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New Music Drops: August 14, 2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of August 14th. We know it can…
 • Shatter the Standards
Album Review: fata morgana by L’Rain
Three years after the anti-break-up record I Killed Your Dog, Taja Cheek turns stalled starts, hungry love, and family communion into one continuous…
 • Shatter the Standards and Alexandria Elise
Album Review: Lost Weekend by Phoebe Bridgers
From a nosebleed at the Governor’s Ball to a father’s voicemail, Lost Weekend follows one love behind Phoebe Bridgers long-awaited follow-up and is the…
 • Shatter the Standards and Ivy Mensah
Album Review: StarrGirl by Ayra Starr
The Nigerian pop star packs her third album with money talk and dancefloor commands, then lets the English ballads go slack.
 • Shatter the Standards and Ameenah Laquita
Nobody Was Ready for What Ishmael Butler Did Next
Black Up came out on Sub Pop and sounded like nothing else that year. Plus: Bad Meets Evil’s reunion, MMG’s first group record, Tech N9ne finally…
 • Words Past da Margin
Philly Soul Never Actually Left, It Just Moved
Joy Denalane cut the year’s most beautiful record in Berlin, in German. Plus: Jagged Edge without JD, Ledisi’s mainstream turn, the entire Norwood…
 • Soulpolitan
Milestones: Never Too Much by Luther Vandross
An ex-backup singer’s debut built entirely on romantic devotion, as though no other subject existed, and very much proves the bet right.
 • Shatter the Standards and Imani Raven
Wednesday Roundups #161: 14 New Projects You Should Listen to Now
Listen to new releases from Dinner Party, Fana Hues, Inspectah Deck, Somi, Clark D, Jon Keith, UFO Fev & Machacha, Rick Hyde, Cletus Strap…
 • Shatter the Standards
Album Review: rappers suck. by Cletus Strap
In verses written partly in a rented beach house in Oxnard, the Los Angeles rapper turns a survey of broke friends into first-rate comic writing.
 • Shatter the Standards and Zachary Penn
Album Review: A DREAM FOR A DOLLAR by Clark D
Produced almost entirely by the rapper himself, Clark D’s new album is argumentative and self-incriminating, a Mattapan record that gives its best…
 • Shatter the Standards and Okoye
Album Review: SOULWAVE 2153 by MOONGA K.
Zambian-born and Johannesburg-based, MOONGA K. tells whoever is listening to stand up and keep their head up, and on SOULWAVE 2153, he writes the…
 • Shatter the Standards and Terryl Jameson
Album Review: All Eyes On Shiest by Pooh Shiesty
Recording from federal custody ahead of a February trial, Pooh Shiesty makes incarceration his subject and gets more comedy and grief from it than most…
 • Shatter the Standards and Quinn Baptiste
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