Madame X is a radical body of work, but perhaps not in the way Madonna intended. She rails against injustice and oppression with the fervor of a preacher, imbuing the album with a righteousness that is palpable. As brave and commendable as that is, the Queen of Pop's musical missives lack nuance. Rather, it's her complete defiance of genre that makes Madame X genuinely groundbreaking.From the promo...

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 have probably heard Taylor Swift's iTunes-conquering "You Need To Calm Down" and possibly checked out Little Mix's sexy...

Taylor Swift hopped on Instagram live this afternoon (June 13) to drop a pop bombshell. Namely, the title and release date of her 7th album. Lover arrives on August 23 and it boasts a pastel-colored cover shot by Valheria Rocha. As usual, the 29-year-old is going above and beyond when it comes to packaging. (Never forget the Reputation magazines!) The album will boast four different deluxe editions,...

Noah Kahan established himself as One To Watch with 2018 viral hit "Hurt Somebody" (100 million+ Spotify streams) and then continued to expand his following, one acutely-observed, emotionally bruising song at a time. The 22-year-old's much-anticipated debut LP, Busyhead, arrives today (June 14), and it charts the hopes and fears of someone trying to make it. From the rousing "Young Blood" to the deceptively...

Charli XCX just blessed the day with so much good news. For starters, she confirmed the impending release of her highly anticipated third album. Called Charli, it arrives September 13 and is available to pre-order and pre-save here. That's barely the tip of the iceberg, though. Earlier this week, the 26-year-old confirmed the LP consisted of 15 tracks and housed 14 featured artists. We were already...

Miley Cyrus's generosity is unparalleled. The 26-year-old just dropped her new EP SHE IS COMING, and she's already back with new material. Today (June 13), she released an official video for her Ashley O. song "On A Roll." For those who may be unaware, Ashley O. is a superstar character the hitmaker played on a recent episode of Netflix's Black Mirror. Fans have been hoping that music from the show...

Kim Petras keeps her promises. This year the 26-year-old vowed to save pop music with the launch of her second era. And she was not lying or over-exaggerating. Since then, she's blessed us with a new song every week. It all started with her barbed breakup anthem "Broken." The impeccable releases that followed helped her build out a more evolved and personalized sound. Today (June 13), she returns with...

Céline Dion wound up her 16-year residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on the weekend. She celebrated by performing a new song called "Flying On My Own" and, somewhat surprisingly, it's a soaring dance-pop anthem. "There's something shifting in the air, if I'm not mistaken," the pop icon belts in the opening verse. "The dust is clearing everywhere, memories awaken." She then pulls the vocal trigger...

Carly Rae Jepsen treats pop with the reverence it deserves. The Canadian superstar spent three, long years chipping away at the followup to 2015's universally-loved Emotion. Along the way, she went through a breakup, traveled the world and fell in love again — and captured those highs (and lows) with remarkable clarity on 200 songs. Of those, 15 made the final cut of Dedicated. And each and every...

Lewis Capaldi is shaping up to be one of the breakout stars of 2019 thanks to a ballad called "Someone You Loved." The gut-wrenching breakup anthem has already topped the charts in the UK and Europe, and is a fairly safe bet to repeat the feat in America. (Streaming and download data suggests an imminent debut on the Billboard Hot 100). And there are more hits where that came from. The 22-year-old...

Hozier joined the ranks of Ireland's musical elite (U2, Van Morrison, The Cranberries and so many others) when "Take Me To Church" stormed the charts in 2014 and 2015. The 29-year-old backed it up with a mega-selling, critically-adored debut LP and then spent the next two and half years on the road. Instead of rushing back into the studio, the breakout star found a bungalow in the Irish countryside...

One of the most exciting trends of 2019 is the increasingly blurred line between country music and other genres. At the forefront of this movement is Kane Brown. The 25-year-old recently lent his gentle twang to a remix of Khalid's "Saturday Nights" and then brushed up on his Spanish for a reggaeton remix of "Lost In The Middle Of Nowhere" with Becky G. His refusal to be confined by tradition really...