Charlotte Cornfield's Hard-Won Reckoning
Charlotte Cornfield's album 'Hurts Like Hell' maps a songwriter's life from drink-ticket gigs in Montreal to the steadier ground of family, community, and creative confidence in Toronto.
Indie Rock
Modern Woman Between the Whisper and the Shriek
Post-punk abrasion, unconventional violin, and lyrics sharpened by a literature degree converge on Modern Woman's debut 'Johnny's Dreamworld,' an album built around the friction of being told you're simultaneously too feminine and not feminine enough.
Memory, Melody, and the Post-Rock Vision of Unwed Sailor
Johnathon Ford discusses his band's latest release, 'High Remembrance,' the one-album-a-year discipline that has defined Unwed Sailor's second act, and why the bass guitar is the closest thing he has to a singing voice.
B-Movies, Bad Men, and The Notwist's Stubborn Optimism
Markus Acher discusses 'News From Planet Zombie', The Notwist's return to live-band recording at a Munich community space, and why thirty-plus years together still haven't settled the tension between political dread and stubborn hope.
The Mud and the Melody — Billy Fuller's 'Fragments'
The founding member of Beak> and longtime collaborator to Portishead, Massive Attack, and Robert Plant discusses the bass-first compositions and private creative philosophy behind 'Fragments,' a debut solo album assembled from nearly a decade of home recordings.
Golden Samphire Band's Imagined Albion by the Sea
England's south coast gives Golden Samphire Band's debut 'Dream Is the Driver' its emotional coloring, but behind it are four decades of shared record-digging by brothers Rich and Mik Hanscomb and the transformative arrival of vocalist Hannah Lewis.
Beyond the Bedroom with Special Friend
Erica Ashleson and Guillaume Siracusa discuss 'Clipping', the indie duo's third album, their move from DIY bedroom sessions to a French countryside studio, and why they'd happily redo a vocal take twenty times.
Audrey Golden's 'Shouting Out Loud' Brings The Raincoats Into Focus
In 'Shouting Out Loud,' Audrey Golden brings her background in law, gender studies, and human rights research to the Raincoats' full story, from art school in North London to the cells of the Maze.
From Default to Deliberate — Learning to Listen with Winged Wheel
On their third album, 'Desert So Green,' the six-piece collective reflects on the slow build of musical trust, the discipline of leaving space, and what it means to stop defaulting and start deciding.
A Chorus for the Complicated — Julia Steiner of Ratboys
Ratboys frontwoman Julia Steiner discusses how 'Singin' to an Empty Chair' grew from a grief practice into a collection of bright, aching songs that never settle for just one feeling at a time.
Drifting Through the Normandy Haze with wavepool
The French band discusses 'Crayola,' their latest EP of shoegaze-inflected dream pop that transforms fleeting observations and unreliable memories into songs as gray and intimate as their Normandy hometown.
Liam Kazar and the Long Search for Home
After three years of touring more than 200 days annually, the guitarist and Jeff Tweedy sideman recorded 'Pilot Light' to recreate, musically, what constant travel had taken away.