The specter of violent death becomes a narrative device that wraps its arms around the whole album.
Sullivan chats about Reality Show, her earliest experiences as a gospel prodigy, and her long hiatus from the industry.
Part of what makes Jazmine Sullivan’s Reality Show so remarkable is how often it dares to foreground her pen over her pipes.
Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances has only the most superficial comprehension of the artist’s legacy.
JHUD is an ostensible shift in gears, but it mistakes beats for an actual pulse.
My Everything tries to expand Grande’s horizons with headache-inducing electro-pop and darker, edgier shades of R&B.
The album contains only a few songs that withstand repeated listens.
Thicke takes such obvious pleasure in simple retro flourishes that the music ends up radiating a warmth and authenticity.
Teena Marie’s Beautiful feels outdated, even when it’s hard to pin down precisely what era of music she’s nostalgic for.
There isn’t anything remotely unorthodox about Bruno Mars’s Unorthodox Jukebox.
Two Eleven, Brandy’s first album in four years, is at its core a singer’s album.
The myth of “The Voice” emphasizes how natural it all was for Whitney Houston and how easy she made it look.
Godfrey Cheshire’s film avoids the pitfalls of its most obvious precursor, 1997’s Family Name.
The second golden age that the film inhabits is perhaps only apparent in retrospect.
Five films into his career, Zhang has emerged as a modern incarnation of the recently deceased Xie Jin.
It's as much of a bliss-out as Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and as much of a collaborative achievement.
Until recently, Claude Sautet’s Classe Tous Risques was a long forgotten noir relic.
It's at its best when Ahmad identifies with the innocence of youthful emotions that lack a vocabulary to express, justify, or resolve themselves.
The Ice Storm tries its best to identity itself with the dark heart of the early ’70s.
Like Criterion’s magnificent Paul Robeson box set from early last year, it reintroduces us to a performer whose gift was ahead of its time.