Rolling Stone March 22, 2018

MUSIC NINA SIMONE LIVES As the legendary singer and piano stylist heads to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a look at how everyone from Jay-Z to Lana Del Rey has channeled her rebel spirit. SPORTS SKATEBOARD’S GREAT HOPE How Nora Vasconcellos overcame a panic disorder to win a world championship in pro skateboarding. MUSIC BEST 98 FROM ’98 Rob Sheffield dials the clock back 20 years for the 98 best songs Madonna, the Beasties, Jay-Z and Hole had to offer. CULTURE CRIMES ON THE HIGH SEAS Inside the rise and fall of “Fat Leonard,” the Navy contractor who bought off top brass with liquor, women and bribes. ROLLING STONE MUSIC NOW PODCAST: KELLY CLARKSON The Voice’s newest coach joins host Brian Hiatt to discuss her Idol audition and her new album, Meaning of Life (a conversation excerpt is on page 24).…

Migos on Top Migos are “better than the Beatles” [“Migos Take You Higher,” RS 1306/1307]. But why compare? Why do they need to be better? It’s apples and oranges. Just enjoy their music and their success. Ken McNeillVia the Internet I HAVE NO ISSUE WITH THESE guys spending their money like drunken sailors on cars and jewelry. But I do hope they’re giving back to their community as well. Michael MacchiBethel, CT​ photo of Migos is beautiful – one for the archives. Unfortunately, Migos keep using casual homophobia in their lyrics. Can’t one of their pals like Donald Glover show them Moonlight so they can get woke already? Damn. Frank RodriguezLos Angeles Jack’s New Groove because he’s naturally out in left field and wants you to know it [“Jack White’s Wilder Side,” RS 1306/1307]. He’s an acquired taste,…

1. Kacey Musgraves “Space Cowboy” Musgraves is a country truth-bomber in finest Loretta Lynn tradition. But she delivers this gorgeous breakup ballad with a gentle touch, giving her cowboy all the space he needs so she can find the freedom she craves. 2. Swae Lee feat. Rae Sremmurd “Hurt to Look” Beloved hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd are about to release a triple album; this elegiacally spacey disco nugget suggests it might be the psych-trap Sandinista! we never knew we needed. 3. Sade “Flower of the Universe” Light some candles, pour that bubbly – Sade’s first song in seven years shows why she’s still the queen of satin slow jams. 4. Yo La Tengo “For You Too” Three decades into their run and Yo La Tengo are still finding awesome new flavors in summery drone-folk majesty. This is lush even for them. 5.…

The Phish bassist is wrapping up a solo tour. In the summer, he’ll head back out on the road with Phish. The Beatles “Here Comes the Sun” When I was seven, those harmonies oozed off the grooves of my scratchy record like pure, sunny longing, tinting the world electric yellow. Grateful Dead “Weather Report Suite” Teenage me blasted this, winding through New Hampshire mountain roads at midnight, getting out of my car in dense fog to look at darkness. King Sunny Adé “Easy Motion Tourist” How can 20 musicians be so telepathically entwined, the pedal steel levitating on top? Tune-Yards “Water Fountain” Merrill [Garbus] created this by banging on random things at home and around Oakland. How can that many flowing phrases be so catchy? The Louvin Brothers “Hoping That You’re Hoping” I love when a song transports me so far it could be Mars,…

Lorde Melodrama World Tour DATES Through April 15th OPENERS Run the Jewels, Tove Styrke, Mitski TICKET PRICES $40–$100 “I’ve really stepped up my game,” says Lorde, describing her first U.S. arena tour. “I even dance kind of like a real pop star.” The singer is aiming for shows as emotionally charged as last year’s Melodrama, even if that means reliving the breakup that inspired the songs. “I have to go through the emotional arc of it every night, which is exhilarating and grueling all in one,” she says. She’s become used to “crying, hands covered in glitter, leading 10,000 people in a singalong.” Lorde conceived of pretty much every detail of the show, from the neon astronaut sign (which she drew at her kitchen table) to the rectangular “terrarium” that houses dancers suspended above her. Expect curveball covers of…

Courtney Barnett Tell Me How You Really Feel Mom+Pop RELEASE DATE May 18th Barnett’s 2015 debut combined Dylan-level wordplay and Seinfeld-level observational wit to make the 27-year-old a Grammy-nominated indie-rock hero. For her much anticipated follow-up, she wrote “aimlessly” before landing on a politically engaged set of songs like the single “Nameless, Faceless,” about the dangers of everyday life as a woman. “When I took a step back to see whether I had enough songs to call it an album, it just made sense,” she says. “All the songs belonged together.” Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour MCA Nashville RELEASE DATE March 30th Musgraves’ first two albums rattled Nashville conventions with lyrics about smoking pot and kissing girls. She’s still at it, though this time the taboos she’s breaking are more sonic than lyrical. “It would be really hard…