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MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Nitsuh Abebe

  1. radio vulture
    Why Miley Cyrus’s ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ Became the Osama Bin Laden Death AnthemThe song’s YouTube video page was flooded with Bin Laden comments last night.
  2. radio vulture
    Why Poly Styrene’s Voice Was Anything But DisposableThe punk singer created a fierce style for female vocalists.
  3. radio vulture
    Hip-Hop Roundup: DJ Quik Soundtracks the Barbecue, Cam’ron Studies Macroeconomics, and Curren$y Smokes OutThree new hip-hop albums reviewed.
  4. radio vulture
    Tune-Yards: Big Ideas for Wild Dance Parties’W h o k i l l’ is a truly original album that mixes raw African pop and contemporary classical rhythms with fascinating lyrics about American class inequality and racial dynamics.
  5. radio vulture
    The Trials of Growing Up Jangly: Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, and the Pains of Being Pure at HeartJangly sixties indie-pop bands tend to have short shelf lives, but these three are profitably stubborn.
  6. radio vulture
    Why Tepid Reviews of TV on the Radio’s Nine Types of Light Are Actually a Good SignThe new album from a critics’ favorite is quieter than usual.
  7. radio vulture
    Panda Bear’s Tomboy Is Animal Collective’s Latest Magic TrickIf you combed through the catalogues of Animal Collective and its members, you’d probably find them pillaging every last variety of purpose-based and communal music.
  8. radio vulture
    Katy B: Dance-Pop Is for Humans After AllWarm, playful dance music that stands in contrast to Britney Spears’s slightly overpraised robotics.
  9. radio vulture
    Good-bye, LCD Soundsystem: James Murphy’s Art of Hopeless CommitmentHow a band that once seemed to be satirizing hipsters wound up asking real questions about functioning as an adult.
  10. radio vulture
    Why Everybody Loves Odd FutureThe level of energy surrounding the L.A. hip-hop collective at SXSW last week was incredibly high.
  11. radio vulture
    SXSW Diary: Sissy Bounce, the Strokes, and Keith MorrisSissy bounce, a variant of New Orleans bounce music, is rigorously focused on ass-shaking.
  12. radio vulture
    SXSW Diary: Hip-Hop Confronts Middle AgeOur critic sees Yelawolf, Mac Miller, the Joy Formidable, and Raphael Saadiq in Austin.
  13. Easy ListeningThe Strokes’ first album in five years says more about cooperation than creativity.
  14. radio vulture
    SXSW Diary: Pitchfork’s Concert, 3D Wayfarers, and Status AnxietyOur music critic gets hopelessly immersed in the mega-mega festival, and tries not to worry about missing out on something cooler happening elsewhere.
  15. radio vulture
    Avril Lavigne Is Still Trying to Grow Up on Goodbye Lullaby’Goodbye Lullaby’ has one foot in Lavigne’s skateboard past, and one in a more mature yet inarticulate twentysomething future.
  16. radio vulture
    Brasher Is Better for Lykke Li on Wounded RhymesThe Swedish singer is charmingly intense on her new album.
  17. radio vulture
    Adele’s 21: It’s the Singer, Not the SongThe English soul singer Adele shines brightest on her bad songs.
  18. radio vulture
    Radiohead’s The King of Limbs: What Happens When ‘Serious Listening’ Is Your BrandRadiohead has trained fans to follow them further and further from their original rock template. This coy, unobtrusive new album captures the pleasures and danger of this approach.
  19. radio vulture
    Arcade Fire, and the ‘Never Heard of It’ GrammysSunday night’s Grammy Awards seemed to have an unofficial theme: “People Tweeting That They Don’t Know Who People Are.”
  20. radio vulture
    Lady Gaga Keeps It Simple on ‘Born This Way’ — and That’s CleverHer new single “Born This Way” is simple, gleeful disco.
  21. Lady EnglandPJ Harvey addresses her country’s history of war with mordant wit and a beat you can (almost) dance to.
  22. radio vulture
    Hercules and Love Affair and the Dirtbombs Send Classic House and Techno Love LettersWould you believe a garage rock band can cover Detroit techno?
  23. Sonic BloomBritain’s James Blake made esoteric electronic music, when all he really wanted to do was sing.
  24. radio vulture
    The Strokes Sound Nostalgic for Themselves on Their New SingleWord is “Under Cover of Darkness” is a return to form. Well, yes and no.
  25. radio vulture
    Tennis’s Cozy Sailing Excursion and the Guilty Indie FanPlus reviews of new albums by Braids, Fergus and Geronimo, and Smith Westerns.
  26. Despicable FamiliarityI knew I would like the oddball indie band Destroyer. Which is exactly why I avoided it.
  27. radio vulture
    Celebrating Prince With Prince at Madison Square GardenA quick breakdown of Prince’s two-hour, fifteen-minute show at Madison Square Garden last night.
  28. Sounds UnbelievableWhy golden voices make for the best feel-good stories.
  29. radio vulture
    Remembering Trish Keenan, the Extraordinary Singer for BroadcastSome of us will miss her a great deal, and be glad for what music we have.
  30. radio vulture
    M.I.A.: Behind the Backlash to the BacklashWhy the controversial singer/rapper had such a difficult year in 2010, and — after a new mixtape and remix EP — 2011 looks better.
  31. radio vulture
    Sympathy for Toby Keith, Author of Arizona Gunplay Ballad ‘Bullets in the Gun’The controversial country singer’s current chart song features some unfortunate lyrics.
  32. The Greatest Song“New York State of Mind,” “Across 110th Street,” or “Too Many Creeps”?
  33. radio vulture
    Weekend and Buke&Gass: Two Fall Sleeper Albums Worth Catching Up WithIndie rock that stuck with our critic through the winter.
  34. radio vulture
    R. Kelly Would Like to Beg for Your Forgiveness on New Album Love LetterOn this homage to classic sixties soul, the loopy Lothario sounds vaguely contrite about something or other that’s never specifically named.
  35. radio vulture
    Could Diddy’s Arty Electronic Epic Be More Interesting Than Kanye’s Art-Rocky One?’Last Train to Paris’ has more in common with ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ than you might think.
  36. radio vulture
    The Joy of Shredding: Notes on Camp GuitarThe “Shred For Your Life” guitar solo competition unleashes fierce energy.
  37. radio vulture
    David Lynch, Seminal MusicianThe director’s new single is just the latest act in a long career of great music-making.
  38. radio vulture
    Let’s All Just Sit for a Minute and Appreciate Jazmine Sullivan’s VoiceThe 23-year-old R&B singer has a powerful instrument — but she’s most effective when she restrains it.
  39. radio vulture
    Party Down: Katy Perry on America’s Glorious Past, Ke$ha on Our Postapocalyptic FuturePerry’s the popular girl, and Ke$ha’s the ratty upstart, but I can’t help thinking of them in terms of something larger.
  40. The Year in PopYou’ve probably heard or read, many times over, that the world of music is a fragmented one—all of us paying attention to our own personal scene […]
  41. radio vulture
    Daft Punk Bursts the Tron BubbleDaft Punk + ‘Tron’ was a perfect combination — until we heard the soundtrack.
  42. radio vulture
    Nicki Minaj and Rihanna: Acting Out vs. Staying PrivateOn her much-anticipated debut album, ‘Pink Friday,’ rapper Minaj’s role-play creates interesting contradictions, while Rihanna’s attempt to get ‘Loud’ masks a quiet, appealing smugness. Nitsuh Abebe reviews.
  43. radio vulture
    Girl Talk: America’s Coolest Wedding D.J.Gregg Gillis is extremely well attuned to the modern American party canon.
  44. comparative lit
    New Books From Jay-Z and Stephen Sondheim: A Vulture IM DebateNitsuh Abebe and Christopher Bonanos of ‘New York’ met up via instant messenger to do a little comparative-lit exercise.
  45. radio vulture
    Filthy, Rich: Kanye West’s Royal FantasyOn his new album, the rapper mixes opulence with dirt.
  46. radio vulture
    Susan Boyle Has a Gloomy Christmas Gift for YouTake the frumpy Scottish sensation with you into a pit of depression this holiday season!
  47. Dirtbag RockSalem’s nasty sound is sparking debate among indie fans, who like their bands a little more scrubbed.
  48. annotated guides
    Henry Rollins vs. Hipsters: The Annotated GuideExplicating an improvised text on aging, class, and Henry Rollins’s hang-ups.
  49. radio vulture
    Neil Diamond’s Songs For Monkees Fan Funerals; the Burdens of the ‘For Colored Girls’ SoundtrackTwo new albums weighed down by solemnity.
  50. radio vulture
    Brooklyn Light and Dark: New Albums From Matt & Kim and ViolensMatt & Kim have an odd problem: Their music might be too easy to like.
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