Music Reviews

Haunted Horses’ ‘Dweller’ Is an Intriguing Heavy Album

Haunted Horses get further under your skin, infecting and infesting you with their bleary, spectral plague of madness and maybe a slight spark of hope.

Flora Hibberd’s ‘Swirl’ Is a Stunning Debut

Illiterate Light Lack Authenticity on ‘Arches’

Pillar of Light Search for Answers in the Darkness

Samantha Fish Fires Up the Fillmore on a Magical Night

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp Create Eclectic Art Pop

Death Sneeze Embrace Avant-Garde Punk and Much More

Ethel Cain’s ‘Perverts’ Is Extremely Terrifying and Haunting

Sun Ra’s Astonishing 1970s Gig Finds Him in Full Flight

Best New Songs

Music Features

Lambrini Girls’ “God’s Country” Rejects PJ Harvey’s Melancholic England

Unlike PJ Harvey’s sad voice singing about the polluted Thames and England, for the Lambrini Girls, there is no mythic past when these symbols were great.

Poster Children Discuss 1995’s Brilliant LP ‘Junior Citizen’ at 30

Trumpism and Contemporary Christian Music’s Civil War

15 Awe-inspiring Rock Guitar Solos You Might Not Know

Hüsker Dü’s ‘New Day Rising’ Still Sparkles at 40

The 30 Best Polish Albums of 2024

5 Great Books That Reinvent Music Criticism

Film

It Ain’t Easy Being Green in Wicked’s Hollywood

In Wicked: Part 1, “normal” citizens come in all skin colors – except green. It ain’t easy being green in Wicked’s (or America’s) Hollywood.

MoMA’s Film Restoration Fest To Serve and Project Eyes Bad Behavior

International Film Buffs Should Pounce on MoMA’s To Save and Project Festival

Alfred Hitchcock At the Peak of His Skill

The Best Film of 2024

The 30 Best DVDs of 2024

London Film Festival 2024 Brings Mindfulness Amidst a Bustling Metropolis

Television

What If Donald Trump’s Cabinet Picks Really Were Looney Tunes?

Many of Donald Trump’s 2025 cabinet picks came from Fox News. Would the nation be better served if he binged Looney Tunes instead?

‘Slow Horses: Season Four’ Subverts the Spy Genre

When the 1950s Met the 1960s via LSD TV

Rom-Communism: ‘Ted Lasso’ and the Future of the Romantic Comedy

The10 Best Episodes of ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?’

Books

Laila Lalami’s ‘The Dream Hotel’ Questions Our Concept of Freedom

Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel asks how much freedom Americans are willing to sacrifice to feel safe. What if that includes losing their right to privacy?

Home and Away with Audio Author Adam Gnade

5 Great Books That Reinvent Music Criticism

The Best Books of 2024

The Vices and Virtues of Ignorance in These Times

Games

The 24 Best Video Games of 2024

PopMatters’ 24 Best Video Games of 2024 highlight achievements in game design and the risks creators take to lure gamers into the magic circle.

Phoenix Springs’ Journey to Nowhere Is Worth It

‘Silent Hill 2 Remake’ Is a Dark Gem in the Horror Game Renaissance

Neva’s Emotion-Engine Gameplay Is a Beautiful Crowd-Pleaser

Video Games Set in the 19th Century and Their Literary Allusions

Lists

15 Awe-inspiring Rock Guitar Solos You Might Not Know

Guitar solos are an intrinsic highlight of rock history. Here we turn over some stones to discover 15 performances lacking the plaudits they deserve.

The 30 Best Polish Albums of 2024

What If Donald Trump’s Cabinet Picks Really Were Looney Tunes?

5 Great Books That Reinvent Music Criticism

The 80 Best Albums of 2024

Interviews

Poster Children Discuss 1995’s Brilliant LP ‘Junior Citizen’ at 30

Poster Children‘s Junior Citizen remains a refreshing, barely-polished masterpiece, like garish, late-night anime on steroids. The group discuss the album.

Home and Away with Audio Author Adam Gnade

Alice Ivy’s New Music Is Gorgeous with Organic Sounds

Heather Maloney Honors Her Late Father With Divine ‘Exploding Star’

Warhaus Is the Music of Maarten Devoldere’s Subconscious

PopMatters Picks

Haunted Horses’ ‘Dweller’ Is an Intriguing Heavy Album

Haunted Horses get further under your skin, infecting and infesting you with their bleary, spectral plague of madness and maybe a slight spark of hope.

Flora Hibberd’s ‘Swirl’ Is a Stunning Debut

Pillar of Light Search for Answers in the Darkness

Sun Ra’s Astonishing 1970s Gig Finds Him in Full Flight

Will Mason Quartet’s Glorious Celebration of Microtonal Chamber Jazz