Matt Williams
The AV Club
Canada
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Past articles by Matt:
5 new releases we love: U.S. Girls, Stephen Malkmus, and more
There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time. You can listen to these and more on our Spotify playlist, and if you like what you hear, we encourage you to purchase featured artists’ music directly at the links provided below. → Read More
5 new releases we love: Brittany Howard goes solo, Vivian Girls return to form, and more
There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time. You can listen to these and more on Spotify. → Read More
Deerhunter’s eighth LP is a sci-fi salve for 21st-century anxiety
The conceit of Deerhunter’s eighth full-length, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?, is that it’s a science-fiction album about the present—the glorious, anxiety-ridden, fear-laden present. It may not be the case that people are more scared than they’ve ever been, though one could make a great argument for it. But we remain inundated, via social media and other information delivery… → Read More
The best country albums of 2018
From one angle, the country music narrative in 2018 was distinguished by consistency. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s easygoing soul-twang confection “Meant To Be” spent a staggering, record-setting 50 weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart, while the vast majority of award winners and chart-toppers are all familiar household names. But dig a little deeper and it becomes clearer that the… → Read More
A-Sides: Sheck Wes, Daniel Avery, A Star Is Born, Reason, and Colter Wall
There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time. → Read More
Cat Power on her life journey of the last six years: "You ready?"
In this interview, Cat Power's Chan Marshall tells us what her life has been like in the last six years before her latest album Wanderer. “Oh my god,” she says. “Okay. You ready?” → Read More
Father John Misty, LUMP, The Dreebs, and more albums to know about this week
Father John Misty reaches the apex of hopelessness on God’s Favorite Customer, while Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay (Tunng) embrace the surreal on LUMP, and New York no-wavers The Dreebs take pleasure in the claustrophobic on Forest Of A Crew. These, plus catching up with A$AP Rocky’s recent Testing in this week’s notable new releases. → Read More
Jennifer Castle searches for the perfect combination of words
On her new album Angels Of Death, Toronto singer/songwriter Jennifer Castle battles against the finality of death and sends a comforting message down the line. In this interview, she goes deep into her writing process. → Read More
Parquet Courts, Stephen Malkmus, and more albums to know about this week
Brooklyn quartet Parquet Courts harness their collective voice on Wide Awake!, while Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks reveal a little more of themselves on Sparkle Hard, and OOOOO & Islamiq Grrrls join forces for the intoxicating Faminine Mystique. These, plus GAS and Low Cut Connie in this week’s notable new releases. → Read More
Lindi Ortega's Demon-Slaying Country Can Conquer All Hardships
The country singer talks about overcoming personal demons, taking the leap for love, and premieres a new song, "Lovers in Love." → Read More
Justin Timberlake's Man Of The Woods is vacuous, vapid and clichéd
It's unlikely any of these songs will stick with you past Super Bowl Sunday → Read More
Local Heroes: Nobu Adilman and Daveed Goldman of Choir! Choir! Choir!
The inclusive, no-commitment choir has become a channel for collective grief and celebration, and they're using their influence for good → Read More
Casper Skulls' Mercy Works connects big ideas to hooky post-punk
The Toronto band has crafted one of the best local debut albums of the year → Read More
St. Vincent arrives at another new beginning on MASSEDUCTION
With an incisive take on the complexity of desire, anxiety and confusion, Annie Clark captures what it's like to live in this present → Read More
Torres’ Three Futures is a deeply sensual affair
During the final, meditative track of Torres’ third album, Three Futures, Mackenzie Scott sings, “To be given a body is the greatest gift.” That sentence by itself could be the thesis statement for all that comes before it: Three Futures is radically sensual, exploring vividly lush, expansive realms of atmosphere. Scott says she crafted it to be a “completely consuming experience,” something you… → Read More
Mappe Of delivers airy folk in spades on debut album
The Whitby singer/songwriter brings Bon Iver to mind, but his meticulous arrangements and gorgeous melodies set him apart from the indie folk pack → Read More
Broken Social Scene are our local heroes ahead of Hug Of Thunder's release
Charles Spearin, Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew talk album five, hiatuses and resilience → Read More
Six things Partner want to do with Melissa Etheridge while she's in Toronto
Including shopping in Kensington Market for "show pants" and sampling "a bunch of different kinds of weed" → Read More
Dirty Projectors return with a breakup album
An ex-boyfriend’s account of a public separation isn't what the world needs in 2017, but fortunately this is not a typical breakup album → Read More
Ryan Adams's Prisoner is a cringeworthy break-up album
The singer-songwriter's gorgeous 80s rock-indebted production is too often undermined by clichéd songwriting → Read More