This weekend, Jay-Z and Beyoncé released joint album Everything Is Love exclusively via their Tidal platform. But with the record already on Spotify, Eamonn Forde argues that this is yet another vain lunge by the 1% and a platform that is failing to take off
With every pop release hailed like the coming of a prophet have the big names of the mainstream sucked up too much critical oxygen? Michael Hann asks if poptimism has merely ended up becoming as narrow minded as the rockism it usurped. (Pictured - the "pop South Sea Bubble" of PC Music)
Pop is all over Rainbow Milk, the Gordon Burn Prize-nominated debut novel by Paul Mendez. Here he tells Paul Flynn how a love of Marvin Gaye, Beyonce, Solange, Joy Division and Missy Elliott gave him a clearer understanding of his sexuality and racial identity
Not afraid to challenge their audience, Ulver are currently indulging in a different kind of pop music. Dan Franklin speaks to founding member Kristoffer Rygg about danceable gothic songs, papal conclaves, potent imagery down the centuries, and “sucking on the tit of the wolf mother”. Main Ulver portraits by Ingrid Aas
Julian Marszalek met Oli Burslem, frontman of frenetic London trio Yak, to talk about their debut single Hungry Heart, and ended up discussing 99p eBay organs, the "modest" Dandy Warhols and why psychedelia means more than just wearing colourful trousers in Wolverhampton
With his new album, Lee Ranaldo has abandoned the harsher, more freeform aspects of his earlier solo work in favour of streamlined songwriting. Chris Woolfrey caught up with him to discuss how it came together, and life after Sonic Youth