"The violin is an instrument that used to bring the party. Even the white people in 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴, they got their little jig they do. The violin is not a color. It’s just a vibe to bring people together.”

Anyone willing to shell out a few dollars per month for online music distributors like DistroKid or CD Baby is welcome to set up an account—and, if they so desire, to start flooding their favorite bands’ profiles with the shittiest music imaginable

Will Westerman is perched atop a grassy burial mound dotted with more than a dozen gravestones as he recounts the time a bowl of noodles nearly killed him...

Claire Rousay emphasizes that a piece of music is only as good as the person making it—regardless of what equipment they own. It’s an increasingly relevant point amid our era of AI slop, when anyone can pump out a constant stream of robot drivel.

Instead of engaging in a stream-bait war following “Actually Romantic,” Charli XCX is releasing a chamber-goth jump scare of a song that features the voice of 83-year-old art-rock legend John Cale more than her own. www.hearingthings.co/brat-summer-...

"White people telling us what to do again, like actually: No. This is hip-hop, because it’s me.”

“This feels like the only transaction that you can do on the internet that doesn’t involve a password or some kind of authentication, and it’s a really important one, and it’s across the entire music streaming ecosystem.”

Rosalía is going for the rafters, as though she went to confession and her penance was to spend it in the dusty library of Gaudí’s Basílica de la Sagrada Família, paging through ancient texts as God peered at her soul through a portal on a stone spire

I wonder how James Murphy will update the "New York, I Love You..." lyrics for Zohran. Your cool socialist mayor's now convinced he's... effecting real change?

"The type of motherfuckers who were into the type of shit I was on didn’t exist 10 years ago. Now, all these kids are genre-blending."

Mike Shabb is the only rap figure I can think of who’s both produced for Westside Gunn and played the Montreal Jazz Festival, and his latest project finds more intense ways to obliterate the divide between the artful and the ratchet

"I love listening to music in the car. It’s one of the things I will never do enough. When I’m dying, I’ll be like, 𝘔𝘢𝘯, 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯."

Must Hear: Rafael Toral’s 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 is an album of swing-era jazz standards, many of them associated with Billie Holiday, rendered as exquisitely melancholy and nocturnal ambient music

"Doing [a love song] is way harder than writing the 'getting your dick sucked' song! Oh my God! When you’re being misogynistic, you’re just like, 𝘖𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥! But when you try to make shit like this, you get scared."

“Daniel Ek was a man, he was a big man,” sings an AI voice on a demonically shredding jazz-pop song called “Daniel Ek’s Bathroom Mirror.” “And he steals from musicians ’cause he knows that he’s shit at guitar.”

A chat with Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme about the music of their annual holiday spectacular, which this year takes a sci-fi/horror turn. "I can’t tell you what the Top 40 songs are, but I can hum you the opening theme song for 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴."

“What makes good ambient music is that the creator of it does not think of it as ambient music. They think of it as something much grander—something that you would not want on a playlist that somebody falls asleep to.”

"Sometimes I feel like people look at me and they’re like, ‘Wow, she’s so profound.’ It’s like, Yeah, thanks. But also, I’m lit. I can be stupid if I want to be. I’m not your magic little violin player.” 

Keiyaa's new album 𝘏𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦'𝘴 𝘓𝘢𝘸 plays like my ideal kind of late-night freeform radio show: clouds of quiet storm and warped soul music, where the background shifts from jazz trio to icy beats to field recordings with ease and mystique

"I’ve really been trying to make this album since the first time I heard Dizzee Rascal—it is heavily grime-influenced."

In many cases, it is shockingly easy to upload fraudulent music to an artist's streaming profile—no hacking or even password entry required

Both Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain show up for duets on Anna von Hausswolff’s staggering new album, 𝘐𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴—a testament to the Swedish singer and pipe organist's stature as your favorite cult artist’s favorite cult artist

Noname, hip-hop’s resident radical reading maven, returns with a surprisingly upbeat track filled with funny, down-to-earth lines—including the hilarious offer that if he “eat the cat good, he can pick the book of the month”

Danny Brown has been to rehab, fallen back in love with rap, and is days away from dropping his latest album, Stardust. We spoke to the audacious Detroit rap veteran about his love for hyperpop and grime, and finding the tribe to put this album together

KeiyaA says more in fragments, found sound, and unexpected choices than many others say in long-winded verses — find out why her new album is certified Must Hear

Prepare yourself for 4 new and near-perfect albums, including your favorite cult artist’s favorite cult artist

"When I'm listening to music I need it to be an isolated experience, like it’s just for me. I’m not doing it for anybody else. I’m not trying to set the mood. I’m not trying to fucking have a vibe."

There is so much going on within and around Rosalía’s startling new single, yet its operatic drama leaves me salivating for more

This week's Five Albums: reviews of Lily Allen, Nappy Nina, Flycatcher, Melvin Gibbs, and Parts Work featuring Frances Quinlan

A list of recent targets includes Uncle Tupelo, Sophie, Blaze Foley, and Wild Pink. What is going on here?

For a violinist who already shreds, on 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘗𝘔, Sudan Archives is going even harder on the melodies to keep pace with the drive of the beats. “I'm shredding because I'm trying to be like Jimi Hendrix,” she says.

Tyler’s consistent love for Black music has always scraped up against his loaded portrayals of Black people in his music

As the five of us start to figure out our individual year-end lists, we decided to revisit some of the tracks that blasted through our headphones and took up permanent residence over the last 10 months

Tyler, the Creator spent his early years cultivating a fanbase of trolls. Last weekend, it came back to haunt him in a big way. How much reckoning will it take to shake it? Read Dylan's thoughts on the situation

Peace to anybody willing to remind the world that R. Kelly is a piece of shit

You're absolutely gonna want to listen to the new album from the Yale professor and gonzo virtuoso who played the underground radio broadcaster in 'One Battle After Another'

This whole process has reasserted once again that it’s DIY or die, baby

“The listening experience of that record as a whole feels like it’s carved out of one piece of rock.” Correct guesses only, which cult classic late ’80s LP is Cate Le Bon referencing?

Unsurprisingly, Cate Le Bon has elite taste in music!

“I will never betray my heart”—it’s about as romantic a sentiment as I can think of, a mantra that encompasses something bigger than any one relationship

The commercial expression of empire, a plastic trace of an historical formation, CDs were more profitable and popular than any previous format of recorded music

For D’Angelo, it was never about doing the most, it was about doing it right. And doing it right can take a while.

In the 25 years since 𝘝𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘰's release, I’ve probably listened to it more than any other album

D’Angelo was always thinking about lineage, and one wonders if he knew that his music and brilliance were on par with the great funk geniuses he so admired. I pray he did.

A message from our staff on Hearing Things's first birthday. Thanks to everyone who's read and supported us over the last year. We're just getting started!

The UK techno vet’s productions are rowdy and almost uniformly distorted, with a palette of dank and grubby tones that might prompt you to check your speakers to make sure they’re functioning properly

A breakdown of massively popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat's recent Mafiathon 3 event, its On The Radar-sponsored freestyle series, and Kai's position as one of hip-hop's favorite press stops

I did not anticipate that Dry Cleaning's latest track—the post-punk band’s best since 2021’s 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘦𝘨 and probably the catchiest thing they’ve ever released—would sync up with the aftermath of my poor decisions so well

"Bill Callahan is really adept at getting you to see things that he has not written or specifically pointed out. They just appear. And that’s a real gift."

It seems safe to say the prolific composer, producer, and saxophonist Joseph Shabason is the only person on Earth who played on the latest albums by both Destroyer and Miley Cyrus