Ken Tucker
Ken Tucker reviews rock, country, hip-hop and pop music for Fresh Air. He is a cultural critic who has been the editor-at-large at Entertainment Weekly, and a film critic for New York Magazine. His work has won two National Magazine Awards and two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards. He has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and other publications.
Tucker is the author of Scarface Nation: The Ultimate Gangster Movie and Kissing Bill O'Reilly, Roasting Miss Piggy: 100 Things to Love and Hate About Television.
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Guyton's hit song, off her EP Bridges, is about feeling like a stranger in one's own land. The issues Guyton raises pose new challenges — not just to country music, but to our country itself.
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The musical trio met in college and are now making some of the catchiest tunes around. Their sound features a guitarist, a drummer and one lead singer — who's also a classically trained cellist.
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Looking for music that's soothing without being sentimental? Listen to "Guilty," by Courtney Marie Andrews; "Sleeping Without You Is a Dragg," by Swamp Dogg; and "End of My Rope," by Pokey LaFarge.
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Swift's eighth studio album came as a surprise. In the isolation of the past months, she's cooked up a yeasty kind of sugar-free pop that rises above much recent music-making.
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The new album by three Los Angeles sisters feels like it was meant to be blasted loud in your car as you try to time all the green lights along Sunset Boulevard.
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The good songs on Dylan's latest record inflate with interest; the mediocre songs start to shrink and slink away. And there's a striking amount of upbeat rhythm & blues on the album.
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The electric instrumentation of Lady Gaga's flashy disco record Chromatica and Carly Rae Jepsen's Dedicated Side Bprovide a much-needed jolt for the COVID era.
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X's first album 35 years takes its place alongside the best work they've ever done. The music on Alphabetland is the sound of X snatching back its past in order to fuel the music of its future.
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The pop singer's smart and snappy second album is a '70s and '80s disco throwback. The record immediately stands out from nearly all current popular music for its sheer, bursting joyfulness.
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The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, who died April 7, took a journeyman's pride in unifying metaphor and metrical precision. Prine's eccentric music served him — and us — well for five decades.