This week’s question is one directly stemming from a debate among A.V. Club staffers:

To commemorate 60 years of the Billboard Hot 100, Off The Charts revisits each year since it was established to spotlight songs and artists that didn’t make the cut, yet still made a significant impact. Years are chosen randomly and—to make it even harder on ourselves—rules for inclusion are that neither the songs nor…

In May 1968, Johnny Cash released Live At Folsom Prison, a recording of a raucous, emotionally charged performance before a group of grateful inmates that went on to top the country charts, completely reinvigorating Cash’s career. Folsom wasn’t the first successful live album, obviously, but it quickly became a…

Back in February, Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth took to his Instagram to pose an existential question: “Is it me or is the condition of indie rock in the 24½th century both bad and boujee?” “Bad,” he meant, in the sense that it was now largely a “musically underwhelming” Xerox of groups that came before. “Boujee”…

There was too much to listen to in 2017—not just albums, of which there were once again thousands, a barrage of releases from major-label veterans and SoundCloud up-and-comers alike, all vying for your attention. There was just too much of everything: a persistent, buzzing storm of push notifications and free-floating…

“Rather than explore its groups and institutions—the cartels, street-level dealers, and government agencies—across multiple seasons, Snowfall’s introduced them all at once. The story implicates everyone from a soldier in the Nicaraguan jungle to the president of the United States, who are all poised for future…

Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost immediately. For most music consumers, it’s almost too much information, and save for those precious few who spend their hours glued to review sites and release calendars, it’s hard to know what’s coming out…

“We’ve always talked about how we’d never betray anyone who cares about us, but here we are now,” James Murphy wrote in a lengthy Facebook post early last year, shortly after the news had broken that his band, LCD Soundsystem, would be returning after just five years of “retirement.” After the surprise and the jaded …

Priests, 1:45 p.m.

Welcome back to AVQ&A, where we throw out a question for discussion among the staff and readers. Consider this a prompt to compare notes on your interface with pop culture, to reveal your embarrassing tastes and experiences, and to ponder how our diverse lives all led us to convene here together. Got a question you’d…

During a recent radio interview with BBC 6 Music, James Murphy, the musical mastermind behind LCD Soundsystem, recalled a conversation with David Bowie that helped inspire his decision to bring the band out of retirement. According to Murphy, Bowie, who was a friend and collaborator, pushed LCD’s ever-reluctant star…

Gavin Russom, a musician and synthesizer designer who’s been part of LCD Soundsystem since 2010, has opened up about her identity as a transgender person. According to a long profile with Pitchfork, Russom—who recently appeared with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy on Saturday Night Live, and who’s previously released…

LCD Soundsystem—far from finished—has already unveiled two singles and played a bunch of shows, but now the band has announced the dates for the album release and tour launch. The record, called American Dream, will be available September 1, and will feature 10 tracks, including one tantalizingly called “emotional…

I’m still on the fence about “Call The Police,” but I’m already in love with LCD Soundsystem’s other comeback song, “American Dream.” Despite being a bleak ballad about (what else?) aging, aimlessness, and regret, it’s one of the flat-out prettiest tracks the band has ever produced. All that introspection is afloat on…

“I’m not an actor, I’m a [starship captain and superhero’s boyfriend] star!”

Yesterday, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy announced that he’d be releasing two new songs off the band’s still-untitled new album, with the intent of dropping them both at midnight (regardless of where listeners were in the world, meaning Australia got them earlier than everybody else). Murphy ended up slightly…

LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy has apparently gotten a little impatient with his own self-imposed timetable; Stereogum reports that the first of the two songs Murphy promised fans he’d release at midnight tonight is already out in the wild, courtesy of a broadcast on BBC Radio 6. The radio network played most…