All Things Reconsidered

30 Years of Alison Krauss’ Country Music Breakthrough

30 Years of Alison Krauss’ Country Music Breakthrough

Even if the world only knew Alison Krauss from ‘Now That I’ve Found You: A Collection’, her place in country music history would be assured.

Dark Comedy ‘Patriot’ Illuminates Neoliberalism’s Dark Reality

Dark Comedy ‘Patriot’ Illuminates Neoliberalism’s Dark Reality

The dark comedy Patriot illuminates how neoliberalism makes choices for us disguisedly, using entrepreneurial agency as a fig leaf to obscure manipulation.

Belly’s 1995 Album ‘King’ Surprised with Its Rock Sound

Belly’s 1995 Album ‘King’ Surprised with Its Rock Sound

Belly’s rock-oriented follow-up, King, to their dream pop debut, Star, didn’t deserve its fate. It showcases a talented group stretching their sound.

Bright Eyes’ 2005 Albums Speak to Our Individual and Collective Discontent

Bright Eyes’ 2005 Albums Speak to Our Individual and Collective Discontent

Bright Eyes brought their expansive and messy vision to life 20 years ago with two albums that captivated listeners then as they surely will now.

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

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.

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

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

Hüsker Dü’s New Day Rising provided equal parts muscular intensity and melody as the band laid the groundwork for the future of alternative music.

Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ Subverts Being Trapped in a Glass Castle

Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ Subverts Being Trapped in a Glass Castle

For her 1989 album, Taylor Swift wrote breakup songs that cleverly conveyed to fans she had personal freedom even from within her glass castle.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: ‘Interstellar’ at 10 Resonates

Wherever You Go, There You Are: ‘Interstellar’ at 10 Resonates

Although it aims to portray humanity’s future, sci-fi film Interstellar‘s message – that our greatest asset and liability is ourselves – resonates in our times.

The Blood Brothers’ ‘Crimes’ Retains Its Malevolent Relevance

The Blood Brothers’ ‘Crimes’ Retains Its Malevolent Relevance

The Blood Brothers Crimes is a pitch-black satire and critique of its time showing how little has changed. It would be depressing if the music weren’t thrilling.

The Dismemberment Plan’s Pre-millennial Tension: ‘Emergency & I’ at 25

The Dismemberment Plan’s Pre-millennial Tension: ‘Emergency & I’ at 25

Post-punk band the Dismemberment Plan’s Emergency & I is a landmark about loneliness, confusion, and isolation and how to bounce back from them.

How Bob Dylan Reinvented the Blues Highway for Contemporary America

How Bob Dylan Reinvented the Blues Highway for Contemporary America

Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” captures America at the peak of the civil rights struggle when African Americans were forced to fight for a country that had left them impoverished and disenfranchised.

The Style Council’s Café Bleu and David Sylvian’s Brilliant Trees at 40

The Style Council’s Café Bleu and David Sylvian’s Brilliant Trees at 40

With Café Bleu and Brilliant Trees, Paul Weller and David Sylvian looked forward to jazz as a renewed source of inspiration; but was their pop music still pop?