PopMatters

PopMatters is a global online publication focused on cultural critique, exploring various facets of popular culture. The magazine features reviews, interviews, and in-depth essays about a wide range of cultural items and expressions, including music, TV shows, movies, literature, video games, comics, sports, theater, visual arts, travel, and online culture.

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The Hold Steady's 'Separation Sunday' Remains a Dense and Brilliant Masterpiece " PopMatters

1 day ago | popmatters.com | Patrick Gill

Separation Sunday Frenchkiss The first time I heard the Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday, I thought there must be some kind of mistake. This couldn’t be the band earning critical acclaim and making year-end lists. Who would want to listen to some guy scat-singing over bar music, especially this obscure kind that integrated blues guitar licks, organ notes, and tender piano chords as if it were all part of the same style?
Mogwai's Legendary Enigma Explored in New Documentary " PopMatters

2 days ago | popmatters.com | Christopher J. Lee

Mogwai: If The Stars Had a Sound Lightbulb Film Distribution There is an early moment in Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound when John Peel, the esteemed BBC presenter, is quoted as saying he never thought Mogwai would gain wide acclaim. Peel made this remark as a diehard fan, and his assessment seems fair.
'Lord of the Flies' 2025 or: How the Empire Struck Inward » PopMatters

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Charles Switzer

Lord of the Flies (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Penguin With the 2020s halfway over, the past seems painful yet tangible, the present chaotic, and the future… well, perhaps just an exercise in retaining the core of humanity’s soul in a world increasingly like that of Lord of the Flies. For many, emotional trauma seems to be life’s painful act of branding — hollowing out or ending lives long before the nursing home.
MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of April 2025 » PopMatters

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Spyros Stasis

It is always nice to see how varied the trends within a genre can be. Take death metal, for instance, where Ancient Death and Diabolizer represent two vastly different strands. The former are informed by Timeghoul’s off-kilter progressive visions, which Blood Incantation brought back to prominence with their early works. The latter find purpose in the brutal death metal scene, as it was baptized in the early 1990s.
Irma Thomas and Galactic Create Magic Funky Soul » PopMatters

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Rich Wilhelm

Audience with the Queen Tchuop-Zilla Records Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”, has teamed up with that city’s beloved funk band, Galactic, to deliver a joyful and life-affirming new album, Audience with the Queen. While acknowledging that some things aren’t great right now, the LP brims over with love and hope, and fabulous music. Audience with the Queen is the perfect fusion of classic soul and 21st-century funk that many of us could use right now.
Marty Stuart Goes West (and Beyond) with 'Space Junk' " PopMatters

1 week ago | popmatters.com | Justin Cober-Lake

Space Junk Snakefarm It takes all of two seconds of Space Junk to realize what Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are up to. That alternate-picked run is straight out of the surf rock playbook; Dick Dale would be proud. Stuart has played a little bit of everything over the years, and while he’s more known for country, bluegrass, and rockabilly, the turn to surf rock isn’t out of character (and has been part of his repertoire for years).
The Convenience Supercharge the Amps on Rocking LP » PopMatters

2 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Chris Ingalls

Like Cartoon Vampires Winspear Accelerator, the first album from New Orleans-based duo the Convenience – multi-instrumentalists Nick Corson and Duncan Troast – was released in 2021 and was a joyous celebration of drum machines, synths, and sugary hooks.
'The Bermuda Triangle' Hits the Spooky Pseudo-Science Spot " PopMatters

2 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Michael Barrett

The Bermuda Triangle Kino Lorber Does anyone still follow the hocus pocus about the Bermuda Triangle? Maybe you do, or maybe it’s all Greek (or Atlantean) to you, but you’ll gain a little insight and a lot of nonsense on this far-reaching phenomenon in Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray of a 1979 “documentary”. As a concept, the alleged triangular stretch of ocean between Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto Rico is a vortex that, like a black hole, pulls a vast array of paranormal tropes into its maw.
Goose's Attempt to Solve the Studio Album Puzzle Is Superb " PopMatters

2 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Patrick Gill

Everything Must Go No Coincidence The most popular jam bands have a tough go of it when it comes to studio albums. They will never capture the singularity of a live show, which varies not just in terms of setlist but in how each song is played. What ends up being featured, the length of a jam, or a nod to another work gets cemented in lore and shared amongst fans, like a badge of honor they wear just because they heard it or, God-forbid, they were there.
‘Drop Dead City’ Finds New York’s Soul at Its Lowest » PopMatters

2 weeks ago | popmatters.com | Chris Barsanti

Drop Dead City Pangloss Some might think we have had enough documentaries about New York City in the mid-to-late 1970s. These people can be described as misinformed, misled, or simply missing the point. There is a good reason filmmakers continue to produce documentaries about this period, and will likely do so as long as the form exists, as they do again with Drop Dead City.