Spencer Kornhaber
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Indian Space Research Organisation Handout/Reuters Five Stories We’re Watching
Atlantic writers look ahead at India’s moon landing, WeWork’s giant IPO filing, Taylor Swift’s Lover, and more.
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Nikko LaMere / Mom + Pop Records Sleater-Kinney Lost Its Chaos Before It Lost Its Drummer
Angry though a bit too orderly, The Center Won’t Hold can’t help but be heard in the context of the beloved punk trio becoming a duo.
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Eric Timothy Carlson and Graham Tolbert / Jagjaguwar Bon Iver’s Inexplicable Power
The band’s folk-pop experiments sound like gorgeous, nonsensical conversations on the state of the world.
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Drag City / David Berman David Berman Saw the Source of American Sadness
The singer for Silver Jews and Purple Mountains brilliantly described how restlessness can curdle into isolation.
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Drag City / David Berman David Berman Sang the Truth
The singer and poet of the band Silver Jews, dead at 52, made a career out of strange, beautiful insights.
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Amy Harris / Invision / AP The Reason Musicians Speak Up About Mass Shootings
Artists are shaping the gun-violence discourse, and the fascinating reaction to their political speech has demonstrated the specific reach they can have.
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PBS / Elliott Landy / The Image Works Why Woodstock Can Never Happen Again
A new documentary explores the original organizers’ ingenuity and naïveté, revealing the exact reason the concert is unreproducible.
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Sony Pictures Quentin Tarantino’s Ultimate Statement on Movie Violence
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the director’s ninth film, rates as his least bloody—and when mayhem erupts, it’s to draw a line between fiction and reality.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Chance the Rapper Wants You to Get Married
The Big Day, the artist’s latest album, doesn’t just describe his happily-ever-after life: It evangelizes it.
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Andrew Burton / Reuters Why Trump Cares About A$AP Rocky’s Sweden Arrest
The rapper’s supporters see a story of racism. The president sees a story about immigration.
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Joel C Ryan / AP Beyoncé Remixed the Meaning of The Lion King
The Gift, a companion album for the rebooted Disney film, sees the superstar connecting to “something way bigger.” What is it?
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Christopher Smith / Netflix What Happens When Queer Eye’s Experts Get Personal
The Netflix show all along portrayed the Fab Five as superhuman helpers, but in Season 4 it deepens their images.
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Reuters / Pool Kevin Spacey Is Not Vindicated
The criminal case alleging the actor assaulted a busboy in 2016 has been dropped. But #MeToo is more than a reckoning taking place in court.
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Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters The Puzzling Ubiquity of Ed Sheeran
The strummer’s No. 6 Collaborations Project reveals the blend of sentimentality, humblebragging, and hip-hop swiping that has powered his success.
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Keith Bedford / Reuters The Murky Ethics of Posthumous Music
With a new version of “Higher Love,” the EDM star Kygo reworks a 1990 Whitney Houston vocal into a pool-party jam both of its time and out of it.
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Kamil Krzaczynski / Reuters The R. Kelly Federal Indictments Describe a Conspiracy
Federal indictments in Chicago and New York allege racketeering, witness tampering, and the illegal transportation of minors for sex—and the singer’s supposed crimes were not committed alone.
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Jeenah Moon / Reuters The Paradox of Madonna’s Gun-Control Music Video
A graphic depiction of violence has served mostly to offend survivors of such violence.
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Steve Marcus / Reuters The Shocking Falling-Out Between Taylor Swift and a Longtime Ally
The artist’s open letter about the sale of her former record label portrays a business matter as a story of bullying and virtue—and others involved have used similarly moralizing rhetoric.
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Darius Khondji / Netflix Thom Yorke’s Beautiful New Nightmare
The subconscious is an overdone subject, but the Radiohead singer’s sleep-focused solo album, Anima, is packed with fresh, freaky ideas.
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Lucy Jones Tracing the Internal Queer Revolution
Riots and parades have made LGBTQ people visible. But a new anthology of writings from before, during, and after Stonewall shows the inward changes as more essential.
