• The Chicks’ ‘Gaslighter’ review: A bold, bracing divorce album

    The Chicks’ ‘Gaslighter’ review: A bold, bracing divorce album

    In a long-distant era of discord suspi­ciously similar to our own, Natalie Maines, the singer for the group that was, until last month, known as the Dixie Chicks, lit a forest fire with an offhand insult about George W. Bush in 2003. Since then, she’s owned her political words more deliberately by laying into Donald …
  • 4 new album releases to look forward to this summer

    4 new album releases to look forward to this summer

    Sadly, there probably won’t be many — or any — concerts or festivals this summer, given the ongoing pandemic. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be music in the air. While some artists postponed releases earlier in the coronavirus lockdown, they are still letting the sounds flow this season. Here are the albums to look …
  • Fiona Apple’s ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ review: Back in fine form after 8-year ‘quarantine’

    Fiona Apple’s ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ review: Back in fine form after 8-year ‘quarantine’

    It feels like Fiona Apple really got a big head start on us with this whole quarantining thing. Fans do not need to be reminded that it’s been eight years since her previous album, “The Idler Wheel…” (though they probably will require a refresher on its full 23-word title, which once might have been committed …
  • Childish Gambino’s new album came at just the right time

    Childish Gambino’s new album came at just the right time

    Childish Gambino’s No. 1 hit “This is America,” only two years old — and released long before the coronavirus pandemic took over life as we know it — feels like another lifetime ago. But Donald Glover, Gambino’s alter ego, decided to drop a new album on us at a time when we’re social distancing and have …