Music albums, bands, musicians and songs featured and reviewed.
AllMusic Loves 2024
17 December 2024 @ 12:00 am
Our editors share 227 of their personal favorite albums of 2024, featuring some of the year's biggest releases and a wealth of lesser-heard gems.
Cast Your Vote in the AllMusic 2024 Readers' Poll
13 December 2024 @ 12:00 am
As the year winds down, we want to hear from you. Vote for your favorite albums in our 2024 Readers' Poll.
Ad-Free AllMusic: Put Another Dime in the Jukebox, Baby
4 December 2024 @ 12:00 am
Thanks to all of our subscribers for supporting AllMusic and using the site without ads. Subscribe now to take advantage of the $12 annual subscription rate while you still can.
AllMusic's Best of 2024
4 December 2024 @ 12:00 am
Each year, the AllMusic editors look back through the albums that made the biggest impact, broke new ground, and just all-out moved us. Pop, rap, jazz, blues, classical and more. We begin with our overall best-of list, and will explore a different genre each weekday until the new year.
Classical Highlights for November 2024
2 December 2024 @ 12:00 am
As autumn continues in the northern hemisphere and the temperature outside falls, the instinct it to turn to more cozy settings, which is perfect for chamber music. Two outstanding classical releases covered this month fit that bill. One is violin sonatas by the friends Brahms and Schumann, performed by Yuuko ShioKawa and András Schiff. The other features chamber works by Igor Stravinsky, conducted by Barbara Hannigan (pictured).
The 2024 AllMusic Gift Guide
26 November 2024 @ 12:00 am
Each year, we share our hand-picked recommendations of books, accessories, gadgets, recordings, and more, sure to please even the most discerning audiophile.
Stephen Pearcy Discusses 40th Anniversary Reissue of Ratt's Out of the Cellar
20 November 2024 @ 12:00 am
Stephen Pearcy Discusses 40th Anniversary Reissue of Ratt's Out of the Cellar, the Musical Importance of 1984, and Why the Surviving Ratt Members Haven't Reunited Recently.
Mother Mother's TikTok Renaissance
13 November 2024 @ 12:00 am
Canadian indie rock band Mother Mother have come a long way from their days in the attic in Vancouver. A series of well-received albums and the group's sudden bombshell resurgence on TikTok in 2020 has cemented them amidst a new generation of fans, one which embraces the band's alien soundscape as their own.
Classical Highlights for October 2024
4 November 2024 @ 12:00 am
The highlights of October's new reviews seem to be mainly vocal releases, with a diversity of styles. Of particular note: the women of the Corvus Consort (pictured) are joined by Louise Thomson for a variety of works specifically for female voices and harp. Please explore our classical highlights for October.
Led Zeppelin's Influence on '70s Canadian Rockers
4 November 2024 @ 12:00 am
There is a fine line between inspiration and imitation, and Greg Prato's new book "Led Clones: The Led Zeppelin Imitator Craze of the '80s...and Beyond" digs into this phenomenon in depth. Here's an excerpt focusing on the particular decade that gave us Star Wars, pet rocks, bell bottom jeans, afros, and punk rock – in addition to several bands motivated by Plant, Page, Jones, and Bonham.
Every year, millions of businesses are created around the world. In order for these big ideas to turn into successful startups, most of them will inevitably come up against the challenges of fundraising. While there is no magic formula, there are variables that founders can hone in on when engaging with potential investors. TNW sat down with San Francisco-based VC Plug and Play early-stage investor Letizia Royo-Villanova during the Red Bull Basement global final in Tokyo to get her insights. The one thing that really needs to stand out, according to Royo-Villanova, is the drive and authenticity of the founder.…
Finnish startup Oura has closed its Series D funding round at $200mn, bringing the smart ring maker’s valuation to a cosy $5.2bn. Oura’s smart ring uses 20 biometric markers to track sleep, physical activity, and stress resilience. The device displays this data on an app that gives you a personalised “readiness” score. We tested the wearable earlier this year and were genuinely impressed. Founded in 2013, Oura secured its first funding on Kickstarter, the crowdfunding site, in 2016. Counting this new tranche of capital, the tech startup has raised $550mn since inception. “We’ve made significant progress in advancing our mission to make…
Munich-based startup Vaeridion has secured €14mn to develop an electric aircraft that it hopes will whisk passengers on short-haul routes around Europe by 2030. “The microliner looks like a regular plane and it takes off from a runway — the only difference is that it will be powered by batteries,” Vaeridion’s co-founder and CEO, Ivor van Dartel, told TNW in an interview last month. “For operators and passengers, the experience will be essentially the same.” Berlin-based climate tech VC World Fund led the Series A investment, with participation from Project A Ventures, Vsquared Ventures, Schwarz Holding, InnovationQuarter, and angel investor…
Short-term rental platforms like Airbnb have transformed travel. They’ve made it easier for tourists to access personalised, private accommodations and for property owners to monetise their spaces. With global tourism now on track for a full recovery post-COVID, Hostaway has secured a cool $365mn at a $925mn valuation as it looks to cash-in on the boom in short-term rentals. Hostaway is a property management system (PMS) and software marketplace for the short-term rental industry. It will use the cash to enhance its dynamic pricing tools, further integrate AI, and expand its presence in new markets, focusing on France, Italy, and…
It’s been a great year for the Dutch startup ecosystem. Venture capitalists have, so far, invested $3.5bn into Netherlands-based early-stage companies, according to Dealroom data. That makes 2024 Dutch tech’s second-best funding year ever, surpassed only by 2021. Dutch startups have raised almost 50% more ($1.1bn) cash this year than in 2023 — and there are still two weeks to go. It’s a striking uptick, especially considering the rather muted funding environment in broader Europe, which is on course for its worst year since 2020. The Netherlands stands to be Europe’s fourth best-funded ecosystem for 2024. It ranks two places…
According to the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome, the Netherlands ecosystem is now ranked number 13 in the world — placing it ahead of both Paris and Berlin. In 2023, Dutch startups raised $2.2bn. While there have been fewer startup deals this year, overall investment is up, according to figures from the Dutch Startup Association. And for some startups and scaleups, 2024 was truly a monumental year. Picnic raises one of Europe’s largest rounds Having grown its business 40% in 2023 following international expansion across France and Germany, Dutch online supermarket Picnic kicked off the year in…
Baller League — a new six-a-side football league that has attracted support from legends like Ronaldinho, Gary Lineker, and Luis Figo — has raised $25mn from EQT Ventures as it looks to initiate a “new era” for the beautiful game. German entrepreneur Felix Starck co-founded the Baller League last year alongside former players Mats Hummels and Lukas Podolski. The founders wanted to change the way younger audiences engage, view, and interact with the world’s most popular sport. The league, which is now expanding from Germany to the UK and the US, comprises shorter 30-minute matches that are available to stream…
Boston Dynamics’ robot dog “Spot” has become somewhat of an internet sensation, no doubt thanks to its (perhaps disturbingly) killer dance moves or displays of super-strength. But Spot is far from the only robodog on the block. One of its competitors is ANYmal, an autonomous quadruped that’s impressively good at everything from parkour to climbing ladders. Apart from doing tricks, ANYmal also has a real job. It does routine inspections in some of the toughest places on Earth. Think old nuclear power plants, abandoned mines, and offshore oil rigs. Cameras, sensors and gas detectors act as the robodog’s eyes…
Microsoft probably needs no introduction. But in case you are not familiar with the Microsoft for Startups program, it is an initiative that provides free licences and Azure credits to selected software entrepreneurs over the course of three years. Needless to say, its general manager, Hans Yang, is somewhat of an expert when it comes to identifying the ideas that will make it to market and that particular drive he calls “founder energy.” “With some founders, it is immediate — you can see it right off the bat,” Yang tells TNW during an interview at the Red Bull Basement global…
From bricklaying robots to zero-carbon cement, startups are shaking up construction in a high-tech bid to build better, greener structures. One of these early-stage ventures is Finland-based Aisti. Founded in 2019, the company has come up with a way to make acoustic tiles that are “carbon-negative.” Acoustic panels are a common construction material used to reduce noise and improve sound quality in buildings. Aisti has raised €29mn in a mix of VC and debt funding to build its first industrial-scale factory in Kitee, a small town about four hours northeast of Helsinki. The startup plans to bring the tiles to market…
President-elect Donald Trump has already had to expend some of his political capital on pushing a government funding bill across the finish line — a month before his own inauguration. And according to a new report, some in Trump's inner circle are worried his influence over the House Republican Conference may be waning.In a Saturday article, Politico's Lisa Kashinsky and Holly Otterbein observed that the president-elect was unable to unify his party around the most recent bill to keep the federal government open for the next three months, with 38 House Republicans voting against the bill despite his calls for Congress to pass it. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) once again depended on Democratic support to send the must-
Billy Long, Trump’s Nominee to Lead the IRS, Former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri, whom President-elect Donald Trump has named his nominee to head the IRS, touts his expertise in tax matters.He advertises his credential as a certified tax and business advisor, and he adds CTBA to his name on his X profile. That profile encourages people to message him to “save 40% on your taxes.”But tax experts told ProPublica that they have never heard of CTBA as a credential in the tax profession. The designation is offered by a small Florida firm, Excel Empire, which was established just two years ago and only requires attendance at a three-day seminar. That is in stark contrast to the 150 credit hours and th
Psychedelic drugs hit the news last week just as Elon Musk, America’s unelected oligarch, started blowing up the government, because, chaos.Musk, who is clueless about how government works, killed a short term spending bill that would have kept government open through March, provided money for cash-strapped farmers, and provided FEMA disaster relief, all while posting 
As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters. — President Grover ClevelandBehind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. — President Theodore RooseveltWe had to struggle with
Criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mark Bederow believes that prosecutors in the Luigi Mangione case have already made a significant "mistake."In an editorial published by the New York Times, Bederow argues that adding terrorism-related charges to the Mangione prosecution was a significant error that could jeopardize what should 
Tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk lashed out at a Democratic lawmaker on Friday afternoon who accused him of "endorsing a neo-Nazi party."Following Trump's win over Vice President Kamala Harris, Musk has recently tried to use his influence to tilt Germany’s election, endorsing on his platform, X, the country’s far-right Alternative
WASHINGTON — Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) exclusively told Raw Story that she isn't at all concerned about tech billionaire Elon Musk's interference with the legislative process that caused a government shutdown threat and days of chaos as Republicans scuttled a bipartisan continuing resolution.And more broadly, she isn't concerned about Democrats' efforts to needle Trump's ego over the matter."What we're seeing right now is this, really, time in politics where people can get direct feedback from their constituency,
One public relations professional in South Carolina is now airing Rep. Nancy Mace's (R-S.C.) dirty laundry on social media, blasting the far-right congresswoman in several viral social media posts.The Daily Beast reported Friday that Wesley Donehue — the founder of the PR firm Push Digital Group — recently unleashed on his former client on his X account. Donehue informed his followers that the two-term congresswoman (who was recently reelected) caused him significant stress, and that he fired her several months ago."I’m a political consultant and not a babysitter, a sex therapist or a doctor who can prescribe
Before he left office, President Joe Biden communicated his intent to confirm as many federal judges as possible in order to deny his successor the ability to pack the judiciary with far-right activists. That plan seems to have borne fruit, according to a new report.In a Friday article, Politico's Anthony Adragna wrote that Democrats' "fight to Trump-proof the federal judiciary" has been an overwhelming success. On Friday night, the Democratic-run U.S. Senate confirmed Biden's 235th judicial appointment, officially putting him past President-elect Donald Trump's 234 judges with a month left to go before Biden leaves the White House.
One of President-elect Donald Trump's longtime confidants is calling on him to inflict "pain" on the wealthiest Americans and corporations in the form of higher taxes during his second term in the White House.In a wide-ranging Friday interview with Semafor reporter David Weigel, Steve Bannon — who was Trump's former chief White House strategist — indicated he wanted the incoming Republican trifecta to be "populist nationalists." Bannon defined populism as an "anti-elite" sentiment along with economic policies "that make the citizen the actual focus of the government," and suggested that partisan labels were quickly becoming outdated."I don’t think you look at Republicans and Democrats anymore.