The kids are coming up from behind.
Former Youtube streamer, Benjamin Fernando Barajas Lasky, combines folktronica (a la Ultramarine) and emo-rap (a la Lil Peep) as Quadeca, especially on 2022’s I Didn’t Mean To Want You, a ghostly and depressive concept album constructed from dense cloudy atmospheres mixed seamlessly with trap cadences. Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, for the most part, reneges his cloud … Read more
Spanish pop superstar, Rosalia Vila Tobella, whose first 2 albums were released while she was still in music school updated flamenco for the hip-hop era on El Mal Querer and shifted towards art-pop-reggateon fusion on Motomami. Her fourth studio album, LUX is a whole different animal. Recorded alongside the London Symphony Orchestra and with a … Read more
Puerto Rican superstar, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, ‘Bad Bunny’, who globalised reggaeton by fusing it with trap and house music became the most streamed artist worldwide in 2025 after the release of his sixth studio album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (English: I Should Have Taken More Photos), which followed up the wildly successful Un Verano … Read more
British dance-pop upstart Rose Gray debuted with Louder, Please yet another rehash of the stereotypes of Madonna (Angel of Satisfaction) and Kylie Minogue (Tectonic, Just Two, which interpolates I’m Blue), which duo Magdalena Bay had already done less than a year ago with more taste. However, there is also a contemporary imitation of erotic industrial … Read more
UK 00s popstar, Lily Allen released her fifth studio album West End Girl, recorded over less than 10 days in Los Angeles. Ostensibly a concept album about a break up with her also-famous ex-husband, the album made a splash due to its intimate private lyrics and themes which double as a criticism of male chauvinism. … Read more
British producer and singer-songwriter, Dev Hynes (stage name, Blood Orange), who initially excelled at crafting spacey atmospheric pop songs that updated Michael Jackson for the re verb era, shifted towards the esoteric on 2018’s Blood Swan, a collage of melodic snippets, ambience and brief conceptual pieces. After a 7-year hiatus, the new modus is revived … Read more
Ghanaian-American singer Amaerae, who plays Afrobeat-infused R&B and dance music, released her third album, BLACK STAR, ostensibly a tribute to her homeland. The music is decidedly hip-house focused based on cerebral beats contrasting with her hushed, high-pitched and amorous vocal. There are several unusual interpolations of older pop songs across the record (most egregiously Cher’s … Read more
Popstar extraordinaire, Taylor Swift, off the back of her recent engagement to NFL player Travis Kelce and re-recording 4 of her most popular records in an egregious money-making farce, released her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, off the back of a typically outlandish marketing scheme….and what is to be said of the music … Read more
New York based pop singer Shane Boone, monikered ‘sombr’, achieved virality on the Tiktok platform at just 19 years old with the back-to-back singles back to friends and undressed (though in all likelihood, probably an industry plant). The former is an angsty, slow-moving and reverb-soaked trip-hop ballad (like a male, ‘Zoomer’ version of Tumbl-era Sky … Read more
Trio of sisters Haim play soft rock, evoking the 1970s – best on 2020’s Women In Music Part III. Their brief hiatus ended with 2025’s I Quit which also employs the production talents of Rostam Batmanglij (formerly of Vampire Weekend) and contains the usual reference points (between Taylor Swift, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks) but … Read more