2016 sucked in many ways. But there was beautiful music to be heard in the midst of the year’s ugliness.

Pop culture nerdery won’t save the union but it could help us understand each other a little better.

Also, some more thoughts about why, exactly, the show is so powerful and endearing for me.

If the Bible has room for Job, Psalm 88, and Lamentations, then the Church’s music should have room for such content, too.

As I’ve heard more stories from folks my age about their church experiences, I realize how fortunate I was as a kid.

These songs may not have been in my top picks but they still deserve notice in their own right.

Sleepy trip-hop, atmospheric indie-electronic, religious experimental folk, harrowing post-punk/EBM, mournful folk & experimental electronic rock.

Incendiary hip-hop, soaring shoegaze, aggressive indie-rock, poignant synth-wave, thought-provoking emo & atmospheric rock.

Soulful hip-hop, lo-fi psychedelia, ambient dub, soaring electronic pop, abstract electronica, and otherworldly neo-folk.

Ominous ambience, funky hip-hop, pan-global instrumentals, crushing electronica, elegant post-punk, and forlorn post-rock.

If a song like this played on the radio today, it would result in outrage from multiple points on the cultural spectrum — though for different reasons.

I can’t imagine food alternatives really stacking up to the simple-yet-sublime pleasures of freshly picked strawberries.

Daredevil isn’t just a hero’s origin story; it also chronicles the tragic, sobering evolution of a supervillain.

Stripped of his usual pomp, Sufjan’s latest explores his relationship with his troubled mother with grace, compassion, and brutal honesty.

Makeup & Vanity Set’s Matthew Pusti discusses his new album’s origins, its accompanying short film, the legacy of the ’80s, and much more.

Blog networks can be powerful tools, but they’re only as good as the support they offer their bloggers, and there’s plenty of room for improvement there.

Using Craft’s custom fields, you can build a very flexible system for managing your site’s assets.

Post-punk shoegaze, confessional ballads, solo piano, psychedelic pop, and more. Oh, and Weird Al as well.

Acoustic folk, emo done right, soulful electronic pop, twee, ’80s synth ballads, hip-hop, and more.

Swirling shoegaze, Christian psych-rock, dark ambient and industrial, ’80s-style disco pop, and more.