Today (December 7), the nominations were announced for the 2019 Grammys, and it's something of a mixed bag. Every year, it seems increasingly difficult for the Academy (or any other awards show) to get it right. Particularly when it comes to pop artists. In fairness, some measures were put in place to limit the inevitable fallout this year. The Big 4 categories - Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year,...

Fridays can be overwhelming for pop fans. Every week you're bombarded with a glut of new music, which can lead to ear candy falling through the cracks. I'm hoping to avoid that tragic scenario with The Drop — a cheat sheet of sorts to get you through New Music Friday. By now, you hopefully had a spiritual awakening while listening to Michelle Williams' "Fearless" or at least bopped along to Seeb...

Avril Lavigne's return to music has been one of the happiest surprises of 2018. The 34-year-old ended a five-year drought with the unveiling of "Head Above Water" in September. Inspired by her battle with Lyme Disease, the triumphant pop/rock ballad was everything we needed from her comeback. But it was just the beginning. This week, she announced plans to drop a second single, "Tell Me It's Over,"...

Anna And The Apocalypse is a (high school) musical with a twist. Namely, zombies. Directed by John McPhail, the genre-blurring film is equal parts humor, gore and show tunes. A mix that sounds truly awful in theory, but comes together seamlessly in the year's most refreshing Christmas romp. The plot couldn't be simpler. A horde of The Undead inexplicably descends upon the sleepy UK town of Little Haven,...

Staying relevant long enough to release 15 studio albums is a noteworthy achievement in and of itself. Just like landing a number one hit, it's "difficult to get... not everybody has that." To be in the game for 28 years and deliver the tightest, filler-free opus of your career is a whole different story. That's the miracle Mariah Carey pulls off with Caution. This is the new blueprint for legacy acts....

Stephen Puth didn't go looking for a career in pop, it found him. The 24-year-old decided to try his luck as a songwriter-for-hire after finishing college (he studied English and History), but fate had other plans. David Massey, the President/CEO of Arista Records, spotted raw potential in the newcomer and wanted to sign him as an artist. After some initial hesitation, the New Jersey native decided...

In the pantheon of modern Christmas songs, Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath The Tree" stands toe-to-toe with Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton's "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" as one of the best. (Of course, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is in a league of its own). Released in 2013 as the lead single from Wrapped In Red, the Greg Kurstin-produced bop is positively bursting with good...

MNEK has been breaking the rules all of his life. After being championed by the first wave of music blogs in the mid-'00s, the artist/producer signed a songwriting deal in 2009 at the ripe old age of 16. It didn't take long for his name to grace the credits of major UK hits and he tested the waters as a pop star with a well-received debut EP. The Brit finally broke big when "Never Forget You," an infectious...

Every so often, a song comes along that completely transcends genre and introduces an artist to a whole new audience. Lauren Daigle's "You Say" falls into that category. The powerful ballad, which conveys a timely message of hope, has been a mainstay in the iTunes top 10 for months and ranks as one of the few inspirational anthems to crack the Billboard Hot 100. Amazingly, "You Say" is only at the...

Tori Kelly's Unbreakable Smile is that rare kind of debut album that stands out as an impressive achievement in its own right, but also hints at something greater. It had radio hits, quieter moments and soulful grooves, but there was always the sneaking suspicion that the 25-year-old's voice could soar even higher, that she could open her heart even wider. That promise finally comes to fruition on...

For a while there, it looked like the Second Coming would arrive before Rita Ora's sophomore album. Few projects in the history of pop have experienced as many setbacks and delays as Phoenix. The first incarnation (a dance-pop opus produced by Calvin Harris) was famously canned in 2014. The Brit then focussed on R&B in 2015, releasing a best-forgotten duet with Chris Brown that became her lowest-charting...

Iggy Azalea's comeback is in full swing. The rapper, who many wrote off after the atomic fallout that followed the success of The New Classic, recently returned to the Billboard Hot 100 with "Kream" and just dropped one of the better EPs of 2018. Not only that, but the Aussie hitmaker's new sound — a return to the aggressive, defiantly sexual anti-pop of her mixtapes, has struck a chord well outside...