Discologist

With six albums under her belt, Taylor Swift has built a career that has made her one of the biggest pop-stars in the world. So how is it that her latest album, Reputation is such a complete, million unit selling failure?

Kevin and Marcus K. Dowling - both avowed Swift fans - are taking one for the team and attempting to navigate the depths the most narcissistic, cultural appropriating, and, to be clear, worst album of 2017. 

Yea...we're where fun goes to die. 

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Atlanta's Curtis Harding has been steeped in soul music his entire life. From singing in church with his family in Michigan as a child to being one of Cee Lo Green's star backup singers, Harding is a true veteran of the scene. On his second full length Face Your Fear, he's playing with is self-proclaimed "garage soul" formula again, this time enlisting the help of uber-producer Danger Mouse to drag a dying art form screaming into the future.

PLUS! Country is king even in Canada, and Blake Berglund is living proof! We've got a taste of his new album Realms for you to sidle your ears up to.

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To say Julien Baker wears her heart on her sleeve would be an understatement. On Turn Out The Lights, the Memphis, Tennessee native (now based in Nashville) turns up the feels on an emotional roller coaster of an album that drags the listener down to the bottom and doesn't offer a clear way back from the depths.

Kevin, Eduardo, and Marcus are spending some time with this elegiac powerhouse of an album and considering the truth in "downerism" and if it's OK to feel oh-so-not-OK.

PLUS! Soul Man Gregory Porter is back and hitching a ride with Nat King Cole to make you "Smile" on his latest LP, Nat King Cole & Me.

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With Control, Janet Jackson became a household name, but it wasn't until her 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814 that she ascended to the status of music legend. 

Buttressed by pop hits and jam-packed with hooks set loose from some future utopia, Nation was a not-so-subtle exploration of racism, sexism, love, and social responsibility that sought to elevate our humanity by any means necessary. More importantly, it's an album who's messages sadly may be MORE relevant almost thirty years later.

Join Kevin, Marcus K. Dowling, and Timothy Anne Burnside (National Museum of African American History and Culture) as they consider this landmark achievement in music.

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Washington, DC native, and second-generation Ethiopian American Kelela Mizanekristos spent years honing her musical chops in the underground scene of the nation's capital before moving to Las Angeles, dropping her last name and beginning her ascension to one of the most essential voices in R&B today.

On her acclaimed 2013 mixtape Cut 4 Me and 2015's Hallucinogen, the singer/producer made it clear that she was a force to be reckoned with. Now, on Take Me Apart, her first full length, she's building on some of the themes from her prior work to craft a vital statement about personhood, womanhood, and the perils and pitfalls of love.

Kevin and Marcus (Dowling) are sitting down to discuss one of 2017's most notable albums to find out if Kelela has got the goods, or just if the ideas she's exploring are ultimately more important than the execution.

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Dudes (and by "dudes" we mean each and every man on the planet)...we need to talk.

We know it's hard (it isn't) but you ALL have got to stop harassing, assaulting, or otherwise disparaging women. FULL. STOP.

This episode is a conversation about that. Joining Kevin, Eduardo, and Marcus are Erin Frisby (Fuzzqueen) and Andrew Koh, the DC representative for UK based organization Girls Against.

There will be a quiz after to ensure that you have learned, so please try and pay attention.

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In 2016 Nashville's Margo Price garnered nationwide attention with her debut album Midwest Farmers Daughter. Released on Jack White's Third Man Records, Daughter harkened back to a "purer" form of country music (Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton) that immediately struck a chord with the Saving Country Music crowd and music criterati alike. 

All American Made, Price's sophomore release, finds the Nashville staple not just sticking to her country bona fides but speaking out about some of the pressing social issues that we all face in 2017. We're digging deep into this civic-minded salvo to find out if Price hits her mark, or if she has fallen victim to the dreaded sophomore slump.

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Aaron "Ab' Abernathy is a music man. He 's a soul man. He is a man of faith. The legacy of the Civil Rights Movement runs through his blood. And he poured all of this and more into the and album that is as much a soundtrack to 2017 as it is a timeless statement on flawed nature of the human condition, Dialogue.

On part two of this very special episode, Kevin and Marcus K. Dowling sit down with the singer/songwriter to discuss how Dialogue came to be, how he hopes it can help open up discussions about old issues that still burden our society today, and much more. 

Come on and #beapartofthedialogue on part one of a two-part interview with one of the most indispensable voices of 2017: Aaron Abernathy.

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Aaron "Ab' Abernathy is a music man. He 's a soul man. He is a man of faith. The legacy of the Civil Rights Movement runs through his blood. And he poured all of this and more into the and album that is as much a soundtrack to 2017 as it is a timeless statement on flawed nature of the human condition, Dialogue.

On this very special episode, Kevin and Marcus K. Dowling sit down with the singer/songwriter to discuss how Dialogue came to be, how he hopes it can help open up discussions about old issues that still burden our society today, and much more. 

Come on and #beapartofthedialogue on part one of a two-part interview with one of the most indispensable voices of 2017: Aaron Abernathy.

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If Country Music is king in 2017, then the gentlemen of Midland have got their eyes on the throne. Kevin and Marcus K. Dowling (Vice, Decades) are diving deep into the debut album from one of Nashville's latest, and greatest exports. They've got the song of the year ("Drinking Problem") but are Midland one-hit-wonders, or is there more to this band than the machine that they are a product of typically turns out.

PLUS: Positive No is BACK, and sounding better than ever. Hang out as we spin "Y.A.A.Y.Y.," their most excellent new single from their most excellent new album, Partners In The Wild!

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