The singer has yet to discover a sound or sensibility that truly distinguishes her.
The rapper’s fourth album is filled with rhetorical mini-masterclasses in verbal self-defense.
A loosely structured song cycle, the album is the singer’s most personal effort since My December.
The album is rooted in anger, but the more melodic passages express it without becoming trapped by it.
With her new single, the singer/rapper nods to the Verve, Madonna, and ’90s hip-hop.
The album is defined by the quality, craftsmanship, and epic-ness we’ve come to expect.
The album emphasizes the rapper’s Atlanta heritage by harkening back to both his past and Southern rap.
The abum’s best moments prove that the band can still reliably deliver left-of-center alt-rock thrills.
The track is a transgressive, capital-S statement that isn’t spit-shined for mass consumption.
Throughout, Lewis grapples with the quirks and perils of relationships with humor and honesty.
A refreshing assuredness permeates the entirety of the singer’s fourth album.
The album is the culmination of the French singer’s ambitious approach to pop conventions.
The irony of the album’s gussied-up nature is that its best songs are often the most direct.
The album is an economical calling card and the sound of a band coming into their own.
In 2003, both artists faced charges of “selling out” with pop albums which require no apologies.
The music is notably grimmer than the lyrics, but even its lyrical themes return again and again to the subject of isolation.
The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, and Madonna wax poetic on the perils of fame.
The album amounts to a relatively familiar reflection on aging and the passage of time.
The album expands the scope of the band’s music by incorporating disparate styles and dynamics.
The album aims to showcase a more meditative side to the customarily libertine Chicago rapper but is only partly successful.
Notwithstanding a few interesting compositional quirks, the album feels like an imitation of Thom Yorke’s saturnine shtick.