David Hajdu

David Hajdu is the music critic of The Nation and a professor at Columbia University.

The Music We Made in Lockdown

The Music We Made in Lockdown The Music We Made in Lockdown

On the artists who found new sounds in our collective solitude.

Feb 17, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu

The Best Albums of 2020

The Best Albums of 2020 The Best Albums of 2020

Our music critic’s 11 favorite pieces of music from this year.

Dec 18, 2020 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu

The Two Maria Schneiders

The Two Maria Schneiders The Two Maria Schneiders

The auteurist and activist impulses of her expansive jazz comes together on Data Lords.

Aug 17, 2020 / David Hajdu

This Is the Sound of Gentrification

This Is the Sound of Gentrification This Is the Sound of Gentrification

Ted Hearne and Saul Williams’s Place captures the volatile energies of a changing city beset by the forces of late capitalism. 

Jun 5, 2020 / David Hajdu

The Magic of Bill Withers

The Magic of Bill Withers The Magic of Bill Withers

A remembrance of the raw simplicity and urgent power of Withers’s soulful pop.

Apr 9, 2020 / David Hajdu

Expect the Unexpected: On the Music of Hildur Guðnadóttir

Expect the Unexpected: On the Music of Hildur Guðnadóttir Expect the Unexpected: On the Music of Hildur Guðnadóttir

Her scores for HBO’s Chernobyl and Todd Phillips’s Joker bring soundtracks into the realm of high art.

Feb 5, 2020 / David Hajdu

10 of 2019’s Best Albums

10 of 2019’s Best Albums 10 of 2019’s Best Albums

The hybrid work of Julia Wolfe’s oratorio Fire in My Mouth, FKA twigs’s Magdalene, and Kris Davis’s Diatom Ribbons all showcase the experimental spirit of this year’s most exc...

Dec 30, 2019 / David Hajdu

Do Auxuman’s AI Singers Herald the Shape of Music to Come?

Do Auxuman’s AI Singers Herald the Shape of Music to Come? Do Auxuman’s AI Singers Herald the Shape of Music to Come?

A new company started by British Iranian interdisciplinary artist Ash Koosha is making the musicians of the future using artificial intelligence technology.

Dec 12, 2019 / David Hajdu

Who Gets to Tell the Story of a Lost Music Culture?

Who Gets to Tell the Story of a Lost Music Culture? Who Gets to Tell the Story of a Lost Music Culture?

A new archival collection of little-heard music from the Balkans prompts questions of how and why we recover sounds from history.

Nov 15, 2019 / David Hajdu

Chrissie Hynde Sets a New Standard

Chrissie Hynde Sets a New Standard Chrissie Hynde Sets a New Standard

 Valve Bone Woe uses Tin Pan Alley classics, musical theater numbers, jazz tunes, and more to show the Pretenders singer as the top of her game 

Oct 11, 2019 / David Hajdu

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