Album Reviews8.9/10
Hit Me Hard and Soft: Billie Eilish’s Most Complete Record Yet
A hush-to-shout journey through Eilish's third record, where quiet moments carry as much weight as the swells that follow them.
CLAY TRIBUNE / THE ARCHIVE
Tag: pop music
Album Reviews9.6/10
Three Years On, Caroline Polachek’s Desire Still Sounds Like Pop Reaching Past Its Own Limits
A brief record of desire wrought in five songs, wherein Polachek's art doth swell beyond its modest length into rare and singular grandeur.
Album Reviews8.4/10
Troye Sivan’s ‘Something to Give Each Other’: 32 Minutes, Not One Wasted
A record of joy and sorrow given in the same breath, ten songs that waste no second in their whole brief span.
Album Reviews8.4/10
Hold the Girl: Rina Sawayama Trades Restraint for Scale, and Mostly Wins
A record wherein a singer, with arena-vast ambition, doth reach into memory and pull forth a younger self through pop and choir.
Album Reviews7.8/10
Lizzo’s ‘Special’ Stays in Its Lane — and That’s the Point
A brief chronicle of Lizzo's fourth record, twelve tracks of confidence and romance, weighed against its aim to please.
Album Reviews6.9/10
Lorde Trades Urgency for Calm on Solar Power, and Only Sometimes Wins the Bet
A record of stillness: Lorde's third work trades tumult for calm, its finest hours proving her spirit yet, its middle wafting like idle fog.
Album Reviews8.3/10
Harry’s House Review: Comfort as Craft, and Styles at Ease in His Own Fame
A record of comfort, not spectacle: Harry Styles settles into ease across 13 songs, style abounding where substance sometimes fails.
Album Reviews8.4/10
Life’s a Beach: easy life’s Debut Earns Its Warmth by Admitting the Cold Underneath
An album that pairs sunlit melody with private doubt and quiet dread, mostly succeeding at a hard task.
Album Reviews8/10
Chromatica: Lady Gaga’s Return to the Dance Floor — 8/10
A dance-floor tale of pain turned release, told through a wandering hook, a tearful song for two, and a hopeful close.
Album Reviews8/10
Manic: Halsey’s Unguarded Confession Fights Its Own Polish — 8/10
A pop singer's confession, told across sixteen tracks, some plain and true, some too polished to feel — a review of Manic.