Into The Music
John Congleton Produces the Records That Know What They Want to Be
John Congleton has become one of the defining producers of a particular strand of indie and alternative rock, and the list of artists who have worked with him...
Deep Dives
Long-form essays on the albums, artists, and moments that shaped music history.
Featured Deep Dive
Still Here: What It Means When a Dead Artist Shows Up on a New Album
Mac Miller has been dead since September 2018. He was 26. This week, he appeared on a new Thundercat album, performing on a funk groove called “She Knows...
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April 3 Is One of the Best Single Release Days in Recent Memory. Here’s What to Listen To.
April 3, 2026 is one of the more significant single release days in recent memory. The albums hitting on Friday: Arlo Parks’ Ambiguous Desire, Thundercat’s Distracted, Charley Crockett’s...
Paul McCartney’s The Boys of Dungeon Lane: Before the Beatles, There Were the Boys
Paul McCartney announcing an album about pre-Beatles Liverpool at 83 is one of those events that sounds like it should be a farewell or a legacy project but...
How $uicideboy$ Went From SoundCloud to Arenas Without Changing for Anyone
$uicideboy$ headlining arenas in 2026 is a data point in one of the more interesting commercial stories in contemporary music: the mainstreaming of what was recently underground rap....
T Bone Burnett and the Map of American Music
T Bone Burnett is the producer who has been building a map of American music for decades, and his career is worth examining as a coherent project rather...
Dave Cobb and the Sound of American Music Right Now
Dave Cobb has become the defining producer of a particular strand of American music in the 2020s, and the volume and consistency of his work makes him worth...
Miranda Lambert, Ella Langley, and the Quiet Work of Mentorship in Country Music
Miranda Lambert executive producing Ella Langley’s Dandelion is a specific kind of artistic gesture that’s worth examining. Lambert is one of the most commercially successful and creatively consistent...
Britney Spears Sold Her Catalog for $200 Million. Here’s What That Actually Means.
Britney Spears sold her music catalog to Primary Wave for an estimated $200 million in a deal finalized in December 2025 and announced in February 2026. The sale...
Eddie Dalton, AI Music, and the Specific Questions We Keep Avoiding
Eddie Dalton’s iTunes success is the case study the music industry has been both dreading and expecting. An AI-generated persona, built around a culturally specific image, making music...
Physical First, Stream Later: What Sturgill Simpson’s Release Strategy Says About Who Music Is For
Sturgill Simpson releasing Mutiny After Midnight as a physical-only album initially, with streaming to follow, is a decision that sits in a long tradition of artists using format...