Hearing Things
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Independent music journalism. No algorithms. We promise.
Did you know Hearing Things members who sign up for our Audiophile tier receive an exclusive piece of merch every year? It’s true! Subscribe now at a discounted rate to get some sweet HT swag (cat not included).
New Hearing Things Merch Alert
Upgrade your membership at an exclusive discount to secure your custom HT slipmat and receive a playlist just for you.
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45 years worth of dub and reggae rarities! Gritty instrumental boom-bap straight from the Motor City! Dembow-Afropop-baile funk fusion! All this and more in this week's edition of Five Albums.
A Legend's Technicolor Dub Extravaganza
Plus a Detroit veteran's velour instrumental album, a Ghanaian-American pop star's kaleidoscopic mixtape, a digicore wunderkind's groovy new EP, and an indie rock stalwart's rage against the industry's little boxes
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The only way you can get your hands on one of our exclusive new Hearing Things slipmats is by becoming a yearly Audiophile subscriber—which, for a limited time, we are offering at a discounted rate
New Hearing Things Merch Alert
Upgrade your membership at an exclusive discount to secure your custom HT slipmat and receive a playlist just for you.
hearingthings.co
Make choices about what you want to hear and when you want to hear it. Resist the idea that your every mood and action require a soundtrack, an idea that Spotify is invested in pushing for a reason. www.hearingthings.co/stop-listeni...
Stop Listening to Music
...at least from time to time.
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Polyrhythmic Mellotron flute riffs, piano runs that sound like 16-bit video game power-ups, live drums that sound like micro-sliced breakbeats, a bass line that might as well have been played on Chapman Stick
Sci-Fi Prog-Pop for Alien Dance Clubs
Plus regret-soaked Americana and haunting Irish folk.
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The Vampire Lestat is the perfect avatar for an old-school rocker who’s delusional about his importance but also in mourning over rock’s fading cultural hegemony (which is to say, his own)
The Last Immortal Rock Star
How ‘The Vampire Lestat’ is resurrecting the archetype of the sexy, sweaty rock frontman.
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Come to this week's Five Albums for Jill's thoughts on Charli's rock-soundtracked struggles between music, fashion, and film stardom; stay for albums powered by cello compositions, hi-fi field recordings, deconstructed footwork, and new-age Memphis hip-hop.
Charli XCX Wants to Run With the Big Dogs
Plus an ultra-rare hi-fi audio collage, a dispatch from a rising Memphis rap star, and deconstructed footwork meant to approximate the chaos of the timeline
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Gatekeeping for taste and quality is a more sound approach than for whether or not someone figured out how to re-create specific hi-hat patterns or what button to press to add the vinyl crackle.
How I Became A Beatmaker (By Watching Other People Make Beats)
A first-time beatmaker’s case for the nuances of developing style and gatekeeping within rap production.
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A first-time beatmaker’s case for the nuances of developing style and a counter to Kenneth Blume's (fka Kenny Beats) recent comments about gatekeeping within rap production.
How I Became A Beatmaker (By Watching Other People Make Beats)
A first-time beatmaker’s case for the nuances of developing style and gatekeeping within rap production.
hearingthings.co
Finding your own style as a beatmaker is important, but gatekeeping knowledge on the process isn't the answer you think it is. Just ask Dylan--or read his blog about his first 10 months of being a producer
How I Became A Beatmaker (By Watching Other People Make Beats)
A first-time beatmaker’s case for the nuances of developing style and gatekeeping within rap production.
hearingthings.co
A legend of underground rap and one of the best new MCs out team up for an album that feels like a friend spitting truths outside the bar after doing a line of coke and a shot of tequila. Its name? 𝘉𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘴, of course.
Nia Archives Has the Range
Plus Four Tet’s un-Googleable new album, Syd’s grown-woman swagger, and a high-wire act of underground rap
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On the latest ep of our podcast Waste or Taste, we go in on our controversial fav songs of 2026, from Drake to Ella Langley www.hearingthings.co/debating-our...
Debating Our Most Controversial Faves of 2026 So Far
The whole HT crew reconvenes for a podcast episode about songs that just might piss some people off.
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A great Four Tet record is hiding under his new and very un-Googleable alias ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ
Nia Archives Has the Range
Plus Four Tet’s un-Googleable new album, Syd’s grown-woman swagger, and a high-wire act of underground rap
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Syd made an album worthy of all her grown-woman swagger. Read our review of 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥:
Nia Archives Has the Range
Plus Four Tet’s un-Googleable new album, Syd’s grown-woman swagger, and a high-wire act of underground rap
hearingthings.co
𝘌𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 is Nia Archives’ main pop girlie record, done in her own edgy way. Read our review:
Nia Archives Has the Range
Plus Four Tet’s un-Googleable new album, Syd’s grown-woman swagger, and a high-wire act of underground rap
hearingthings.co
"People protesting the use of generative AI isn’t going to end it. It’s here. We’re under control."
Alt-Pop Trickster 1010Benja Is Not Scared to Admit He’s Using Generative AI
“If you have it broken down as organic versus AI, the AI is gonna win our world. The good guy doesn’t win this one.”
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Kelela made a future classic with 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘈𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘳, read our Must Hear review
A Future Classic for Alt Black Queer Folks
Plus: Cain Culto shredding on the fiddle like the devil went down to Lexington, and vocals that sound like a gremlin suffocating inside a steel box.
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This week we've got a "Drunk in Love"-era throwback from the queen, the newest signee to one of the world's coolest labels, "a list of problems longer than The Irishman," and more. www.hearingthings.co/post-punk-wi...
Post-Punk With a Touch of Steely Dan
Plus sepia-toned sample loops and a Beyoncé loosie.
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Cain Culto may well be a generational artist, and we’re lucky just to hear him get there.
A Future Classic for Alt Black Queer Folks
Plus: Cain Culto shredding on the fiddle like the devil went down to Lexington, and vocals that sound like a gremlin suffocating inside a steel box.
hearingthings.co
Malesa’s new album is like a nightmare you can’t shake, treacherous and seductive and primal in its madness
A Future Classic for Alt Black Queer Folks
Plus: Cain Culto shredding on the fiddle like the devil went down to Lexington, and vocals that sound like a gremlin suffocating inside a steel box.
hearingthings.co
In the latest installment of our music theory column In Theory, Horse Lords talk about polyrhythm, just intonation, and conveying liberatory politics through sound
Horse Lords' Perpetual Motion Machine
The beloved avant-rock band on polyrhythm, just intonation, and conveying liberatory politics through sound.
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On the Hearing Things podcast, we dig into new music from Phoebe Bridgers and Tierra Whack, plus a head-scratcher from a controversial former Love Island cast member
Where Does Phoebe Bridgers Go From Here?
Podcast dissections of the biggest indie-rock comeback of the year, a rap comeback we didn’t know we needed, and a reality-TV comeback we might not want at all
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For the latest edition of our Words Matter series, we spoke to rapper-producer, model, and skateboarder Navy Blue about how songs by Vashti Bunyan, Broadcast, and Ka inspired his latest album, the searingly reflective Sir Render
Navy Blue on The Lyrics that Changed His Life
The rapper-producer, model, and skateboarder breaks down songs from Vashti Bunyan, Broadcast, and the late Brooklyn rapper Ka
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From Olivia Rodrigo's overly polished third studio album to IDK's trite suburban trap to Slayyyter's too-little-too-late copy/paste of indie sleaze, these are the Hearing Things staff's picks for the most overrated albums of 2026 (so far)
The Five Most Overrated Albums of 2026 (So Far)
Others frothed over these. We did not.
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1010Benja's wild new song exists on the vast musical spectrum between human and AI, a valley of sound we’re just beginning to explore www.hearingthings.co/is-there-a-d...
Is There a Difference Between "AI Music" and "Music Made With AI"?
1010Benja walks the line
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"I refuse to use AI. I don’t want its sweaty little hands all over creative work. Art is an expression of being human that’s transcendent and complex, and the dumbification of that is the last straw for me. That and robot dogs."
Beth Orton Takes the First-Ever HT Questionnaire
The esteemed British singer-songwriter on the most radicalizing moment of her life, wanting to be a criminologist, and a mysterious recent meeting with Kate Bush.
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Though 𝘎𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵 is often challenging, it’s never aggro or willfully obtuse; the prevailing mood is communal optimism, a feeling I’ll take wherever I can get it these days
Queer Reggaetón Mexa and Cerebral Dutch Twee
Plus, an experimental scene veteran drops a suite of communal optimism and a promising young upstart conjures 808s and indie-rock riffs.
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Seeing Catholic symbols recontextualized through Rosalía, a true artist with a goal of elevating women who are often marginalized within organized religion, was uplifting—its own kind of syncreticism within my cobbled-together, agnostic belief system
A Lapsed Catholic Goes to Rosalía’s Ecclesiastical Lux Tour
How the Spanish star uses devotion to push her art to unprecedented places.
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At 32 years old, New York rap staple Wiki is entering a new era. We caught up with him in Seward Park to talk about growing up without aging out, sobriety, and crafting his latest album, Ancient History
A Day in the Park with Wiki
The influential New York rapper soaks in the city’s greenery while talking about growing up without aging out, his struggles with sobriety, and crafting his lush new album, Ancient History.
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On 𝘚𝘰 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘔𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘥, Kelsey Lu’s strength lies in the breadth of their work
An Instant Party-Starter Anywhere on Planet Earth
Plus: a melancholy world of glass-topped coffee tables and Armani suits, and a rapper with a vocab sure to melt even the thickest thesaurus.
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