July 2024

Rock was changing fast in 1968. The concept album was in the air, a development encouraged by Sgt Pepper’s the previous year (though nobody seemed...

In 1995, Elliott Smith did the unthinkable: he released an intimate, eloquent, stripped-down folk album seeded with references to alcoholism, depression, and suicide. As if...

Although he’s best known as a rosy-eyed, hippie-era guitarist, Yusuf / Cat Stevens’ lyrical honesty and varied instrumentation are far more complex than first meets...

Imagine that: a Grammy-winning, platinum-selling, chart-topping album in the 2010s with no instruments anywhere on it. The massive success of the a cappella quintet Pentatonix...