‘She never pandered to fashion’: why Kirsty MacColl’s vivid pop career was no fairytale by Alexis Petridis

The release of a massive new box set prompts Alexis Petridis to write about the great Kirsty MacColl. The article offers a consideration of her career, including an acknowledgement of some of her personal challenges, and makes a case that her legacy should shine more brightly than it does. In her time, MacColl made some truly rapturous pop music. I heartily second Petridis’s advocacy. This article is published by The Guardian.

Gen X’s Musical Icons Are Aging Far More Gracefully Than the Boomers Before Them by Michael Tedder

Writing for InsideHook, my pal Michael Tedder celebrates the generally laudable bearing of onetime college rock heroes as they approach retirement age. As he notes, those artists look all the better when compared against those of the immediately preceding generation. Generation X might be the age block that is perpetually forgotten in the discourse, but at least we have less cause to be embarrassed by the most revered passages of our individual record collections. Mostly.

Fuck You, We Win by Jessica Valenti

Since the legally suspect overturning of Roe v. Wade, Jessica Valenti has made it her life’s mission to angrily document the ongoing shenanigans of right-wingers who are determined to impose their regressive views on the rest of the country, all to the devastating detriment of those who are effectively forced to give birth against their will. Valenti deserves this moment of celebratory gloating in response to this week’s election results. This piece is published in her own Substack, Abortion, Every Day.

Crazy Eights by Molly Young

I recently caught up on a couple month’s worth of book review sections from Sunday editions of The New York Times, which means I just came upon this Molly Young piece about octagonal houses. As is usually a case when Young follows her curiosity into odd corners, it’s an an absolute delight.