Less than two years into the new decade, it’s already been eventful. A global pandemic and #blacklivesmatter protests have already created ten years’ worth of chaos. Because the decade’s only just started, it will take a while to populate this page.
Wet Leg Album Reviews
Isle of Wight's Wet Leg were breakout stars in 2021, when their innuendo-laden hit ‘Chaise Longue’ went viral. Their name comes from an Isle of Wight expression denoting visitors to...
Blondshell Album Reviews
Sabrina Teitelbaum flirted with musical success in a different guise. Between 2017 and 2019, she released singles as the pop artist BAUM. Her grandfather, Randall D Smith, is known as...
Arooj Aftab Album Reviews
Arooj Aftab was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents. She taught herself guitar and became a viral sensation in Pakistan, an early adopter of the internet with hits ‘Hallelujah’...
Black Midi Album Reviews
The members of Black Midi met at the BRIT School in London, a performing art college whose other alumni include Amy Winehouse, Adele, FKA Twigs, and Imogen Heap. With access...
Boygenius Album Reviews
Female solo artists Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers had never all been in the same room together when they decided to form a band. The three had collaborated...
Phoebe Bridgers Album Reviews
Indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers was born in Los Angeles and studied vocal jazz at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Bridgers grew up with parents who were...
Erika de Casier Album Reviews
Smooth R&B artist Erika de Casier was born in Portugal to a Belgian mother and a Cape Verdean father. She's now based in Copenhagen, Denmark, starting her career working in...
Ducks Ltd. Album Reviews
The duo of Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis met on the Toronto scene, bonding over their shared love of vintage indie jangle-pop. They now split their time between Toronto and...
Billie Eilish Album Reviews
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was the first musician born in the 21st century to score a number-one single in the United States. Eilish had already been building a profile...
Natalie Hemby Album Reviews
Natalie Hemby was born in Illinois, the daughter of a Nashville studio guitarist. She almost signed a record deal with Sony in her early 20s but it fell through. Instead,...
Cassandra Jenkins Album Reviews
New York’s Cassandra Jenkins comes from a musical family. Her parents worked on cruise ships as musicians, and her brother is in the band Morningsiders. As a teen Jenkins played...
MJ Lenderman Album Reviews
Mark Jacob Lenderman was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He's a busy fellow—in addition to his solo career, he's a member of the band Wednesday. He’s also carved out a...
Dua Lipa Album Reviews
Pop music has become a much more respected art form in the past decade. Records like Taylor Swift’s 1989, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion, and Robyn’s Honey have attained the acclaim usually reserved for more...
Magdalena Bay Album Reviews
Miami synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay consists of songwriter/vocalist Mica Tenenbaum and musician/producer Matthew Lewin. The pair met as high school students, first playing together at Live! Modern School of Music....
Ela Minus Album Reviews
Gabriela Jimeno Caldas was born in 1990 in Bogotá, Colombia. She spent her teens as the drummer for Colombian hardcore band Ratón Pérez. They played at the SXSW festival in...
Mk.gee Album Reviews
Michael Gordon grew up in New Jersey, where he played in bands but gravitated to making solo music in his bedroom. He grew up in the age of music piracy...
Kelly Lee Owens Album Reviews
Producer and musician Kelly Lee Owens grew up in a small Welsh village. She sang in her school choir and played bass and drums in indie bands. She became an...
Caroline Polachek Album Reviews
Caroline Polachek grew up in Connecticut and was formerly the vocalist for the indie-pop duo Chairlift. Chairlift enjoyed a surprise hit in 2008 with ‘Bruises’, featured in an Apple commercial....
Katie Pruitt Album Reviews
Katie Pruitt grew up in Atlanta and was raised Catholic. She attended Catholic school and mass. She got into music in middle school, learning the guitar and enjoying musical theatre....
Olivia Rodrigo Album Reviews
Olivia Isabel Rodrigo first came to prominence as an actor. She appeared in Bizaardvark and High School Musical. In 2020, she signed a recording contract and quickly became a pop superstar....
Maggie Rogers Album Reviews
Margaret Debay Rogers grew up in Maryland, the daughter of a Ford salesman and a nurse. She began learning the harp at seven and writing songs by thirteen. In high...
Sault Album Reviews
British collective Sault have eschewed all the usual rules of music-making in their brief and eventful career. They’ve veiled their identities, never played a live gig, never released a music...
The Smile Album Reviews
There hasn’t been a new Radiohead album since 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool. The Smile might be the next best thing. The two most distinctive members of Radiohead – vocalist Thom...
Snail Mail Album Reviews
Lindsey Jordan grew up in Baltimore also home to Beach House and Wye Oak, while at one point her guitar teacher was Helium's Mary Timony. Seeing Paramore at the age...
Soccer Mommy Album Reviews
Sophie Allison was born in Switzerland and grew up in Nashville. She self-released guitar-pop as a teenager on Bandcamp, before releasing her official debut, Clean, in 2018. While she records...
Cleo Sol Album Reviews
Born in London, Cleopatra Nikolic's parents met in a jazz band - her Jamaican dad plays bass and piano, while her Serbian/Spanish mother sings and plays guitar and flute. Cleo...
Squid Album Reviews
A crop of young, critically acclaimed post-punk bands emerged in the UK around 2020. It's tough to keep up - I can barely differentiate Dry Cleaning from Black Country, New...
Nilüfer Yanya Album Reviews
Indie artist Nilüfer Yanya was born in Chelsea, West London. She's the daughter of two visual artistsmwith Turkish, Irish and Barbadian heritage. Yanya grew up listening to her father’s Turkish...
2020s Miscellany
This page collects album reviews for 2020s artists of whom I’ve only reviewed one or two albums. This page became too long to edit easily so there's a second part...
2020s Miscellany Part 2
The consequence of reviewing new releases each week is that I already have too many records for one page. Here's part two, continuing from part one. Manchester OrchestraThe Million Masks...
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
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