Music Top 5: September 2022

Lil Nas X/Photo: Filip Custic

1
LIL NAS X
(Aragon Ballroom)
The young rapper is still growing as a singer-songwriter, but as a cultural provocateur he’s steadily ascending to the pantheon alongside David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Prince.
September 10-11

2
FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
(Northerly Island)
Florence Welch’s new album, “Dance Fever,” takes the title literally—it’s inspired by a medieval dancing plague—for an intense, widescreen statement on the pandemic era.
September 7

3
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
(The Salt Shed)
The indie stalwarts arrive on the heels of their latest album, “Asphalt Meadows,” the first singles from which suggest a breezy acceptance of their latter-day status as founding hipsters.
September 24

4
AFGHAN WHIGS
(Metro)
Another band hitting town days after a new album drops; this one’s called “How Do You Burn?” and the early tracks have a kind of audacious majesty.
September 10

5
FATHER JOHN MISTY
(Chicago Theatre)
The singer-songwriter’s new album, “Chloë and the Next 20th Century,” is a surprisingly unironic orchestral pastiche of Golden Age Hollywood romanticism that recalls Harry Nilsson.
September 29

Robert Rodi

Robert Rodi is an author, spoken-word performer and musician who has served as Newcity’s Music Editor since 2014. He’s written more than a dozen books, including the travel memoir “Seven Seasons In Siena,” and his literary and music criticism has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, The Huffington Post and many other national and regional publications.
Contact: robert@newcity.com