On his English-language debut, Latin superstar Prince Royce aims to prove himself the crossover heir to Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias. The Bronx-born singer, 26, pulls out all the stops, enlisting an army of producers and guests like Snoop Dogg, Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez. But Double Vision lacks focus, failing… Source: RollingStone Link: Double Vision

Ashley Monroe refuses to choose sides in the feud between commercial country and the “alt” variety. Her third LP imagines a 2015 mainstream by reflecting what it once was — Loretta and Dolly in the Sixties, sure, but also Emmylou in the Eighties and Reba in the Nineties. Witness the title… Source: RollingStone Link: The Blade

“Here we come from another time,” Chuck D raps on Public Enemy’s 13th studio album. In fact, PE’s iconic rap radicalism is as timely as ever in the era of Black Lives Matter, and a couple of tracks here push an argument for their relevance by echoing the spacey minimalism… Source: RollingStone Link: Man Plans […]

On the hidden track tucked at the end of this U.K. band’s debut, singer-guitarist Ellie Rowsell strums her guitar on a demo-quality recording that recalls Liz Phair’s low-fi-grail Girly Sound tapes from 1991. “Teach me rock & roll,” she sings with breathy anticipation. That sense of open-ended self-discovery suffuses every… Source: RollingStone Link: My Love […]

Nearly a quarter-century after it was released, Pavement’s 1992 debut, Slanted and Enchanted, is still arguably the greatest indie-rock LP of all time — an offhand masterwork of magic-hour guitar static, thrift-shop melodic charm and singer-guitarist Stephen Malkmus’ poker-faced romanticism. Pavement were on an amazing run at the time, keeping their… Source: RollingStone Link: The Secret […]

If you always dreamed you’d get a chance to hear Natalie Imbruglia sing “I Melt With You,” your future just got a little more open wide. This Australian pop thrush broke hearts around the world back in the Nineties with her classic karaoke weeper “Torn,” and Male has that same… Source: RollingStone Link: Male

“I’m not an outlaw country singer,” Luke Bryan recently informed a journalist. No shit: He’s a platinum-selling bro-country standard-bearer, a stadium-packing spring-break soundtracker, a good ol’ boy you could bring home to Mom — a pop star with a drawl, a ball cap and a Chevy Z71 full of cheeseball power-ballad… Source: RollingStone Link: Kill the […]

Lil B has been a cult hero since the glory days of MySpace. To many people, that’s still all he is — a stand-in for all the kids who yell “swag swag,” for everyone who’s still doing the cooking dance or signing their tweets “Thank You Based God.” But the Bay Area… Source: RollingStone Link: Free (Based […]

Released in 1982, two years after the death of drummer John Bonham, Coda was a late goodbye from the rest of Led Zeppelin — singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones and founding guitarist Jimmy Page — and paltry closure for everyone else: a mere half-hour of outtakes, including a drum solo…. Source: RollingStone Link: Coda (Reissue)

While Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas uses his time outside the band to pursue his artier impulses, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. packs his third solo disc with the band’s signature crisp melodies, curt guitar churn and New Wave synth ripple. As a singer and lyricist, though, Hammond has an openhearted, somewhat… Source: RollingStone Link: Momentary Masters