Tag Archives: music-features

“Check your egos at the door” read the sign on the front door of A&M Studios in Los Angeles on the night of January 28th, 1985. Producer Quincy Jones had placed it there because dozens of the nation’s biggest singers were walking through that door, and he had exactly one …

What might emptiness sound like? That’s what Mike Hadreas, who records as Perfume Genius, sought out with producer Blake Mills on “Describe,” his latest single. The song takes on a simple premise: the narrator is struggling in the midst of a tough episode, asking a loved one to help render …

Each month, the editors and critics atRolling Stone will compile a list of our favorite new albums. January’s picks include K-pop stars BTS, Latin-pop titan Bad Bunny, punk-rock legends Green Day and Gen Z rock prodigy Soccer Mommy. Bad Bunny, YHLQMDLG During the last two years,Bad Bunny has left no …

Mike “Heron” Herard keeps an email list of roughly 200 of the best producers making music today. As the founder of the company BeatHustle, he routinely sends these producers potential samples made by a team of crack musicians; some of these loops have made it on to hit albums from …

Roddy Ricch’s emerald-and-acorn-colored eyes keep darting to the door. Seated in an all-white dressing room in New York, the Southern California rapper, 21, has the distinct look on his face of someone who doesn’t trust anyone in his immediate vicinity. He’s a quiet, perceptive presence; there’s a low hum radiating …

Arizona Zervas’ “Roxanne” soared this week, jumping to Number Six on the latest Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs chart on the strength of 15.3 million audio streams. The song also took the top spot on the Trending 25, which ranks new songs that are seeing the greatest gains in on-demand …

Everyone remembers the sweater, but I mostly remember the hush. Twenty-five years ago today, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New Yorkarrived on CD, cassette, and VHS tape. By then, Kurt Cobain had been dead nearly seven months, and the appearance of this largely acoustic performance, taped nearly a year before, took …

The gravestone of the much-maligned record-industry practice of “windowing” has a date etched on it: April 13th, 2018. That was the day country superstar Jason Aldean released his latest album, Rearview Town, which, in streaming terms, appeared exclusively on premium/paid-for tiers (including Spotify‘s) during its first two weeks on sale. …

With its rigid beat and dry, monotone vocals, the song sounds like a synth-pop hit you would have heard in a dance club in the Eighties. (Or at least on an Eighties Spotify station.) Close your eyes and you can imagine a music video: awkwardly lip-synching musicians, exploding lightbulbs, foggy …

M.C. Taylor has been singing about his kids since before they were even born. Before his eldest child, Elijah, arrived in 2009, Taylor — who for the past 10 years or so has made records with a revolving cast of musicians under the moniker Hiss Golden Messenger — wrote a …