Ryan Reed is a writer, editor, professor and record collector with regular bylines at Rolling Stone, Relix, Ultimate Classic Rock and Revolver. He’s also contributed to Billboard, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Esquire and Salon, among other outlets. He currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with his wife, two dogs and cat.
"One of the funnest things for me is moving on [from an album]," says My Morning Jacket's Jim James. "Not really worrying about it anymore or looking back." It's ironic timing: The brawny psych-rock band just released The Waterfall II, the long-awaited "sequel" to their 2015 LP. As he's quick to emphasize, these songs aren't leftovers or B-sides—they were recorded…
Even the best rock bands follow a sad life cycle seemingly embedded in their DNA: As retirement age approaches, the desire to innovate—and be brazenly weird—often flickers and fades, like a lightbulb on its last legs. But Sparks are not a normal rock band—if they can even be described as "rock," or even a "band." Since the group's formation in…
"We will not bow down to racism," Vanessa Williams sings in a warm gospel a cappella, answered by SWV's soothing melisma and three-part harmonies: "We will not bow down to injustice." That's the intro to "Freedom," a mega-collaboration featuring over 60 Black women from R&B, rap and pop. 25 years later, it feels more like a national anthem for those fighting institutional…
Peter Gabriel's first two albums are full of brilliant moments: the cinematic 7/8 saunter of "Solsbury Hill," the spooky art-funk atmospheres of "Exposure," the creepy-crawly grooves on "Moribund the Burgermeister." But they showcased a songwriter searching for an identity, working with famous producers (Bob Ezrin on his 1977 debut, King Crimson's Robert Fripp on his 1978 follow-up) and exploring new sounds on each…
Nigel Godrich likes to make music that sounds like you can see it. “Everything is very visual to me," he says in a recent interview with the Recording Academy. The GRAMMY-winning producer from London has produced for iconic names in music including Beck, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters and Radiohead, whom he's essentially served as a non-touring sixth member since the…
In a decade when most of his '70s rock god peers have either retired or settled comfortably into life as a nostalgia-fueled touring act, Robert Plant reached a creative zenith. The former Led Zeppelin frontman released two of his most cinematic LPs, 2014's lullaby… and The Ceaseless Roar and 2017's Carry Fire, in his late '60s—the latest artful chapter in a…
