Taking Responsibility for Refugees
The recent Italian films The Life Ahead (La vita davanti a sé) and Mom to Hundreds (Tutto il giorno davanti) thematise the plight of underage migrants from the developing world, seeking to extract maximum sentiment from audiences.(...)
Solo Tutto, by Massimo Pericolo
Unlike so many of the records that fall under the rubric of rap these days, Massimo Pericolo’s Solo Tutto remembers what the term originally meant.(...)
AAI, by Mouse on Mars
AAI, the new album by storied German electronic group Mouse on Mars, is the rare concept album in which form and content are equals.(...)
The Committed, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
“Why should I worry about deviating from the masses when I am also me and myself? Am I not a mass? Am I not already a collective? Do I not contain multitudes?” (...)
The Glitterbeat Guide to Globalisation
Hamburg-based record label Glitterbeat provides a beacon of hope, not only for music lovers tired of hearing endless iterations of the tried-and-true, but for anyone who believes unapologetic cosmopolitanism is our only gateway to a brighter future.(...)
Mush’s Lines Redacted
It’s not easy for popular music to surprise these days. And it’s even harder for it to pull off that feat without becoming perverse or pretentious in the process.(...)
Al Zlogar’s America on Fire
America on Fire captures a time that simultaneously feels like a distant past and an endless present.(...)
The Buzzcocks’ Complete UA Singles 1977-1980
Next to the Sex Pistols and the Clash, the Buzzcocks were probably the most important British punk band. And, although they never attained the international notoriety of those other groups, they were in many ways the most influential of all.(...)
Illuminine’s Baptism of Solitude
Baptism of Solitude, the sumptuous new album by Illuminine, came at the perfect time for me.(...)