VMP Magazine

Whitney’s Forever Turned Around, the band’s 2019 sophomore album, projected a sturdy, reassuring veneer of reliability. The Chicago duo, comprised of Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek, formed after the dissolution of their previous band, Smith Westerns, and broke through with their debut album, 2016’s Light Upon the Lake. Lake is a breed of rock record that is currently approaching extinction: 1970s-style, golden-hued soft rock seemingly designed to soundtrack tranquil Sunday mornings. It exuded a warm familiarity without sounding quite like anything else circulating in the indie rock sphere at that time. Forever Turned Around recognized that the formula was a winning one; the album did everything its predecessor did, and just as skillfully.  

Each week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Beatopia, the sophomore LP from Beabadoobee.

In January 2020, Kevin Morby watched his father collapse in the middle of family dinner. That night, still gripped with shock, Morby waited to hear more. He passed the time in the basement of his childhood home, flipping through old family photographs, images that resonated with him more in this moment than they could have on any ordinary day. One particular photo grabbed him: his father as a young man, posing shirtless, looking invincible, roughly the same age as Morby was in that moment. Just hours earlier he had watched as the same man was hauled away by an ambulance, his future uncertain. It was a contrast that jolted Morby and stirred questions about growing up, getting old and staring down the concept of mortality.

This month marks 10 years since the release of Icky Thump, the final album released by The White Stripes. Icky Thump’s diverse, sometimes confounding collection of tunes marked the end of Jack and Meg White’s partnership—a duo whose presence in the world of rock throughout the 2000s was singular and enthralling.

While Meg has been (characteristically) quiet since the break-up, Jack has remained exceedingly prolific and consistently fascinating to watch. Whether under the umbrella of The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, or solo, White continues to mine his treasure chest of influences (early blues; honkytonk; Dylan-esque folk; radio-ready classic rock; Scottish freak-folk) in new and exciting ways. With a new solo album in the works, White shows no signs of slowing down. These 10 albums are his best so far.

The 50 Best Record Stores In America is an essay series where we attempt to find the best record store in every state. These aren’t necessarily the record stores with the best prices or the deepest selection; you can use Yelp for that. Each record store featured has a story that goes beyond what’s on its shelves; these stores have history, foster a sense of community and mean something to the people who frequent them.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Big Red Machine, the debut self-titled album from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week's album is the third album from the xx, I See You.