Dark ambient artist Tor Lundvall is releasing his new album of early, surprising, and downright joyous pop-oriented material today and so he gives us a scintillating tour through the albums that shaped him.
For Ribbons, Bibio continues to move away from his defining folktronica sounds and to something increasingly pastoral, revealing to PopMatters what song made him feel palpable heartbreak, why he rarely performs live, and why his new album samples actual cow moos.
Music fans were fooled by "Lovefool", and a newly-minted vinyl pressing of the Cardigans "hit" album showed that these Swedish pop-rock one-offs had oh so much more to offer the world.
Beloved London collective Ibibio Sound Machine merges African pop styles with sleek synth aesthetics and they are back with a new album and plenty of opinions on Brexit, Bob Marley, and (of course) Thor.
Methyl Ethel's Jake Webb looked inward, writing, producing, and performing his third album as Methyl Ethel all on his own. To celebrate, he counts down his "Five Great Palette Cleansing Albums for the Sedentary Listener".
Juliana Hatfield nods her idols on her new album Weird, and celebrates by listing her "Top Five Albums That Were Spun the Most on the Record Player of My Pre-Pubescence".
Leon Vynehall crafts a crate-digging set which, while not always satisfying, at least remains one of the bolder entries in the long-running DK-Kicks series.
Betty Who's heart is always in the right place, and with her newfound artistic freedom, she's is crafting the kind of pop music that she wants to make.
No award show will ever be truly perfect, but one can still admire how the Grammys overcame some pre-show controversy to deliver one of the most feminist, fearless, and downright entertaining broadcasts in its history.
Juno-winning Canadian songwriter Dan Mangan's love of his influences and peers has lead him to craft something quite joyous: his list of Five Great Albums From Now-Defunct Bands.
In a year when we wanted the radio star to have an opinion on the political divide, leave it to these ten exemplary pop records to slip in -- largely unnoticed -- and leave a lasting legacy all their own.
A great ambient album can provide a space to step into, or make the trees on your morning walk seem a little taller and the light a little more vivid or the world seem a little more like a dream.
