Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we revisit a folk classic that came to the world stage with a perspective crystallized in...
Never did Kate Bush sound more grounded, more in control of her songwriting than on her sixth album from 1989, featuring stories that play out like intimate vignettes rather than fantastical fairy tales.
In 1982, Kate Bush’s daring and dense fourth album marked her transformation into a fearless experimental artist who was legibly, audibly, very queer, and very obviously in love with pop music.
Released when she was just 19, and including songs begun four years earlier, Bush’s landmark debut is playful, experimental, and defiant: the sound of a young woman getting what she wants.
The German producer tests the balance of bleak ambience and diamond-tipped breakbeats on an introspective EP that remains true to his own idiosyncratic style.
The debut EP from the Sudan-born, Twin Cities-based singer, poet, and activist reveals an artist with a warm, sophisticated sound and captivating presence on the mic.
On their first album in six years, the experimental pop duo (mostly) puts down their namesake instruments to fold more electronic elements into their potent songs.
On her fifth album, Sharon Van Etten conjures tempests and explores their subsequent calms. It is the peak of her songwriting and her most atmospheric, emotionally piercing album to date.
The infamous Beta Band frontman could have lingered in the shadow of his cult-figure fandom; instead, on his fourth solo album, he sings directly about the long process of growing up.
Though the band is now squarely in its pop era, the nostalgia that laced its early records has morphed into a timely, fatalistic vision of the future and national decay.
Rockaway beach is really building a name for itself as a must do festival these days. The 'Boutique Indoor Music Festival' is a Way of Music event and takes place at Butlins Bognor Regis.
The soundtrack institution of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross return to their well of ominousness and employ an array of techniques to convey anxiety, impending danger, and discomfort.
Opening night of London Blues week and it kicked off with a real blast, a sellout of London’s famous 100 Club for Chantel McGregor and able support from Lisa Mills.
Almost exactly three years to the day since the Starman tragically passed, David Bowie’s band alumni tour is the perfect celebration. It’s not a covers band. It’s Bowie’s actual band.
On their second major outing for a label other than their own, the eternally enigmatic producer uses frantic EBM and lurid synths to cast a shadow as dark and deep as their reputation.
The New York band’s jangly indie pop is more ambitious than before, but their lyrics too often fail to move beyond low-stakes camp—hardly the radical liberation the band has hinted at delivering.
The California-based producer, instrumental to the rise of emo-rap, offers a solid showcase of his talent that maps a constellation of strange and unforgettable artists.
Music for yoga may be an ambient cliche, but the Los Angeles synthesizer musician largely avoids new-age pitfalls on this album of unabashedly functional background music.
Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we revisit the masterful, groundbreaking sound that laid the foundation for post-rock.
On spirited songs that shift eagerly among pop, hip-hop, rock, and soul, the voice of standout singer Wolf Weston emerges as a stirring new instrument.
On a pair of 30-minute SoundCloud streams, the former Giegling affiliate applies his windswept aesthetic to boom-bap, ambient, and jungle, to emotive—some would say maudlin—effect.
Perhaps familiar from being sampled by the Avalanches, this New York tween was an inspiring underground star in the early 1980s, a reputation confirmed by this archival collection.
Inspired by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, this five-track ambient wonder finds the New York producer letting pulses and motifs overlap until the tracks resemble the inside of a lava lamp.
Let me take you on a journey. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there existed a period when music was uplifting and vital and going to a gig was fun.
On his second solo album, fueled by unspecified personal misfortune, the former Sandwell District member finds emotional resonance in the interface between techno and post-punk.
On a tape label with links to Hamburg’s Golden Pudel club, the German curator delivers a deep-diving, pitch-shifting DJ mix traversing Alice Coltrane, desert blues, and cacophonous synths and drums.
Totalling a bulky 40 songs, Terius Nash’s latest project is purposefully and hilariously indulgent, but his marathon session reveals an R&B luminary still working at the top of his game.
I’ve heard a lot of great guitarists over the years but very few with the multiple chops that Eric Gales has and this is definitely the best I’ve heard from him thus far.
It is an enormously exciting album, very much a band of equals and the songs and playing show an incredible progression from ‘Steal’, their last album and a masterpiece in its own right.
... you will not often hear a band playing with such unfettered joy or such talent. Despite my jaded personality I loved this one – in the words of #45 – Bigly.