OK, I admit it. I’m one of the geeks who sings along at the pump when the music comes on over those loud speakers at the gas station – and it’s all Hayley Williams’ fault. It may not stand a chart chance against Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” but Paramore’s “Ain’t It Fun” is the tune that’s popping up everywhere I am this summer – by the pool, in the grocery store, at work … I can’t help myself, I love singing along to “Ain’t It Fun.” Every year, there’s a summer song that grabs hold

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE ECONOMIST ANGELIQUE KIDJO’S childhood in Benin was a whirl of different languages and cultural influences. Hers was a family that spoke French, Fon and Yoruba, and placed equal emphasis on Catholic rites and indigenous spiritual rituals. This mixing has had a continuing impact on her career as a singer, which began with her mother’s theatre group at the age of six and has now made her one of Africa’s best-known performers, a woman who headlines c

BY KRISTI YORK WOOTEN FOR THE ECONOMIST FOR her latest muse, Rosanne Cash returns to the familiar world of the American South, where the ghosts of William Faulkner and Robert Johnson loom large. A Grammy-winning singer and the eldest daughter of Johnny Cash, she lives in Manhattan. But on her landmark new album, “The River and the Thread”, she embraces her Memphis birthright to deliver a mixture of music and metaphor that explores the Southern grooves of her native city and t

#20122014 #featured #INTERVIEWS #RollingStone #MUSIC #quad #albumreviews

#THEECONOMIST #20122014 #featured #INTERVIEWS #MUSIC #quad #favorites #albumreviews