Owen Maxwell

She & Him – Holiday (Portland, OR/Los Angeles) Masters of a sense of vintage power, M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel offer up one more great set of holiday tracks. Revamping some Madonna with yuletide soul among others, the duo reminds us that they’re probably one of the few artists that [...]

Elton John – The Lockdown Sessions (Pinner, England) Like many artists, Elton John has taken the tour setbacks of the pandemic to facilitate collabs that would’ve otherwise never happened. While the record isn’t quite cohesive, it’s a great scattershot image of all the [...]

ABBA – Voyage (Stockholm, Sweden) The record we all never thought would come, it’s a few decades late, but at least it’s steeped in the best of the decades ABBA reigned in. While its slow ballads vastly outweigh the great upbeat bangers with dark stories, there’s at least [...]

Brandi Carlile – In These Silent Days (Ravensdale, WA) With an ability to harness the magic of raw emotion, Brandi Carlile’s latest record serves as a record that constantly veers between intimate and explosive. Topped off with the sheer magnitude of her voice, Carlile delivers a record [...]

Casper Skulls – Knows No Kindness (Toronto) From their grimy early material to their emotionally sharp LP Mercy Works, Casper Skulls found a way to make a record that feels all the more intense. With amped up arrangements and a sense of storytelling to make every little detail feel important, [...]

Wet Leg – Wet Dream (Isle of Wight, U.K.) There’s an ability to harness chaos that bands like Wet Leg just exemplify with seemingly effortless nuance. With two-track release, the project manages to fit in lush layers that blur indie rock, electronica and art-pop into a wonderful haze. [...]

A Place To Bury Strangers - Hologram (Brooklyn) Lineup changes are the true testing ground of any project’s staying power, Oliver Ackerman has seen that enough in his tenure with A Place to Bury Strangers. As the band moves more away from its latest noise-punk iteration to a shoegaze/new [...]

Poppy - Flux (Boston, MA) From internet enigma to quirky art darling, Poppy has really kept us on our toes. With tracks that constantly zigzag between pop and bizarre electronica, this is a wonderful trip to put on and just get lost in. There’s a wonderfully digital and metal chaos to “Flux” [...]

Arkells - Blink Once (Hamilton, ON) If any Canadian band is constantly trying to find ways to evolve and collaborate, the Arkells make a fun exercise of it. While their newest record definitely lacks an edge at times, and may alienate some listeners in their new sonic routes, it does a lot to expand [...]

Lil Nas X - Montero (Lithia Springs, GA) As one of the few people it feels like is genuinely pushing the boundaries of what a pop star can do lyrically and musically right now, Lil Nas X's latest record totally fulfills the hype. With super-catchy tracks that get weird and shake up what many are [...]