Author: Press Room

First: the vocals. Lucy’s always been a hard vocalist to classify, intensely emotive but largely separate from the monster-growl arms race. They can rap double-time pyrotechnics, stack gorgeous falsetto harmonies, or get gummy rhythmic cadences out of their presets, and they often vary their mixing to obscure the connection with a central performer that you’d expect from even the haziest or most abstract rap music. The way Lucy inhabits the beat on the UNMUSIQUE-reminiscent “SAFESPACE”—as just one cut-up electronic layer seething out of the machine—makes them come off more like a hologram or a vocaloid. On “ALL SPEAKERS GO TO…

In the opening moments of MNEK’s second album, the artist gives listeners a warning: They can “turn a bad boy to a bad bitch in seconds.” It’s as if they’re saying, “Press play on BULLDOZER!!, and prepare for your vibe to change.” That confidence is well-earned—the London-based producer, whose real name is Uzo Emenike, has been shaping pop from behind the boards for well over a decade, working alongside everyone from Beyoncé to Gorgon City to Stormzy. Most recently, MNEK teamed back up with Zara Larsson for her slow-burn breakout Midnight Sun (and its corresponding remix album), reaffirming their command…

So many of Liz Harris’ vocals coil down a winding path, beckoning listeners to trail them just before they vanish around a corner. Take “Disengaged,” or “Alien Observer,” or “Clearing”: In all these songs from her solo project Grouper, the Oregon-based musician keeps singing past the point where a more conventional lyricist might dip into a line break. Her darkly psychedelic accumulations let their language sprawl. On Linda’s Head, the second album from the shoegaze power trio Helen, Harris delivers some of the most succinct and percussive couplets of her career. “I like it/And I want this,” she declares on…

Donald Trump’s war on Iran has upended his second term, devastating the U.S. economy and sending his approval numbers spiraling down the drain. Now, facing midterm elections in which his party might get taken to the cleaners, the White House is reportedly planning a last-minute gambit to drum up support: more war with Iran. According to a report in The Atlantic, the Trump administration is considering a new strike on Iran before the midterm elections, after a period of relative peace over the past several weeks. The report, citing two administration officials, claims that the White House asked U.S. Central…

Pharrell Williams is pushing to dismiss the lawsuit from his Neptunes partner Chad Hugo, arguing that after three years and three versions of the complaint, Hugo still hasn’t clearly identified a copyright claim that belongs in federal court. In a new filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Williams and his lawyers say Hugo named no specific songs in his original complaint, identifying only the album No One Ever Really Dies. An amended complaint later listed eight songs that were not on that album, but Hugo dropped all eight from a second amended complaint filed last month. The latest version of the…

You can get discounts on movies during October Prime Day, and Barnes & Noble is running its own 40% deal on horror flicks If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. In case you haven’t heard, physical media is having a moment. CD sales are booming, and there’s a loyal cohort of movie buffs who are ride-or-die Blu-ray fans. Whether you’re talking about movies or music, the reasons for the ongoing demand for little shiny discs are similar; there’s a tactile joy of popping open the…

Phish will play their 100th concert at Madison Square Garden this winter. The gig, on Jan. 2, will conclude a four-night run at the legendary New York venue scheduled around New Year’s Eve. Ticketmaster is already running a ticket request campaign for the four-night run. Tickets will go on sale officially to the general public at noon on Oct. 16. Travel packages will go on sale on the band’s website at noon ET on Thursday. The band played their first gig at the Garden on Dec. 30, 1994. Since then, they’ve played regular gigs and residencies there, including a 13-show…

Two months after the Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, her office has moved to allocate new funds for a controversial clinical trial of the hepatitis B vaccine in Guinea-Bissau, which was previously suspended. Researchers revised the study protocol in January, amid an international uproar over medical ethics. While it is not clear how much Schwartz was involved in, or knew about, the budget requests from her office, her appointment to the directorship came amid questions about how independent she would be from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.…

A former player for the Riverside Church basketball program was awarded $11.3 million by a New York jury Wednesday for the sexual abuse he suffered decades ago as a teenage member of the once-vaunted youth team.  The plaintiff, identified in court documents by his initials, J.M., testified in state Supreme Court in lower Manhattan last week that he was sexually abused “eight or nine” times in the spring of 1978 by Riverside’s former sports program director, Ernest “Ernie” Lorch. J.M., now 63, was 14 years old at the time of the abuse and living in a single-parent household in the…

The War on Drugs’ keyboardist Robbie Bennett has two new albums dropping before the year is up. Both Steloken and Circulation will arrive on December 11 via American Dreams, adding 29 new tracks in total to Bennett’s solo catalog. Yesterday, he shared one song from each album; listen to “Sister” (from Steloken) and “The Light on Your Face” (from Circulation) below.Both albums follow Bennett’s 2020 solo debut, Permanent World. He developed each track using the same keyboard he plays in the War on Drugs, but made them by sending MIDI from an acoustic player piano into an Oberheim OB-X8 synthesizer,…