Hearing Things

“There’s all this slacker rock where people pretend they don’t care. We care a lot. Our veins are popping out of our necks trying to make this music.” hearingthings.co/nyc-electropun…

Now on our podcast Waste or Taste: J Balvin, Amber Mark, and Steve Vai's methed-out World Cup song, horny country music, Earl Sweatshirt, and more hearingthings.co/does-horny-mus…

You don’t just show up to breakfast with a stranger and stick your finger directly in the mother wound over pancakes and eggs. That kind of talk is for the cigarette afterwards. hearingthings.co/jana-horn-prof…

Dancefloor evangelist Joshua Idehen goes deep on the indelible lyrics that led him to create the most life-affirming album of 2026 so far hearingthings.co/breakout-club-…

It’s a beautiful thing that Gordon remains so committed to exploring music’s bleeding edge hearingthings.co/kim-gordon-is-…

“I didn’t want cringiness to stand in the way of telling myself that I deserve to be loved, and that is more important than any desire to be cool,” says Joshua Idehen of his album’s clubby self-help bent. “Plus, I’m 45—cool is no longer affordable to me.” hearingthings.co/breakout-club-…

Hudson Freeman's “If You Know Me” clip has around 7 million views across the big video platforms—which is ironic considering that it's a song about how online life is nothing but an illusion that tricks us into thinking we know each other, and ourselves hearingthings.co/hudson-freeman…

For the first official installment of a new column called In Theory, Andy looks at the way a single chord can turn the entire meaning of a song on its head hearingthings.co/townes-van-zan… hearingthings.co/townes-van-zan…

This week, we've got a raucous homage to the power of good goss, a Brooklyn duo finding elegantly finding their way beyond virality, an electro-rock cut that's oddly reminiscent of 'Blackout'-era Britney, and more hearingthings.co/aldous-harding… hearingthings.co/aldous-harding…

One recent Underscores song is like if “SexyBack”-era JT and Britney circa 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘵 morphed into a single pop entity whose music was as gloriously deconstructed as their matching denim outfits hearingthings.co/safe-in-the-bo…

One minute, he’s serenading a love interest over 808s, bass, and finger snaps while sounding like rap game Snagglepuss; the next, he’s crooning about missed connections over New Edition-style R&B or hitting double-time flows over minimal sexy drill hearingthings.co/joshua-idehen-…

“A writer told me my work was like background music in a restaurant. Like something you don’t really listen to, it’s just there. It was extremely traumatizing, but it also changed my whole writing. I’m actually really grateful for that awful moment.” hearingthings.co/jana-horn-prof…

In which we consider the pluses and minuses of relocating to Jessie Ware's rich-bitch disco nirvana hearingthings.co/lana-del-reys-…

"The zaps are so alien and weird, but absolutely necessary. It’s one of those songs that I blast on my Bluetooth speaker while biking, which makes me go dangerously fast." hearingthings.co/zora-jones-bre…

Lila Downs and Snow Tha Product's “Cambias mi mundo” is a powerful cumbia devotional, but there’s a deeper message—about womanhood, about protecting self and community, about maintaining your dignity and values in the face of adversity hearingthings.co/safe-in-the-bo…

What can I say: Lana Del Rey's creep-out ode to her gator-loving husband goes directly onto my personal playlist of the singer's greatest hits hearingthings.co/lana-del-reys-…

“Maybe I’m getting the majority of my money through Spotify, but I’m finally in a position to be able to live and to pay my bandmates and the people that record my music and make my videos. Is it really selling out for me to be able to pay my friends?” hearingthings.co/hudson-freeman…

While you can and should dance to Muna's "Dancing on the Wall," which sounds like it could have played on the radio alongside Lionel Richie in the ’80s, it’s more of a crying-in-the-club anthem than a wedding staple hearingthings.co/safe-in-the-bo…

The newly formed duo GENA, composed of Texas-born singer-songwriter Liv.e and Detroit producer Karriem Riggins, speak on love, comfort, the relationship between jazz, rap, and soul, and their debut album 'The Pleasure Is Yours' hearingthings.co/liv-e-karriem-…

Discussed on the new episode of our subscribers-only podcast Waste or Taste: Lana Del Rey's gator-loving husband, Jessie Ware's Ennio Morricone samples, Angine de Poitrine's polarizing costumed math-rock hearingthings.co/lana-del-reys-…