Sound Audits

One of the most prominent bands to emerge during the late-2000s indie folk boom, Seattle's Fleet Foxes fuse earthy, harmony-rich folk-rock with a sense of lush pop sophistication calling to mind the late-'60s work of acts like the Beach Boys, the Zombies, and Fairport Convention. Following a six-year gap and a switch to Nonesuch, Fleet Foxes returned with the expansive Crack-Up, in 2017. In September 2020, with almost no warning, the band issued their fourth album, Shore, along with a short film.

Delivering lyrics with the speed of a bullet train, Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly experienced a meteoric rise in late 2011 when he transitioned from grinding out self-released mixtapes to working with major labels. From there, the rapper skyrocketed to superstar status, with each of his albums charting in the Top Ten. A beef with Eminem, a film career, and even some reality show appearances would follow as the high-powered lyrical rap style of albums like 2019's Hotel Diablo morphed into a driving emo-rock sound on collaborations with Travis Barker and on the Barker-produced 2020 album Tickets to My Downfall, which topped the Billboard 200.

English singer/songwriter and guitarist Lianne La Havas arrived in the early 2010s with a mostly acoustic and hushed hybrid of alternative folk and soul. Influenced by the likes of Lauryn Hill and Nina Simone, she found success with the release of her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, which reached number five in the U.K. and earned her a nomination for the BBC Sound of 2012 poll. 

Taylor Swift is that rarest of pop phenomena: a superstar who managed to completely cross over from country to the mainstream.  Swift's plans to support Lover with a tour in 2020 were scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With some unexpected time on her hands, she wrote and recorded a new set of songs, many in collaboration with Aaron Dessner of The National; Bon Iver and longtime Swift associate Jack Antonoff also contributed. The resulting album, folklore, was released on July 24, 2020, and went straight to the top of the Billboard 200.

The stylistically dynamic and voluble Logic launched his rap career through uploads and mixtapes prior to signing a Def Jam deal that fostered a sustained mainstream presence throughout the second half of the 2010s. The MC, singer, songwriter, and producer made his recording debut in 2009 and five years later hit the Top Five with his debut album, Under Pressure (2014), the first of several conceptual full-length projects to enter the Billboard 200 and rap charts within the upper reaches. 

In July of 2020, Logic announced that his sixth album, No Pressure, would mark his retirement from music. The album was released a few weeks after this announcement.

Fiona Apple never quite belonged to a specific scene. The closest she came was at the dawn of her career when her debut album Tidal arrived as the alternative rock wave reached its crest in 1996. Upon its release in 1999, When the Pawn drew attention for its emotional intensity, unconventional arrangements, and eccentric flair, elements that were central to her appeal in the next decades when she worked steadily and rigorously. As her output slowed -- it took her six years to deliver her third album, Extraordinary Machine, and another seven for its sequel, The Idler Wheel, to appear -- her reputation as a daring artist grew. The Idler Wheel and its 2020 successor Fetch the Bolt Cutters confirmed Apple took aural risks without abandoning her strengths as a singer/songwriter, a combination that helped her maintain a devoted cult following.

What started as a one-off project and quickly evolved into a Grammy-nominated hip-hop super duo, Run the Jewels features the talents of Brooklyn rapper/producer El-P and Atlanta emcee Killer Mike. Atop hard-hitting beats and ominous production, the pair trade aggressive and often wryly comical rhymes, touching upon social issues, life and death, and a heavy dose of chest-thumping bragging. With a new decade came a new RTJ era. Run the Jewels 4 arrived in June 2020 amid a global pandemic (which postponed a world tour with Rage Against the Machine) and a nationwide movement in the U.S. protesting police brutality. RTJ4 featured guests Greg Nice, DJ Premier, 2 Chainz, Pharrell Williams, Mavis Staples, Josh Homme, and another de la Rocha collaboration.

Nicolas Jaar is one of the least predictable and most experimental dance music producers of the late 2000s and 2010s, composing reflective downtempo numbers indebted to jazz and modern classical as well as minimal techno.

In 2016, Jaar released his second proper solo album, Sirens. 2012-2017, a surprise release of dancefloor-oriented material recorded under Jaar's pseudonym A.A.L. (Against All Logic), appeared in 2018. R&S reissued the Nymphs series as a triple-LP in early 2019. 2020 proved to be a prolific year for Jaar with the releases of 2017-2019 -- under his A.A.L. (Against All Logic) alias -- Cenizas, and Telas.

Los Angeles singer/songwriter Moses Sumney first emerged in 2014, combining rich soul balladry with art-pop, folk, and ambient R&B. The San Bernardino native began playing out in his early twenties, quickly crafting a distinctive style that he augmented in the studio with lush multi-tracked vocal arrangements. In September 2017, he delivered his debut full-length, Aromanticism, an artfully crafted meditation on lovelessness and solitude. The following year, an EP was released featuring different versions of his Aromanticism track "Make Out in My Car," as remixed by Sufjan Stevens and James Blake and covered by Alex Isley. Another EP, Black in Deep Red, 2014, was also released in 2018. The musician returned in May 2020 with his second set, Græ. An experimental, sprawling double-album, Sumney's sophomore set reflected on his multiplicity and complex sense of self.