Music Writer
Leelou Blanc
Leelou Blanc writes about pop, R&B, and the artists who refuse easy categorization. She is interested in the moment when a sound becomes a signature, and in the collaborations that reveal something neither artist could produce alone. She has been covering independent music since before streaming made discovery easy.
115 articles
music
Amaarae Has Never Made Music for a Single World
May 22, 2026 ·
4 min read
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Loyle Carner's hopefully! Finds the Most Tender Argument of His Career
May 20, 2026 ·
4 min read
music
Tems and Love Is a Kingdom: Seven Songs Made on Her Own Terms
May 20, 2026 ·
4 min read
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Bird's Eye: How Ravyn Lenae Found Her Own Frequency
May 19, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Tirzah and the Sound of Feeling Too Much
May 18, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Unknown Mortal Orchestra and the Art of Arriving Everywhere at Once
May 15, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Kelly Lee Owens: The Welsh Nurse Who Became One of Electronic Music's Most Vital Voices
May 13, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Cautious Clay and the Long Work of Fighting Demons
May 12, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Ravyn Lenae: The Starchild Chicago Always Knew Would Shine
May 11, 2026 ·
4 min read
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Alewya and the Architecture of Zero
May 10, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Duendita Makes the Most Honest Record of the Year
May 10, 2026 ·
5 min read
Music
BadBadNotGood And The Art Of Refusing To Be Background Music
May 7, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Charlotte Day Wilson And The Art Of Making Them Wait
May 7, 2026 ·
4 min read
Music
Sampha And The Inheritance Of Time
May 7, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Solange And The Art Of The Post Album Career
May 7, 2026 ·
5 min read
Music
The Producer Who Made Ambient Electronic Feel Like The Future Again
May 4, 2026 ·
4 min read
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Nia Archives: Jungle's New Voice and the Sound of a Generation Finding Itself
April 27, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Slayyyter: Pop's Most Committed Maximalist
April 27, 2026 ·
4 min read
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Arooj Aftab and the Quiet Weight of Vulture Prince
April 26, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Vagabon's Again and the Sound of Someone Finding Themselves
April 26, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Bar Italia: The Three-Way Mirror
April 24, 2026 ·
1 min read
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Tirzah: Minimal as a Heartbeat
April 24, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Arooj Aftab and the Ancient Frequency
April 23, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Mk.gee: The Guitarist Who Liquified Sound
April 16, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Dream Tunes Makes You Homesick for a Life You Never Lived
April 13, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Paperwater Is Building Miami's Most Honest Dance Floor
April 13, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Verraco Doesn't Need Permission to Rewrite Club Music
April 13, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Blood Orange Turned the Mojave Into a Cathedral
April 12, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Kelsey Lu Took Seven Years to Make Her Second Album and Every Day of It Shows
April 12, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Sung Holly Posted a Cover and Ended Up in a Room with Rostam
April 12, 2026 ·
3 min read
Music
Turnstile Played Through Grief and Fury and Came Out the Other Side
April 12, 2026 ·
2 min read
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anaiis Made an Album About Breaking and Becoming -- 'Devotion & the Black Divine' Is Both
April 11, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Deki Alem Turned Stockholm's Underground Into a Continental Obsession
April 11, 2026 ·
2 min read
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MOIO Built an Empire on a Song That Wasn't Supposed to Break
April 11, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Wesley Joseph's 'Forever Ends Someday' Arrives Like a Debut Should -- Late, Patient, and Impossible to Ignore
April 11, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Jacob Banks Leaves the Machine Behind — 'Limerence' Is His Most Honest Work Yet
April 10, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Sorisa Is 17 and Already Outrunning Toronto's Hype Machine
April 10, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Sasha Keable Made a UK R&B Record That Doesn't Need to Explain Itself
April 9, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Witch Prophet Speaks in Tongues the Industry Doesn't Have a Category For
April 9, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Gabriel Jacoby's 'gutta child' Is Southern Soul Music That Refuses to Look Away
April 8, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Mon Rovia Built 'Bloodline' from the Red Dirt of Everything He Survived
April 8, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Coco Jones Is Not Waiting for Permission
April 7, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Nourished By Time Is the Artist Baltimore Has Always Deserved
April 7, 2026 ·
2 min read
Music
No Labels, No Sponsors, No Problem: Ye Made $33 Million in Two Nights
April 7, 2026 ·
3 min read
Culture
Dani Roche Has Always Been Becoming This.
April 6, 2026 ·
8 min read
Music
fakemink Doesn't Want to Be Discovered. That's Exactly Why You Should Find Him.
April 6, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Samara Cyn's 'Backroads' Is the Album That Arrives Before You Know You Need It
April 6, 2026 ·
3 min read
Music
Arlo Parks on 'Ambiguous Desire': The Interior Life Has Never Sounded Like This
April 5, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Cristal No.5: The Chaotic, Obsessive, Unmissable Force About to Drop a Debut Album
April 3, 2026 ·
5 min read
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Dijon: Filling the Void Frank Ocean Left Behind
April 3, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Frank Ocean's American Wedding: The Cover That Was Never a Cover
April 3, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Khalid: The Kid From El Paso Who Changed Everything
April 3, 2026 ·
4 min read
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Noche Went from Bedroom Remixes to Daft Punk's Inbox
April 3, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Inside Tokyo's Underground Electronic Scene: The World's Best Kept Musical Secret
March 30, 2026 ·
2 min read
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AI in Music: A Tool, Not a Threat
March 28, 2026 ·
3 min read
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Women Are Not Taking Over Rap. They Already Did.
March 28, 2026 ·
2 min read
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Holocaust Honey: Daniel Lopatin's Most Devastating Three Minutes
December 28, 2025 ·
4 min read
Music
Jeanie: When Jim-E Stack Met Bon Iver and Something Extraordinary Happened
November 15, 2025 ·
4 min read
Music
Mi Amour: The Anonymous Artist With the Most Indescribable Sound of 2025
November 12, 2025 ·
5 min read
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Phospholipid by Blood Cultures: The Song That Sounds Like a Memory You Never Had
September 20, 2025 ·
4 min read
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Blawan and the Industrial Techno That Feels Like the End of Something
July 8, 2025 ·
3 min read
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Debbie and the Manchester Artist Making Pop Music That Cuts
May 13, 2025 ·
3 min read
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Sprints and the Dublin Punk Band Making the Most Honest Music in Years
March 4, 2025 ·
3 min read
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oklou in 2025: Quieter, Stranger, More Essential
January 14, 2025 ·
3 min read
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SZA and the Weight of SOS: From Grammy Dominance to Desert Flower With Lana Del Rey
December 25, 2024 ·
1 min read
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CHROMAKOPIA Proved Tyler the Creator Has No Ceiling
November 1, 2024 ·
2 min read
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Oren Ambarchi and the Patience Required to Listen to Music This Slow and This Beautiful
October 1, 2024 ·
3 min read
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The Underground Artist Sitting on Something Extraordinary
August 26, 2024 ·
3 min read
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Sabrina Carpenter's 2024 Breakthrough Was a Masterclass in Timing
August 23, 2024 ·
4 min read
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The Lima Music Scene and the South American Artists Nobody Has Covered Yet
August 6, 2024 ·
3 min read
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Yu Su and the Slow Dissolve of Genre on Her Own Terms
June 18, 2024 ·
3 min read
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Teddy Swims and the Longest Reign: How Lose Control Became Inescapable
June 15, 2024 ·
2 min read
Music
Kaytranada's Timeless Proved the Title Was Not Hyperbole
June 10, 2024 ·
4 min read
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Bad Bunny's Most Wanted Tour Was Latin Music's Declaration of Permanent Arrival
May 30, 2024 ·
4 min read
Music
Charlie Puth Got Name-Dropped by Taylor Swift and the Internet Lost Its Mind
May 20, 2024 ·
5 min read
Music
Dua Lipa and Kevin Parker Made the Pop Album of 2024
May 10, 2024 ·
5 min read
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Justice Returns With Hyperdrama and Reminds Everyone Who Built This
April 20, 2024 ·
4 min read
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Amapiano Went Global and the World Was Not Ready for How Good It Is
April 5, 2024 ·
5 min read
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WSÁBE and the Electronic Music Coming Out of Mexico City Right Now
April 2, 2024 ·
3 min read
Music
The Eras Tour Rewrote the Rules of Live Music Forever
March 15, 2024 ·
2 min read
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Raye's BRIT Awards Triumph Was Years of Vindication Compressed Into One Night
March 3, 2024 ·
4 min read
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Lamorn and the Australian Bedroom Pop Artist Rewriting Heartbreak
February 13, 2024 ·
3 min read
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Yussef Dayes Is Building a New Jazz Vocabulary One Live Show at a Time
December 5, 2023 ·
3 min read
Music
Andre 3000 Released a Flute Album and It Was Exactly What We Needed
November 20, 2023 ·
5 min read
Music
Nia Sul and the Cardiff Bedroom Pop Scene Nobody Is Writing About
October 24, 2023 ·
3 min read
Music
The Renaissance Tour Proved Beyonce Is Operating on a Different Plane
October 12, 2023 ·
5 min read
Music
Yeule's Softscars Exists in a Frequency Only Certain People Can Hear
September 11, 2023 ·
3 min read
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George Clanton Is the Most Genuine Thing Happening in Synth Pop
August 14, 2023 ·
3 min read
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James Ivy and the Philadelphia Sound That's Been Quietly Building
August 8, 2023 ·
3 min read
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Bonny Light Horseman and the Folk Revival That Doesn't Feel Like a Revival
June 20, 2023 ·
3 min read
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The Producer Collective Rewriting What Pop Music Can Sound Like Underground
April 11, 2023 ·
3 min read
Music
Kelela's Raven Is the Club Record That Actually Cares About You
April 10, 2023 ·
3 min read
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Kelela's Raven Is the Club Record That Actually Cares About You
April 10, 2023 ·
3 min read
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boygenius and the Strange Power of Three People Deciding to Show Up Fully
April 3, 2023 ·
3 min read
Music
Slowthai Made an Uncomfortable Record and That's Exactly Why It Matters
March 6, 2023 ·
3 min read
Music
JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown Made the Most Chaotic Record of the Year and Called It Scaring the Hoes
February 28, 2023 ·
3 min read
Music
Kali Uchis Built Her Own Universe and Invited Us In
February 27, 2023 ·
3 min read
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Caroline Polachek and the Return of the Singular Pop Voice
February 14, 2023 ·
3 min read
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Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and the Record That Transcended Genre Entirely
November 29, 2022 ·
3 min read
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Enny and the Quiet Declaration of a New Kind of British R&B
September 19, 2022 ·
3 min read
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Hermeto Pascoal Is Eighty-Five Years Old and Still the Most Original Musician Alive
September 5, 2022 ·
3 min read
Music
Iceboy Violet and the New Language of UK Club Music
July 21, 2022 ·
3 min read
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Black Midi's Hellfire and the Feeling That Rock Might Not Be Dead
July 18, 2022 ·
3 min read
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Tems and the Voice That Could Not Be Ignored
July 15, 2022 ·
5 min read
Music
Omar Apollo's Ivory and the Texture of Heartbreak at 24
June 7, 2022 ·
3 min read
Music
Ethel Cain Built a Mythology and Then Burned It Down Beautifully
May 23, 2022 ·
3 min read
Music
Jessie Ware Made the Best Disco Record in Twenty Years and People Almost Missed It
May 10, 2022 ·
3 min read
Music
Arooj Aftab Won a Grammy and Most People Still Haven't Found Her
April 5, 2022 ·
3 min read
Music
Lance Skiiiwalker Is Somewhere Between R&B and a Fever Dream and It Works
March 15, 2022 ·
3 min read
Music
Tirzah's Trip and the Intimacy of Music That Barely Exists
March 14, 2022 ·
3 min read
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Fred Again.. Turned Grief and Text Messages Into the Year's Most Human Record
January 31, 2022 ·
3 min read
Music
34 Million People Watched What Amos Le Blanc Made for Rudimental. They Were Right.
September 12, 2017 ·
6 min read
Music
Thugli's Run This Won the Cannes Young Director Award. Amos Le Blanc Was Just Getting Started.
December 12, 2013 ·
5 min read
Music
Keys N Krates and Amos Le Blanc Made the Most Rewatchable Video of 2013
October 18, 2013 ·
4 min read
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Keys N Krates Made a Video That Cannes Selected, Vimeo Put in Their Top 10, and Diplo Played at His Shows
March 5, 2013 ·
2 min read
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