synthpop

Talk Talk Brought Fire and Negative Space to ‘It’s My Life’

Talk Talk Brought Fire and Negative Space to ‘It’s My Life’

When Talk Talk released It’s My Life in 1984, they shook the new wave establishment with great songs and a new approach, while refusing any genre boxification.

Kylie Minogue’s Sequel to ‘Tension’ Is a Worthy Follow-Up

Kylie Minogue’s Sequel to ‘Tension’ Is a Worthy Follow-Up

On her 17th studio album, Kylie Minogue once again proves that few of her peers or followers understand the art of light dance-pop as well as she does.

Alison Moyet Gives Her Greatest Hits a Winning Makeover

Alison Moyet Gives Her Greatest Hits a Winning Makeover

Alison Moyet’s approach to her oeuvre is to treat her old songs like a new batch of tunes, divorced from any baggage or expectations.

Swiss Duo Citron Citron Make Minimalist Art Pop on ‘Maréeternelle’

Swiss Duo Citron Citron Make Minimalist Art Pop on ‘Maréeternelle’

Citron Citron’s Maréeternelle is accessible avant-garde pop still edging toward highbrow. It highlights the ultramodern sounds coming from Geneva’s underground.

Ionnalee’s Bilingual Gambit to Hear the End of Every Song

Ionnalee’s Bilingual Gambit to Hear the End of Every Song

Ionnalee has electronic LPs under multiple monikers, but she uncovers her full songwriting prowess by dropping a double-album split between English and Swedish.

Liza Minnelli and Pet Shop Boys United on the Camp Classic ‘Results’

Liza Minnelli and Pet Shop Boys United on the Camp Classic ‘Results’

Results is an incredible union of two seemingly disparate acts, yet the musical marriage of Liza Minnelli and the Pet Shop Boys is brilliant dance pop.

‘Belaya Polosa’ Expands Molchat Doma’s Industrial Palette

‘Belaya Polosa’ Expands Molchat Doma’s Industrial Palette

Belaya Polosa is full of Molchat Doma’s most complex and overtly human music, organically integrated into their melancholy post-punk atmosphere.

Kylie Minogue Carries Us Away with the Power of Pop at Sziget

Kylie Minogue Carries Us Away with the Power of Pop at Sziget

Australian pop diva Kylie Minogue dazzles in a fantastic, career-spanning show on a substandard opening night of Budapest’s Sziget festival.

MUNA’s New Live Album Is a Joyous Hometown Victory

MUNA’s New Live Album Is a Joyous Hometown Victory

For two nights in Los Angeles, queer indie-pop trio MUNA put on a joyous homecoming concert ten years of dreaming in the making.

Taylor Swift: The Great American Poet?

Taylor Swift: The Great American Poet?

It’s not literary devices that make something poetry or the analysis we perform, but the emotion it elicits through them, which is why Taylor Swift is a poet.

Will Gregory Moog Ensemble Goes to the Symphony

Will Gregory Moog Ensemble Goes to the Symphony

Sent back through a wormhole from the distant future by mad synth scientists, the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble, this Heat Ray is a weapon of unknowable power.

A Reflective Hauntology: On the 2024 Reissue of Manic Street Preachers’ ‘Lifeblood’

A Reflective Hauntology: On the 2024 Reissue of Manic Street Preachers’ ‘Lifeblood’

Manic Street Preachers’ oeuvre indicates that one can only keep preaching manically if one lets oneself be haunted by the past to show the cracks in capitalist realism.