mode than interviewer. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
On Santa Cruz, the third in Pedro the Lion's planned five-part album series, David Bazan continues to understand himself and the world that made him. Ryan Russell/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Ayra Starr's second album, The Year I Turned 21, is a global-minded symphony of influences, and part of a recent wave of young women charting their own course for African pop. Mikey Oshai/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Vince Staples' latest album, Dark Times, represents a new direction in an already singular major-label rap career. Shaniqwa Jarvis/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Rapsody's album Please Don't Cry functions as a reintroduction to the rapper — long defined by her technique, now revealing some of the real person behind that prowess. Jhalin Knowles/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
The retro-pop artist Cindy Lee doesn't sit for interviews, use social media and rejects the streaming era's demands on independent artists. Photo by Meaghan Garvey/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption
On Lives Outgrown, her first solo album, Beth Gibbons has never appeared so unguarded, so free of mystery's shroud. Eva Vermandel/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Gunna performs during the event "A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" on Nov. 8, 2023, at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, Calif. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy hide caption
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov fled his hometown of Kyiv for Berlin in early 2022. Dmitri Matveyev/Naxos hide caption
Radical Optimism is the latest album from Dua Lipa. Tyrone Lebon/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Dua Lipa's 'Radical Optimism' is loaded with hyper-catchy bangers
Mystery manifests on Pratt's albums as the texture of dreams. But Here in the Pitch, her best album, feels completely lucid. Samuel Hess hide caption
On G Perico's new album, G Slim's Revenge, a certain rap archetype that has faded since its '90s ubiquity appears to be alive and well. Estevan Oriol/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
The Tortured Poets Department is the latest album from Taylor Swift. Beth Garrabrant/Republic Records hide caption
On Taylor Swift's 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, her artistry is tangled up in the details of her private life and her deployment of celebrity. But Swift's lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself is audible throughout the album. Beth Garrabrant/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Metro Boomin and Future perform during 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. The producer and rapper have linked for two sprawling new albums this year, released weeks apart. Theo Wargo/Getty Images for MTV hide caption
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter has ignited discourse about the place of Black musicians in country music. But it's also evidence of its creator's desire to break genre walls by following her most eccentric impulses. Mason Poole/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
