Ann Powers
Ann Powers is 海角社区 Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for 海角社区's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on 海角社区's newsmagazines and music programs.
One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for The Record, 海角社区's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011.
Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined 海角社区. Prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior critic at Blender and senior curator at Experience Music Project. From 1997 to 2001 Powers was a pop critic at The New York Times and before that worked as a senior editor at the Village Voice. Powers began her career working as an editor and columnist at San Francisco Weekly.
Her writing extends beyond blogs, magazines and newspapers. Powers co-wrote Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, with Amos, which was published in 2005. In 1999, Power's book Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America was published. She was the editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the 1995 book Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Rap, and Pop and the editor of Best Music Writing 2010.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, Powers went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of California.
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Even as the songs on Forever Is a Feeling chronicle a love that's come to fruition in public, Dacus still creates a particular kind of safe space for the fans who delight in swooning with her. -
In some ways, COVID shrank the distance between musicians and listeners. But then, it also threw nearly everything about the industry into disarray, and for many, things have never been the same. -
Critic Ann Powers considers musical performances that have left audiences stunned in utter silence, and what you can hear when sound falls away. -
The sometimes-transgressive pop star has a new album, Mayhem, that seems poised to recapture the confrontational darkness of her early work. There's more than one reason to hope it's true. -
Last week, the hottest ticket in NYC wasn't the SNL 50th anniversary concert. It was the three nights Paul McCartney played at a tiny downtown venue that usually hosts up-and-coming indie rock bands. -
Beyonc茅 and Kendrick Lamar won the night's biggest awards, but the real takeaway from the Grammys is that a wave of younger stars has arrived on the pop scene, fully prepared to own the spotlight. -
Ann Powers considers the breakthrough of indie rock up-and-comer MJ Lenderman, and finds that he鈥檚 got some classic rock in his tales of romantic woe. -
"If I have to define my music in any way," Nick Cave says, "it's religious music." His new album is a gallery of encounters with spiritual, possibly divine figures, not all of whom are benevolent. -
In an era when connecting the tidbits of an artist鈥檚 private life can seem more important than following a musical thread between songs, West of Roan's Queen of Eyes revives faith in the power of the concept album. -
It's been a busy week for new music. 海角社区's Music team discusses new albums by Sturgill Simpson, Cassandra Jenkins and more.
