Ken Tucker
Ken Tucker reviews rock, country, hip-hop and pop music for Fresh Air. He is a cultural critic who has been the editor-at-large at Entertainment Weekly, and a film critic for New York Magazine. His work has won two National Magazine Awards and two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards. He has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and other publications.
Tucker is the author of Scarface Nation: The Ultimate Gangster Movie and Kissing Bill O'Reilly, Roasting Miss Piggy: 100 Things to Love and Hate About Television.
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Co-created by visual artist Jamie Hewlett and musician Damon Albarn, Gorillaz is fronted by four animated characters — but critic Ken Tucker says there's "nothing cartoonish" about the new album.
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Drake explores the quality and variety of his own moodiness on a new double album. Critic Ken Tucker says that Scorpion has staying power — despite the fact that it sometimes feels "too long."
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Rock critic Ken Tucker listens to new songs by My Morning Jacket's Jim James, the Danish band Iceage and George Clinton and Parliament. As each song shows, "there's an art to summoning up chaos."
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The Carters, who married in 2008, celebrate their union with a heavily autobiographical new album. Critic Ken Tucker is impressed by the record's easy shifts between hip-hop and R&B.
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Critic Ken Tucker says Father John Misty's new album offers a "roundabout, melancholy" acknowledgement of the artistic selfishness that often accompanies confessional songwriting.
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Eighteen-year-old Lindsey Jordan, who records under the name Snail Mail, has been playing guitar for 13 years. This combination of youth and experience creates a distinctive sound on her new album.
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Barnett sings about fame, feminism and self-doubt on her new album, Tell Me How You Really Feel. Ken Tucker says the songs are like "inner monologues, shaped and sharpened for public consumption."
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Though Cardi B's instinctive pose is that of a tough realist, her debut album allows for more vulnerable moments. Critic Ken Tucker calls Invasion of Privacy a "statement of principles."
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Critic Ken Tucker says that Monroe's moody new album proves that the singer/songwriter is "working in a space that's almost entirely separate from anyone else in country music right now."
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Rock critic Ken Tucker shares some hits he's listening to, including BlocBoy JB and Drake's upbeat "Look Alive" and the moody sound of Post Malone's "Walk It Talk It."