Genres

Mary J. Blige’s new album, Strength of a Woman, is unapologetically devoted to heartbreak. Chronicling the strains and inevitable tears in a relationship, the album is inspired by the recent end of her 13-year marriage. For fans who’ve followed her career for the past quarter-century—yes, it’s been that long—Strength of a Woman feels like a return to vintage Mary, or as she once called her former self, “sad Mary.”During those early years, she struggled with fame, substance abuse, and bad affairs, but made some of the best soul music in recent times, including the classic album, 1994’s My Life. But in the past decade or so, especially after 2005’s The Breakthrough, she’s recorded a sometimes-gratifying, often uneasy mix of self-help anthems and earnest attempts at recapturing the pop zeitgeist, regardless of her collaborators. Her last album, 2014’s The London Sessions, found her working with au courant chart-toppers like Sam Smith, Disclosure, and Emeli Sandé. For 2011’s My Life II... The Journey Continues (Act 1), she assembled a grab bag, including a cameo by Drake, a nostalgic look back at her Bronx B-girl days with Nas, and motivational tunes like “The Living Proof.”Strength of a Woman is remarkably consistent. It indulges our desire to relive the vintage, somewhat mythical, Queen-of-Hip-Hop-Soul sound that she did so well early on in her career. Many of its tracks find her riffing over classic soul arrangements, just like when she used to cover quiet-storm chestnuts like “I’m Goin’ Down.” As this playlist demonstrates, she included a few breakup testimonials in every album, though they didn’t have as much purpose and artistic flair as now. Sad Mary never really went away.Click here to follow this playlist on Spotify.

Its possible you havent heard of Matt Holubowski just yet, but this French-Canadian folk artist is making some pretty big waves alongside some artists you might recognize: like The Cures Robert Smith asking him to play Meltdown Fest and Ben Folds bringing him out on his last tour. This self-proclaimed "young man making old music" utilizes the classic guitar-and-voice combo that lends itself to singer-songwriter gold reached by his heroes Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith and Andrew Bird, and will be releasing his debut LP Solitudes in the US at the end of August.As he prepares to make a splash in the US, though, Holubowski is first being celebrated in his hometown of Montreal at Osheaga, so we asked him to in turn celebrate his hometown with us by putting together a Montreal/ Quebec-centric playlists.Says Matt: "Montréal has got something unique about its musicality. It was partly born out of a deep divide that over time has become its greatest strength, language, one which has permeated the musical scene over the years, but also through its cultural cross between good ol’ Americana and European flavour.Some of these songs and artists have had a great impact on my own writing, and I’ve since had the pleasure and privilege to rub shoulders and collaborate with a couple of them.There’s a certain mysterious vibe and energy to all of these, and I don’t know if the commonality lies in their being Montrealers/Quebecers, or if they just happen to fall within my own palette, but in any case, these are all great for a dreamy voyage into our new old city."Listen above or go right here.

Matt Sharp recently resurfaced with the first piece of new music in three years from his art-pop outfit The Rentals. "Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad" is the lead single from The Rentals upcoming fourth album, which Sharp is working on with Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann, and a backing choir hes christened The Gentle Assassins. But for his Dowsers playlist, Sharp steps out of The Rentals usual synth-smeared sound world to indulge a more private obsession:"Each song on this playlist is taken from a much larger playlist of my favorite old soul songs. The music has often served as the backdrop and soundtrack to many a hot night at my place in L.A., while having a few friends over to throw one-pound bags of corn, 30 feet in the air, into a six-inch diameter circle."—Matt Sharp

Whats This Playlist All About? The DJ, producer, and all-around electro polymath celebrates the release of his first album in six years, Bunny, with a collection he describes as simply "songs to breathe with."What You Get: A big peek into Bunny with singles like the haunting, heady sprawl of "Bunnys Dream" and his two buzzing collabs with Tegan and Sara, "Horses" and "Bad Ones." Dear also weaves in majestic licks from Built to Spill, funky grooves from krautrock kings CAN, beguiling noise from experimentalist Tobbaco, and warm country blues from Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.Greatest Discovery: Singer-songwriter Amen Dunes sounds like a rawer, looser Fleet Foxes with the spacey, atmospheric "Splits Are Parted."How Does This Playlist Work as a Companion to Bunny? While the inclusion of artists like Brian Eno, Beacon, and CAN make sense with Dears own electronic work, the rest serves as a sort of stripped-down, singer-songwriter parallel to his own moody, mercurial melodies.

Maya Beiser’s new album, the day, features two works by David Lang written for Maya. The day was composed as prequel to world to come from 2003. Where world to come chronicles the journey of the soul after life, the day chronicles our time on earth preceding that journey. Lang’s world to come was written for Maya in response to the events of September 11 at the World Trade Center (which shares the initials of the title piece, WTC). The two works are meditations on two journeys: the day on the mortal journey, and world to come on the eternal, post-mortal journey of the soul that follows.Maya says, “My new album, the day, is a meditation about life, death, and the afterlife. It’s not a lighthearted theme, but ours is not a lighthearted period. So I chose songs about the end and named my playlist ‘the day after.’ It sounded really gloomy, if appropriate. But then I thought that any time when people get together to make music is a good time. And music is innocent. To quote the great Neil Young: Don’t let it bring you down. There are still things we can do to make it better.”Follow Maya on Twitter and Instagram.

Welcome to the third chapter of our Thrash 101. This feature was produced in partnership with GimmeRadio, your free 24/7 metal radio station hosted by heavy-music experts like Megadeths Dave Mustaine and Lamb of Gods Randy Blythe. Get more metal here.Thrash is all about feeling. It’s about low-register riffs that hit you in the gut, high-flying solos that make you throw those devil horns in the air, and gravelly singing imbued with a sense of purpose and meaning. It’s about raging against the powers that be with everything you’ve got in you. The “Big Four” of thrash defined these traits. Once they hit the scene some 30 years ago, the earth truly shook.Technically from L.A. but more commonly associated with their adopted home of San Francisco, Metallica is the Big Four group with the widest appeal. Everyone loves Metallica—classic rockers who want to go hard; hard rockers and heavy metallers who want something precise and driving; punk rockers in search of a bigger, tougher sound. Metallica were the sum of diverse influences, a cauldron that had been slow-cooking an angry stew of punk, rock, classic heavy metal, and NWOBHM, finally overflowing and creating something new: thrash. Metallica’s first two albums were great, but they really busted out of their shell with their third: 1986s Master of Puppets, the record that sent them on a skyward path. Above all, throughout their signature work, Metallica has displayed an unparalleled energy—a spark of cohesion and crispness thats rarely matched, even to this day.Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was actually in Metallica for their first few years, but he was asked to leave in 1983 due to substance abuse and behavioural issues. Also from L.A., Megadeth’s a little thrashier than Metallica: Compared to the formers balanced, well-tempered aggression, Megadeth is wilder and more NWOBHM-influenced—which is to say they feel closer to the satanic howls, classic-style solos, and soaring riffs of Iron Maiden. Their second release, Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? (1986), was one of the decades best metal albums, and it remains near the top of many critics’ greatest-metal-records-ever lists. That said, Megadeth’s catalog is pretty divisive—some prefer Rust in Peace (1990), others Countdown to Extinction (1992). In any event, Megadeth have been hugely influential, especially in the burgeoning genre of extreme metal.Satanism, serial killers, crime, violence… these are Slayer’s bread and butter. And their heavy topics elicit equally heavy music. There’s no other way to put it: Slayer slays. Formed by Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo, and Tom Araya, Slayer hit the scene in ‘83 with Show No Mercy, which was pretty well-received. Like Metallica, though, it was their third album that catapulted them into the realm of greatness. When the Rick Rubin-produced Reign in Blood dropped in ‘86, it announced Slayer as one of the most formidable voices in metal. Its unhinged riffs and hellish yawps conveyed the feeling that the music was constantly going off the rails, a quartet of possessed musicians just jamming too hard and fast to ever stop. Reign in Blood was the beginning of an incredible run that also saw South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss. Of the Big Four, Slayer is the most deranged—in a good way.Finally, we’ve got Anthrax, the only one of the Big Four from the east coast—New York City, to be exact. Anthrax has had something of a fluctuating lineup, but their core centers around guitarist Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello, and vocalist Joey Belladonna (who comes and goes). Oddly enough, their third LP was their big breakout, too. Among the Living (1987) was explosive among metalheads, and dealt with decidedly nerdy stuff like Stephen King novels, Judge Dredd, John Belushi, and, quite possibly, the film Poltergeist II. Anthrax’s music is built from big riffs and thundering drums—and compared to their Big Four peers, its not nearly as Satanic!

Thrash is all about feeling. It’s about low-register riffs that hit you in the gut, high-flying solos that make you throw those devil horns in the air, and gravelly singing imbued with a sense of purpose and meaning. It’s about raging against the powers that be with everything you’ve got in you. The “Big Four” of thrash defined these traits. Once they hit the scene some 30 years ago, the earth truly shook.Technically from L.A. but more commonly associated with their adopted home of San Francisco, Metallica is the Big Four group with the widest appeal. Everyone loves Metallica—classic rockers who want to go hard; hard rockers and heavy metallers who want something precise and driving; punk rockers in search of a bigger, tougher sound. Metallica were the sum of diverse influences, a cauldron that had been slow-cooking an angry stew of punk, rock, classic heavy metal, and NWOBHM, finally overflowing and creating something new: thrash. Metallica’s first two albums were great, but they really busted out of their shell with their third: 1986s Master of Puppets, the record that sent them on a skyward path. Above all, throughout their signature work, Metallica has displayed an unparalleled energy—a spark of cohesion and crispness thats rarely matched, even to this day.Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was actually in Metallica for their first few years, but he was asked to leave in 1983 due to substance abuse and behavioural issues. Also from L.A., Megadeth’s a little thrashier than Metallica: Compared to the formers balanced, well-tempered aggression, Megadeth is wilder and more NWOBHM-influenced—which is to say they feel closer to the satanic howls, classic-style solos, and soaring riffs of Iron Maiden. Their second release, Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? (1986), was one of the decades best metal albums, and it remains near the top of many critics’ greatest-metal-records-ever lists. That said, Megadeth’s catalog is pretty divisive—some prefer Rust in Peace (1990), others Countdown to Extinction (1992). In any event, Megadeth have been hugely influential, especially in the burgeoning genre of extreme metal.Satanism, serial killers, crime, violence… these are Slayer’s bread and butter. And their heavy topics elicit equally heavy music. There’s no other way to put it: Slayer slays. Formed by Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo, and Tom Araya, Slayer hit the scene in ‘83 with Show No Mercy, which was pretty well-received. Like Metallica, though, it was their third album that catapulted them into the realm of greatness. When the Rick Rubin-produced Reign in Blood dropped in ‘86, it announced Slayer as one of the most formidable voices in metal. Its unhinged riffs and hellish yawps conveyed the feeling that the music was constantly going off the rails, a quartet of possessed musicians just jamming too hard and fast to ever stop. Reign in Blood was the beginning of an incredible run that also saw South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss. Of the Big Four, Slayer is the most deranged—in a good way.Finally, we’ve got Anthrax, the only one of the Big Four from the east coast—New York City, to be exact. Anthrax has had something of a fluctuating lineup, but their core centers around guitarist Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello, and vocalist Joey Belladonna (who comes and goes). Oddly enough, their third LP was their big breakout, too. Among the Living (1987) was explosive among metalheads, and dealt with decidedly nerdy stuff like Stephen King novels, Judge Dredd, John Belushi, and, quite possibly, the film Poltergeist II. Anthrax’s music is built from big riffs and thundering drums—and compared to their Big Four peers, its not nearly as Satanic!This feature is part of our Thrash 101 online course that was produced in partnership with the good rocking folks at GimmeRadio, a free 24/7 metal radio station hosted by heavy-music experts like Megadeths Dave Mustaine and Lamb of Gods Randy Blythe. Check them out here and sign up for the Thrash 101 course here.

While its understandable that some listeners would think that all the great soul music in Memphis came from the Stax/Volt stable, its simply not accurate. Not only were there other R&B imprints that challenged Stax’s standing in terms of their ability to score hits, there was no shortage of acts at other labels whose musical vision was the equal of the vaunted Stax roster. The Willie Mitchell-produced tracks Al Green cut for Memphis mainstay Hi Records in the ‘70s remain among the deepest, most transcendently sensual songs ever recorded in any genre, and they dominated both R&B and pop radio. The tunes James Carr laid down for the less celebrated Memphis label Goldwax Records were easily as intense as anything in the Otis Redding oeuvre. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the searingly soulful sounds that emerged from the musical bounty of the Bluff City.

He’s best known as the singer and fleet-fingered acoustic strummer for Bay Area indie-folk favorites The Dodos, but with his new project FAN, Meric Long ventures into the realm of experimental synth-pop. FAN recently released its first single (“Fire” b/w “Disappear”), with a full-length on the way via Polyvinyl; to whet your appetite, he’s compiled this Dowsers playlist of the post-punk icons, jazz legends, and videogame themes that inspired it.

For much of the digital-music era, Metallica have been one of rock’s most high-profile holdouts. Even after their infamous 2000 lawsuit against Napster, the band waited until 2006 to make their music available on iTunes, and waited until late 2012 to get on board with Spotify. And there’s perhaps no greater sign that Metallica have not just surrendered to the changing times but are actually embracing them than the fact all four members of the band recently uploaded playlists to Metallica’s official Spotify page. The playlists, posted during a few days of downtime on the massive two-year tour in support of 2016’s Hardwired...To Self-Destruct, range from an hour to over 100 minutes, and shed some light on the listening habits of the biggest metal band in the world.JAMES HETFIELD’S PLAYLIST (FEATURED AT TOP)In the ‘80s, Metallica started to hint that their influences reached beyond metal, with The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited betraying their fondness for punk. But James Hetfield’s Spotify playlist goes deeper into mellower sounds that Metallica would never touch, from jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to Portland-via-Auckland indie-rock band Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Still, Hetfield’s playlist is heavier on metal than those of his bandmates, with representation from the veteran thrash bands that influenced early Metallica like Venom and Dark Angel, as well as contemporary doom metal bands Pallbearer and Ghost B.C. Some songs appear to have caught Hetfield’s ear through films, like “Who Can You Trust” (Ivy Levan’s Bond theme-like track that opened Melissa McCarthy’s action comedy Spy), and the Gary Jules rework of Tears For Fears’ “Mad World” that was made famous by Donnie Darko. And Men At Work frontman Colin Hay’s emotional 2011 track “Dear Father” may have struck a deeply personal chord with Hetfield, who had a complex relationship with his own late father.KIRK HAMMETT’S PLAYLIST

Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett has long been known as the most musically open-minded member of Metallica, the guy who actually knew the bands they were playing with at Lollapalooza in 1996, and who praised Radiohead’s Kid A while many hard rockers sneered at the album’s lack of guitars. And Hammett’s Spotify playlist casts a suitably wide net, including Captain Beefheart, The Isley Brothers, and, of course, “Everything In Its Right Place.” Hammett’s guitar-god influences are in full effect with Jimi Hendrix and Thin Lizzy deep cuts. But he still has, by far, the band’s most stylistically unpredictable playlist, including two different, back-to-back versions of Damian Marley’s “Welcome To Jamrock” (the original and a live version with Jack Johnson) and Carole King’s title song for the 1975 animated musical Really Rosie.LARS ULRICH’S PLAYLIST

Lars Ulrich’s playlist opens with a little music from one of his bandmates, Robert Trujillo, who played on the Suicidal Tendencies track “Tap Into The Power” during his six-year stint with the L.A. thrash-funk band. Outside of a couple of groovy tracks from Bob Marley and Stereo MC’s, Lars Ulrich’s playlist is loud and guitar-driven, ranging from proto-metal influences (Diamond Head and Deep Purple) to ‘90s alternative rock (Nirvana, Oasis, and Rage Against The Machine). Ulrich also singles out the title track from The Osmonds’ 1972 album Crazy Horses, lending some credence to rock critic Chuck Eddy’s decision to include it in his list of the 500 best heavy metal albums of all time.ROBERT TRUJILLO’S PLAYLIST

While the other members of the band have dedicated their lives to Metallica and little else for nearly their entire careers, Robert Trujillo had a varied résumé before joining the band in 2003, and his playlist features some of the people he’s played with over the years. Like Ulrich, Trujillo picked a track from his tenure with Suicidal Tendencies, although he chose a classic Alice In Chains song in lieu of his work on Jerry Cantrell’s solo albums. The most intriguing tip of the hat to a collaborator on Trujillo’s playlist is to Ozzy Osbourne. In 2002, Osbourne controversially reissued two of his classic ‘80s albums with the original rhythm section tracks re-recorded by members of his then-current backing band, which included Trujillo. In 2011, those albums were reissued again with the original instrumentation restored, and Trujillo opens his playlist with “S.A.T.O.” from Diary Of A Madman, in its classic form with Bob Daisley on bass.This feature is part of our Thrash 101 online course that was produced in partnership with the good rocking folks at GimmeRadio, a free 24/7 metal radio station hosted by heavy-music experts like Megadeths Dave Mustaine and Lamb of Gods Randy Blythe. Check them out here and sign up for the Thrash 101 course here.