Political Pandora

Pandora's Vinyl: Rachael and Vilray’s third album, West of Broadway, backed by their band, is a romantic concoction of love, humour, and diatribe that fits perfectly within their brand.

In keeping with traditional folk music, Majola hands us a series of isiZulu ballads with feathery falsettos and simple arrangements often consisting of a single guitar. 

Pandora's Vinyl: I'll say it upfront: this is not your traditional Dogrel Fontaines. If you came here expecting more sneering Dublin street poetry, you might as well pack it up now. Romance is the sound of a band that's discovered they can make their guitars shimmer like oil slicks and decided to lean hard into that discovery. It's their "what if we tried being pretty?" album, and honestly? They pull it off better than they have any right to.

Pandora's Vinyl: Here's the thing about Virgin: it hits different. Not in the uber calculated way where pop stars pretend to be vulnerable for TikTok moments, but in that rare, slightly uncomfortable way where you feel like you've stumbled into someone's actual therapy session and they're too busy having breakthroughs to kick you out, for better or worse. 

Pandora's Vinyl: Brandon Woody’s debut album, For The Love Of It All, with Blue Note Records, is a dynamic masterpiece that captures longing, tension and love, and stands as a testament to his beloved hometown of Baltimore.

Pandora's Vinyl: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan's debut album, is more a glitter coded celebration of queer selfhood and euphoria, an exorcism of small-town restrictions than it is a compilation of songs.

Pandora's Vinyl: Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer is a revelation, a sonic coming-out party that arrived in 2018 like a technicolour bomb detonating across the landscape of pop music. In the pantheon of iconic queer albums, it stands as perhaps the most unflinchingly joyous celebration of pansexual identity as Monáe crafts a precise, personal, and devastating tale of intimacy.

Pandora's Vinyl: Boygenius’ The Record is a triumphant convergence of three singular voices.

Ivory, the debut record from Omar Apollo, is an autobiographical testament to the fluid boundaries of identity, genre, and desire. The record arrives as a love letter to Apollo’s Mexican American heritage and small-town roots, transforming the specificity of his experience into something universally resonant.

Pandora's Vinyl: Sufjan Stevens’ Javelin is an elegy, a confession, and a fragile bridge between despair and redemption.

Pandora's Vinyl: Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal is an album that bites hard and refuses to let go. A sprawling, genre-bending testament to survival and self-affirmation, the project is both a love letter to her Florida roots and a raw chronicle of her battles with fame, sobriety, and the relentless churn of the music industry.

Pandora's Vinyl: Lorde’s Pure Heroine is a quiet revolution, a minimalist manifesto that reshaped the contours of pop music.

Pandora's Vinyl: Tame Impala’s The Slow Rush is a kaleidoscopic meditation on time and its relentless passage.

Pandora's Vinyl: Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine is a reckoning and a reclamation.

Pandora's Vinyl: My First Car is an underrated funk/soul EP released in 2013. It is one of the earlier recordings by Vulfpeck.

Pandora's Vinyl: Lady Gaga’s latest offering is Mayhem in every sense of the word.

Pandora's Vinyl: Mac Miller's Circles is a poignant and bittersweet swan song, a final testament to an artist tragically lost in his prime.

Pandora's Vinyl: Noah Kahan's Stick Season is a poignant and introspective entry into his discography.

Pandora's Vinyl: 2024 may have been the year of Brat Summer but it is also the year of Charm Winter.