"It is a sign of a fatally limited imagination to assume that we can only ever desire the pittance to which we are currently reconciled." www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

New newsletter from my new life First piece Subscribe for free Thank you THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE

The message I took from last night’s BAD BUNNY performance: we continue open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

If it clarifies what was lost this week: Philip Kennicott and Monica Hesse remain as arts critics at The Washington Post Eliminated: art critic arts editor arts/film editor classical critic pop critic television critic theater critic all editors/reporters in Book World including two book critics

I’ve been laid off by The Washington Post Serving as this newspaper’s pop music critic for the past 16-plus years has been my privilege, my joy Endless solidarity to my righteous colleagues, endless gratitude to our faithful readers

When the world outside THE GRAMMYS is too loud to ignore: wapo.st/4qcNw7q

BREAKING: Trump plans to close Kennedy Center for about two years, starting in July Follow @janaykingsberry.bsky.social 's and my coverage here. The piece will be continually updated: www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...

A new record by NICE BREEZE is stuck on my turntable for the following reasons wapo.st/3YL6VkF

“Keep Your Ear to the Ground,” the amazing new history of D.C. punk zines by our comrade John Davis, is now available direct through Dischord dischord.com/band/john-da...

I write for readers and will email you anything I write for the newspaper, just ask

I don’t listen AI-GENERATED POP MUSIC because I have control over what I listen to wapo.st/49eOEAP

New NIONTAY reminds us that December is when the best rappers don’t care about making the year’s best rap album wapo.st/4pRuyUh

In THE D.C. SCENE, yesterday’s music still sounds like tomorrow Here are five amazing records that got remastered, resurfaced and/or reissued in 2025 wapo.st/4aWEGXh

Here are my TOP TEN ALBUMS of 2025 wapo.st/4a2eWIL

1:02:57 “We gotta feed Ross a snack”

It feels better to wonder if GEESE are important than to know it wapo.st/3XdmAsc

In his recently anthologized DESCENES and DISCORDS fanzines, Howard Wuelfing captured the harDCore scene in its predawn light wapo.st/4obgyTD

Last night, PLAYBOI CARTI gave one of the greatest arena performances I’ve ever seen — even if I could barely see it wapo.st/43vhET0

Spoke with the terrific ABE MAMET about making quiet jazz in world that keeps getting louder and louder wapo.st/4hWfmCn

If you’ve already figured out that the promise of AI is nothing more than a corporate attack on human curiosity, contemplation, critical thinking and free will, ROSALÍA’s “Lux” will sound like a new kind of feel-good music. wapo.st/47XrLS2

Is this strange, unfamiliar sensation upon learning that half of the GRAMMY NOMINEES for album of the year make rap music… optimism? wapo.st/47MeNGv

If you want to improve your life, spend some time with this absolutely terrific piece by @davesheinin.bsky.social who gets behind the damn piano to show us how iconic sports theme music works wapo.st/480klhN

The rock-and-roll biopic remains a cursed proposition but I felt like “SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE” made a few nudges in the direction of progress wapo.st/4ql7Gx4

“What a teen girl goes through is what a teen girl wants to hear” — BRI3 on rap music as truth-telling/truth-receiving wapo.st/4oGojC3

D’ANGELO wapo.st/3KSHRUU

Talking about the weather with the great RAFIQ BHATIA wapo.st/3Wi4BjT

I love how these excellent newish books by/about SWIZ, HUGGY BEAR and BILLY CHILDISH tell bigger, broader punk rock truths wapo.st/3IUxejM

Mixed feelings about TAYLOR SWIFT’s mixed feelings wapo.st/4mLaosQ

DOGO DU TOGO AND THE ALAGAA BEAT BAND can take you there (even when it’s hard to come here) wapo.st/4nzgTQM

I have seen ADDISON RAE in concert and the dream is real is the dream wapo.st/4haGKfD

THE D.C. CANON! wapo.st/3IkMbM1

It’s been a legit joy to watch EL COUSTEAU grow up/level up wapo.st/4gm40qo

This OASIS reunion packs the life-affirming power of 10,000 karaoke nights but if you’re reticent to sing along, I invite you to join me in pondering the meaning of Liam Gallagher’s slouch wapo.st/4g0rGAl

This new SABRINA CARPENTER is a gas (and maybe a new kind of pop album, too) wapo.st/4p0niFK

I like traditionalism when, instead of taking us back, it brings good things from the past into the now — which is why I like the music of ZACH TOP wapo.st/45VcIap

TikTok is a funnel and SOMBR is a sound wapo.st/47bHNc9

NOURISHED BY TIME says “we don’t have to be so average” wapo.st/4lOdMmr

New signs were up this afternoon and bands were playing

This summer, the hazy punk of INTERMISSION sounds like a reminder that the algorithm has never been your friend wapo.st/46tdtcC

I love how harDCore keeps changing shape, which means I love how the straight edge screamo of EXPIRATION DATE pushes toward shapelessness wapo.st/44IKvEm

OZZY OSBOURNE wapo.st/4f0sjcF

WHEN WILL THEY LEARN THAT LOVE IS THE POWER SUPREME? wapo.st/4eZLHGW

This is how it felt to see BEYONCÉ in D.C. on the Fourth of July wapo.st/4eKxQ79

The music of HEATHER STEBBINS reminds us that all the layers of our lives overlap in the right-now www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

We can watch Robert Altman’s NASHVILLE for another 50 years and there’ll still be more to see and hear wapo.st/40i28rM

Feels weird wanting more from BENSON BOONE when he’s so clearly giving it everything he’s got wapo.st/440tX92

BRIAN WILSON wapo.st/4mWgtnp

SLY STONE wapo.st/45W4xMm

Last night’s finale set from DOECHII at WorldPride was a double reminder that rap music synchronizes minds and that the streets belong to the people wapo.st/43AMgTv

I was surprised by how much I love this new ADDISON RAE album until I realized why I shouldn’t be wapo.st/4dVDtz4