2025 Marks Pop Music’s Gilded Age
Embracing craft alongside vulnerability in the 2020s, pop music reaches the apex of its powers in 2025 by reveling in its own glamorous facade.
Music
Features, reviews, interviews, and lists about music, covering the latest as well historical topics.
Bob Weir Rides Into the Sunset for the Last Time
The Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir’s passing away at age 78 is a significant loss for the music world, but his immense legacy will live on.
Leisure Process Deliver Treasure From the Vaults
Skittering post-disco rhythms, slap-bass riffs, synth-lines, the ebbs and flows of sax, and declamatory soaring vocals make up the sound of post-punk’s Leisure Process.
Julian Lage Teams with John Medeski for Impeccable LP
John Medeski colors each Julian Lage composition to perfection. For all its ease of listening, this album isn’t comfort food as much as a really balanced meal.
Sammy Brue Finds Inspiration in Earle’s Journals
The Journals is a testament to the lovely friendship of Justin Townes Earle and Sammy Brue, initiated and fostered by the music they both loved.
Kula Shaker Rally the Poets of Light on ‘Wormslayer’
Kula Shaker’s Wormslayer is for the seeker, the adventurer, and the soul who longs for liberty—all while soundtracking their journey to an epic musical mirror.
M(h)aol’s ‘Something Soft’ Is a Post-#MeToo Gut-Punch
M(h)aol’s Something Soft is a powerful feminist punk album. It highlights the stakes of inhabiting the female body in a world where safety is conditional and fleeting.
Craig Taborn Is at the Apex of Contemporary Jazz
In 2026, Craig Taborn and other improvisers of his generation are at the peak of their creativity. This music has rarely been more elevated, refined, and exciting.
Sotto Voce’s Lo-Fi Pop Is Filled with Melodic Twists
Ryan Gabos’ lo-fi bedroom pop project, Sotto Voce, scales new heights with The Sound of Trying.
Amy Grant’s “The 6th of January” Tells What’s Going On
Amy Grant’s “The 6th of January” burns the way the Ramones’ “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” burned in denouncing Ronald Reagan’s visit to a Nazi cemetery.
Justin Townes Earle’s Unrealized Future
Rolling Stone editor Jonathan Bernstein’s biography of Justin Townes Earle, What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome, is rooted in the quiet devastation of Saint of Lost Causes.
A Conversation with Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard
The Guided By Voices machine is as well-oiled as they come, but Robert Pollard attributes quality and consistency to chemistry.