Category: pop
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bat for lashes – the haunted man (2012)
Bat For Lashes, conceptually, is largely about competing with life. Her percussion sounds like feet running around the track, rather than feet running away from something frightening. The directness from ‘The Haunted Man’ comes, like it’s cover, from a nakedness. Despite its ostensible melodrama, Khan’s third record is an honest and forceful blend of glamorous […]
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jacqueline taïeb – jacqueline taïeb (1967)
Jacqueline Taïeb was intimate with everything around her: rock music from across the Atlantic; the Tunisian beach where she was discovered; the extroverted ‘Frenchness’ of her delivery. On her self-titled debut album, the flamboyant expression of this well-loved artist extends into the instrumentation, where a psychedelic, baroque take on garage rock erupts. She has since […]
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monica rypma – classifieds (1985, reissue)
The finances for ‘Classifieds’ are explained by its front cover, which is plastered with real advertisements. Like similar disco-electronic musicians of the time (think Arthur Russell) there’s an off-kilter structure to Rypma’s beats that could only have been produced by an artist whose vision has yet to be corrupted and obscured. The interludes are suffused […]
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yaya bey – remember your north star
On a hugely satisfying LP, Yaya dances precisely between a lo-fi mixtape and shoomping R&B. The light vocals and delicate production might sink into one another were it not for a sharpness to the writing; especially in its explicit moments, Bey’s lyrics split through the seamless beats with a bite. ‘RYNS’ is not content with […]
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natalia lacunza – tiene que ser para mí
Spanish talent show finalist and Guitarricadelafuente collaborator Natalia Lacunza is an unmistakable talent. Despite regularly putting out work since 2019, this is her first full-length LP. It’s a smooth display of bedroom synth-pop that is at once dreamlike and concise. The mistier elements of the record—soporific vocals and washy production—do however nudge it in an […]
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