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Milo Miles

Milo Miles is Fresh Air's world-music and American-roots music critic. He is a former music editor of The Boston Phoenix.

Miles is a contributing writer for Rolling Stone magazine, and he also writes about music for The Village Voice and The New York Times.

  • The vivacious alt-rapper Lizzo mixes rap, gospel and neo-soul on her new album. Critic Milo Miles says Big Grrrl Small Worldwill win listeners over with its energy and hooks.
  • The horn-led band updates traditional Mexican party/folk music for modern American listeners on its self-titled album. Critic Milo Miles says Banda De Los Muertos' debut will make you dance.
  • The various music styles of Eastern Europe's Roma people, formerly known as gypsies, have become favorites with audiences around the world. Milo Miles says no group does a better job of blending tradition with innovation than the ensemble led by Boban Markovic and his son Marko.
  • A new anthology from the Putumayo label celebrates the variations in African blues. Critic Milo Miles says the collection is delicate, airy and strong all the way through.
  • For many years, the search for unknown or forgotten soul singers has dug deeply into music archives. But surprises still turn up. Music critic Milo Miles says this year's best discovery is a West African singer and bandleader named El Rego.
  • Milo Miles reviews a compilation of overseas grooves that carry on psychedelic styles long after they were dropped in the U.S.
  • The New York trio Battles and the Chicago-based experimental rock band Cheer-Accident come from very different directions. But critic Milo Miles says that both groups have recently put out their most appealing records, without losing their cerebral side.
  • Elvis Presley is constantly being discovered by new generations, and by older fans in new stages of life. Critic Milo Miles talks about the surprise rewards he found while listening to the new reissue Elvis Is Back! — and during his first visit to Graceland in Memphis.
  • Over the course of 40 years, Iggy Pop has changed from a noisy brat with seemingly no chance at stardom to a widely respected founder of punk. A new box set, Roadkill Rising, collects many of his unreleased concert bootlegs.
  • When La Lupe, the "Queen of Latin Soul," peaked in the 1960s, she was a regular at the Palladium Club and played Madison Square Garden. By the late 1980s, she was on welfare with no fixed address. Critic Milo Miles says a new retrospective album redeems the forgotten singer.