Ken Tucker
Stories
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Arts & Life
New songs by Teddy Swims, Benjamin Booker and Neil Young let loose with big emotions
Rock critic Ken Tucker recommends three songs that are recent additions to his playlist: "Are You Even Real," by Swims; "Same Kind of Lonely," by Booker; and "big change," by Young.
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Arts & Life
Ringo Starr radiates confidence and ease on the country album 'Look Up'
The rhythmic sense that made Ringo a great rock drummer guides his vocals here. The result is relaxed authority that usually only a genius like Willie Nelson or Ray Charles can make sound so easy.
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Music
Women hit-makers brought aggression and vulnerability to pop music in 2024
The year in pop pivoted around a trio of artists — Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan — whose music hinged upon assertions of creative ambition and admissions of romantic weakness.
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Arts & Life
Holiday offerings by Ben Folds and others offer devout takes on the season
Rock critic Ken Tucker picks his favorite new Christmas songs, including "Christmas Time Rhyme," by Ben Folds; "Glow," by Little Big Town; and "Maybe this Christmas," by Jason Kelce and Stevie Nicks.
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Music
Country songs by Dwight Yoakam, Maren Morris and Shawna Thompson blend old and new
Yoakam has recorded a harmonious new duet with Post Malone. Morris is stretching beyond country's borders. And Thompson — half of the duo Thompson Square — looks back to the roots of honky-tonk.
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Arts & Life
Singer/songwriter Randy Newman looks back on his decades-long music career
Ken Tucker reviews Robert Hilburn's biography of Newman, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country. Plus, we listen back to a 1998 archival interview with the Grammy Award-winning artist.
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Music
Some of Bob Dylan's most raucous rock comes to life on 'The 1974 Live Recordings'
Dylan's 40-show 1974 tour with The Band produced a live double-album later that year. Now, the music available from that tour has increased dramatically with the release of a new 27-CD set.
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Arts & Life
50 years later, Neil Young's 'On the Beach' remains bleak -- and beautiful
The recording sessions for Young's 1974 album were gloomy, drug-fueled affairs, but the end result proves that artists can make good work no matter how hemmed-in, churlish or depressed they may be.
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Arts & Life
Revisiting the hard-rock swagger of the New York Dolls' 1974 album, 50 years later
Though sales were lackluster, Too Much Too Soon captured the band's spirit. Less than a year after its release, the Dolls broke up in a combination of commercial failure and personal misbehavior.
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Music
50 years ago, 'Country Life' solidified Roxy Music's reputation as art-rockers
