Katie Presley
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The first solo album from the former Distillers singer feels like a time capsule from the '90s — when powerful, not conventionally pretty vocals attained massive mainstream cultural capital.
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The noise-punk band's debut album is both exhausting and deeply compelling — it's almost intoxicating how easy it is to put all 23 minutes of Say Yes to Love on repeat several times in a row.
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Every defiant growl, jaded vocal fry and distorted guitar lick on Annie Clark's fourth album flirts with the avant garde, yet uses an accessible, if inventive, musical vocabulary to do so.
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The music Ari Picker makes with his band is masterful at eliciting sweeping emotional responses, and at ensuring that a single emotion never dominates any one piece.
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Alynda Lee Segarra might have the mellowest, kindest voice that's ever told us to rip up what we know and start again.
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The power of Kidjo's unflappable voice, the range of her emotional expression, the stellar musicians who back her and the infectious energy that courses through her songs transcend any native tongue.