review Jul 31
Tyla's A*POP Makes the Case for African Pop Without Borders
The South African star uses her second album to make global scale feel like an extension of home rather than an exit from it.
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feature Jul 30
Asake's M$NEY Film Turns a Release Cycle Into a Live Archive
A London stage, a 40-piece orchestra, and five unheard songs show how a concert film can deepen an album instead of merely advertising it.
spotlight Jul 28
Nairobi's Greasy Tunes Turns Listening Data Into a Meeting Place
Spotify built a two-week program around how young Nairobi listens. The revealing part is what happened when the playlist left the screen.
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spotlight Dec 4
How Flo Rida’s “Dirty Mind” Became a Lost 2015 Single
The Sam Martin collaboration was a legitimate Atlantic release, not a bootleg—yet it quickly disappeared behind the extraordinary success of “My House.”
spotlight Nov 20
“I Miss You”: The Dark, Percussive Adele Song Hidden in Plain Sight
Adele and Paul Epworth’s imposing 25 deep cut was leaked only as part of the album, never issued as a single, and later gained an authorized online home.
feature Nov 20
Adele’s “Remedy,” the Quiet Song That Unlocked 25
Written with Ryan Tedder, “Remedy” turned Adele’s fear of creative paralysis into a spare promise of care addressed to the people anchoring her life.
feature Nov 20
How Adele’s “Love in the Dark” Became a Belated Standard
A 2015 orchestral deep cut found a second public life years later, revealing how Adele turns an honest separation into an act of devastating restraint.
spotlight Nov 20
Inside “All I Ask,” Adele and Bruno Mars’s Monumental Last-Night Ballad
A two-day writing session produced 25’s starkest vocal showcase, followed by Carpool Karaoke, a troubled Grammy performance and an unusual chart life.
feature Nov 20
“Million Years Ago”: Adele’s Nostalgic Ballad and Its Contested Afterlife
A sparse lament for ordinary life became one of 25’s most exposed performances—then the subject of serious, still-disputed authorship claims.
feature Nov 20
Adele’s “River Lea”: The Muddy Source of a Modern Gospel Confession
The deepest geographical song on 25 turns a London waterway into a vessel for memory, guilt and the fear that childhood never fully releases us.
feature Nov 20
“Sweetest Devotion”: How Adele Closed 25 by Looking Forward
After unauthorized snippets circulated, Adele’s luminous album finale arrived officially as a song about motherhood, responsibility and an altered future.
feature Nov 17
Inside Adele’s “When We Were Young,” a Reunion with Time Itself
Adele’s great nostalgia ballad arrived first as an intimate studio performance—not a remix—and turned an imagined reunion into a reckoning with age.
feature Nov 16
“Burning Alive”: Inside an Unreleased Akon Song’s Brief Flare
Akon’s “Burning Alive” surfaced amid his troubled Stadium campaign, but the available record points to a leak—not an official 2015 single.
feature Nov 9
“Back to Sleep” and Chris Brown’s Return to the R&B Slow Jam
The verified history of the *Royalty* single—from its November 2015 rollout and detailed credits to its video, remixes and complicated sexual politics.
feature Nov 9
“The Feeling” Caught Justin Bieber and Halsey Between Love and Illusion
Premiered before Purpose and visualized a few days later, the Skrillex-produced duet captured two ascendant pop identities at a turning point.
spotlight Nov 6
“Keep On Dancin’”: Ellie Goulding’s Resilient *Delirium* Deep Cut
Premiered on radio before *Delirium* arrived, the Ryan Tedder-produced song became a durable fan favorite without ever receiving a standalone single campaign.
spotlight Nov 6
“Don’t Panic”: Ellie Goulding’s Deep Cut at the Heart of the Delirium Machine
A precise guide to the polished, reassuring album track—its release, credits, musical construction and complicated place in Goulding’s maximalist pop era.
spotlight Oct 30
How “Touch” Tested Pia Mia’s Pop-Star Momentum
Made by a formidable 2015 writing team, Pia Mia’s second Interscope single became a modest international hit—and an instructive career crossroads.
spotlight Oct 23
Ellie Goulding’s Lost and Found Bridges Two Pop Selves
The folk-tinged Delirium countdown track was officially released before the album, bringing Goulding’s acoustic instincts into Max Martin’s precision-pop workshop.
spotlight Oct 19
Tori Kelly’s “Hollow” Hid a Prayer Inside a Pop Single
Released during Tori Kelly’s 2015 breakthrough, “Hollow” used the language of romantic need to express faith—and previewed the gospel turn ahead.
spotlight Oct 16
Inside Demi Lovato and Iggy Azalea’s Strange, Divisive “Kingdom Come”
The *Confident* deep cut was an authorized album collaboration, not a standalone single—and its unusual recording process helps explain its split personality.
review Oct 13
Jessie Ware’s Cinderella Cover Found the Quiet Grandeur Inside a Disney Standard
For 2015’s star-packed We Love Disney, Ware and producer David Foster treated Cinderella’s signature wish as an adult orchestral reverie.
feature Oct 2
How Timbaland’s “UFO” Changed Passengers Before Takeoff
The 2015 single began with André 3000 in its orbit, then emerged as a tense, commercially released collaboration with Future and Tink.