Tag Archives: song-to-know

When the Brazilian group BaianaSystem released “Água” in 2019, it served as the head-turning opener to their O Futuro Não Demora album. The track was measured but scrappy, with thick, bristling brass and a chanting lead vocal; founder Robertinho Barreto played zippy lines on guitar, sticking lots of notes close …

As thoughtful, acoustic finger-plucking introduces listeners to 23-year-old Rett Madison’s silvery voice on her new song, “Shame Is a River,” it’s easy at first to confuse this cathartic battle cry with a lullaby. “Shame is a river/When I cross its waters, I always sink,” the West Virginia native sings with …

Mike and the Moonpies‘ Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, deftly mixed orchestral flourish with outlaw country. That seemingly unconventional mash-up is front and center on the exhilarating “Danger,” shipped to radio last month. Think of the song as the product of the “Waylon Philharmonic” …

It’s been a banner week or so for North Carolina indie-rock. First, on February 20th, the Archers of Loaf — one of the Nineties’ finest bands in any genre — released their first new song in 22 years, “Raleigh Days.” It’s a loving evocation of their local scene back in …

Every country songwriter needs a great story-song, and Hailey Whitters found hers in “Janice at the Hotel Bar.” Co-written by the Iowa native with Lori McKenna (Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush”), the gentle ballad not only tells the titular woman’s real-life tale, but imparts her hard-won advice on how to …

It does not feel like “Life Is Good.” In fact, life feels terrible. There is a palpable sense of anxiety filling in the air as the threat of another war looms, and Timothée Chalamet’s new mustache is a wispy atrocity. Future and Drake are above such petty grievances and concerns. …

A previously unreleased version of David Bowie‘s “The Man Who Sold the World” has arrived, marking the first installment in the rollout for a new six-track EP, Is It Any Wonder. The next five songs will arrive on a weekly basis, continuing January 17th. The new version of “The Man …

There are two ways you can go when you’re covering a song like Leonard Cohen’s “So Long, Marianne.” You can try to fill in the colors, adding expressive melodic flourishes that emphasize the emotion in Cohen’s lyrics— or you can take the opposite tack, leaning into the dry, sardonic delivery …

You have to wade deep into the generous, overwhelming, embarrassment-of-riches expanded reissue of 1999 before you stumble across “Purple Music,” finally available for public consumption after circulating in bootleg form for a solid portion of its 37 years of existence. At nearly 11 minutes long, “Purple Music” is one of …

Lana Del Rey has released a heartbreaking song to end what has been a uniquely heinous week in the ever-deepening national horror show. “Looking for America” is about what its title suggests, the terrifying search to find a place in our country, where you can feel safe from violence, free …