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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Three new songs from established acts speak to the times: "Ghosts," by Bruce Springsteen; "Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate," by Stevie Wonder; and "Didn't Want to Be This Lonely," by The Pretenders.
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Once known as a loud bar band, Low Cut Connie bends classic rock to meet ever-more complex emotionalism. The resulting album is filled with songs about lovers, losers and beautiful dreamers.
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Prince's creativity is more impressive than ever on a new version of his highly praised 1987 album — now with three discs of previously unreleased material.
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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 B provide a much-needed jolt for the COVID era.