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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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The British band Roxy Music, led by singer/songwriter Bryan Ferry, released their fourth album in 1974. It would go on to crack the Billboard top 40 — and it remains thrilling today.