Category: Reviews
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by Michael McCarthy photos by HBO First of all, just in case you didn’t read the full subject line, I feel that I should begin this review but stating that it will contain major spoilers. If you don’t want to know about things like characters dying before you watch it, don’t read any further. Perhaps…
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by Michael McCarthy Last night on May 23rd, 2026, I finally saw the influential doom metal band Pentagram in concert for the very first time. And it will likely have been the last time because the band’s current tour, The Last Rites Tour, is being framed as a farewell tour. And given frontman Bobby Liebling’s…
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by Michael McCarthy There’s something almost novelistic about You and Everything Else. Watching it feels less like bingeing a television series and more like slowly making your way through a long, emotionally dense literary drama about friendship, resentment, jealousy, guilt and regret. For much of its runtime, the series is genuinely absorbing, thanks largely to…
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by Michael McCarthy Kacey Musgraves continues to be one of the most unpredictable artists working in modern country and Americana. With each new release, she seems less interested in repeating herself and more interested in following wherever her songwriting instincts take her. Her newly released album, Middle of Nowhere, continues that pattern — and like…
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by Michael McCarthy After the breakout success of its first season, Beef returns with a bold creative choice: a completely new storyline, new characters, and a fresh ensemble cast, while retaining the same sharp creative team behind the scenes. The result is a season that feels more like an anthology continuation than a direct sequel.…
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by Michael McCarthy Seeing Lily Allen live at the Orpheum Theatre felt less like attending a traditional concert and more like stepping into a theatrical production. Performing her new album West End Girl in full, Allen delivered a visually rich, tightly staged show that prioritized mood and storytelling over the usual greatest-hits format. Before she…
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interview by Michael McCarthy I first interviewed Rorie Kelly for Love is Pop back in 2016 after their significant other invited me to a house concert they were performing. To this day, that remains the only house concert I’ve ever been to, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I can still picture the…
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by Michael McCarthy Last Friday I went to see Hugo: The Ultimate Journey Tribute. I should begin this by stating that I’m normally not a big fan of tribute bands. Previously, the only tribute bands I’ve seen were an Abba tribute and a tribute to Elvis and Chuck Berry where they had holograms for singers.…
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by Michael McCarthy Def Leppard has just released a new live album, Diamond Star Heroes Live From Sheffield (Live). Not that the world really needed another live album by Def Leppard, but this might actually be their best one so far. Joe’s voice just sounds really, really good on this one, whereas I thought his…
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by Michael McCarthy Mariah Carey quietly released a new album recently. It’s called Here For it All and it’s fantastic. Easily her best album since her first comeback album with “Shake It Off” came out over 20 years ago when I was living in California. The first song on the new album, “Mi,” has her…
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by Michael McCarthy I’ve just finished watching Billionaires’ Bunker on Netflix. It’s the new show by the writers of Money Heist (Esther Martínez Lobato and Álex Pina), one of the best Netflix series of all-time. But this Bunker is definitely not as good as Money Heist. I really enjoyed it and it was very suspenseful,…
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by Michael McCarthy MM: First of all, congrats on being inducted into the Illinois Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That was last Sunday night, right? CZN: That’s correct. MM: Cool, cool. And when did you find out you were being inducted? CZN: Well, we actually were told a few months ago through the Rock…
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by Michael McCarthy OK, you all know how much I love Netflix, right? But I am kind of annoyed with them. When they licensed Heels and High Town from Starz, they had to have known that both of those shows last season’s end with huge cliffhangers that were never resolved because the shows were prematurely…
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by Michael McCarthy Yesterday the German heavy metal band Helloween released their new album, Giants & Monsters. The fascinating thing about Helloween is that they had three different singers during different periods of the bands existence of roughly 40 years and now all THREE singers are in the band at the same exact time. Originally…
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by Michael McCarthy It is, perhaps, weird but once in a while an album in a language I don’t even know will somehow speak to my soul just as loudly as an album with moving English language lyrics. Right now I’m listening to a new album by a German artist I like. Anomalie Pt.1 by…
