Nick Cave on the Fragility of Life

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Since the late nineteen-seventies, the Australian musician Nick Cave has given voice to our gnarliest impulses and fears. As a founding member of the cacophonous post-punk band the Birthday Party, he…

My Thirty Favorite Albums of 2021

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Many albums released in 2021 were pandemic records. Some were recorded in isolation; others were slated for earlier release, shelved, then put out into the world belatedly; a lot of them…

The Best Music of 2021

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Some of my earliest memories involve repeatedly slamming a sticky forefinger onto the Rewind and Play buttons of a two-tone Fisher-Price cassette player. Long before I was able to respond to…

How I Learned to Concentrate

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story I arrived at M.I.T. in the fall of 2004. I had just turned twenty-two, and was there to pursue a doctorate as part of something called the Theory of Computation group—a…