Thrift Shop

I remember it like it was yesterday, the media frenzy when this novelty rap song came out in 2012 and some guy named Macklemore instantly became one of the unforgettable one-hit wonders of our times. All of my broke-bitch girlies went crazy to finally hear …

This Is What Makes Us Girls

Some people still think that Lana Del Rey’s take on ‘what makes us girls’ is kind of problematic, but I think that Del Rey has left that discourse in the rearview mirror along with the “Tumblr Aesthetic” phase of her career. It’s hard to miss …

This Is Sally Hatchet

There is something about this that reminds me of mid-70’s Neil Young at his most serious, except it’s sitting right at the edge of full parody. Maybe it’s the noise guitar undercutting the folksiness of the melody, maybe it’s the lyrics that seem like the …

This Depression

It’s a neat sleight of hand to write a song about depression with such an upbeat tune. You could easily hum it all day while not noticing the subject at all. Well, Bruce Springsteen has always been a master of Trojan-horsing some very heavy subject …

Things Are Changin’

Gary Clark Jr. is an old-fashioned artists, in the best possible way. In 2012, when his debut album became one of the biggest sensations of the year, his style was so diametrically different from most of what the indie music scene was celebrating, that he …

Tessellate

Remember Alt-J? Whatever became of them? They were the weirdest and most unexpected sensation of 2012. Their first and second albums were outstanding, offering something really new: electronic psychedelia for nerds. Even their name is pretentious; alt-J is apparently a keyboard shortcut, as if anyone …

Teen Idle

Marina Diamandis is a pop genius, and someday you all will know it. She produces shiny nuggets of bubblegum pop that split open to reveal acerbic social commentary and raw emotion. For proof, listen to her sing, in an angelic upper register, “Feeling super! Super! …

Tee-Pees 1-12

In light of Father John Misty’s new album, which sees him moving in a cabaret-inflected direction, now’s a good time to revisit his first. It’s not very often that an album so confidently heralds the arrival of a major player. Joshua Tillman was no rookie, …

Tears O’Plenty

The past few years – and by that I mean decade – has been pretty bleak for guitar rock. Aside from the popularity of aggressively derivative dad-rock tribute bands like Greta Van Fleet, it feels like the format just isn’t all that relevant. Do we …

Taste It

Wow, all I can say is I can’t believe that was ten years ago. Jake Bugg is presumably a grown-ass adult now, though in my mind he’s the precocious cherub he was in 2012. He was literally still a kid! And he was so eerily …