The result is a dreamy record that makes good use of its stylistic freedom. It effectively subs the chaos of loving and growing for the more one-dimensional foils of Swift’s past, squashing any fears brought on by the first pair of singles that she’d tell this as a one-sided story.

Zedek’s voice, neither conventional nor wholly tamed, serves her ends potently, its warp and grain enhancing unvarnished solidity.

On Mayhem, her third album, May proves bygone eras are merely sources of inspiration for her spirited take on American music.

They still sound like two solo rappers. But there's an undeniable synergy that they embraced for this project.

The former "Moesha" star has never made a bad album, and she's not starting now with the appropriately rich and varied Human.

Instead of rushing out a record, he has defined his sound, developed his vocals, and written some strong love songs. The breezy, acoustic-based set, produced by Eric Rosse, is uncluttered and extremely melodic.

Little Bird is a gem, and easily Chambers's most accomplished work to date.

Like with many good rock records, bits of whimsy, melancholy, confusion, and joy swirl around the songs of Wilco (the album). So while it may not feel as groundbreaking as previous releases, it’s just as human.

The duo’s self-titled debut’s greatest strength is the pair’s hand-in-glove harmonies. Coupled with Mann’s gift for a pop melody and Leo’s penchant for spiky, urgent guitars, the end result is a best-of-both-worlds situation.

Or, more contemporaneously, you could say fans of fellow retro beard-rockers Fleet Foxes will find much to appreciate here. Radiohead fans, likewise, will relish “Bring Down,’’ a virtual rewrite of “Exit Music.’’ Everyone else will simply think it’s pretty.

With graceful lyricism and intense instrumental juxtaposition, Levy manages to surprise listeners only two tracks in. ... It’s a showcase of Levy allowing herself to feel and explore as many emotions as she can, no matter how they manifest.

In the end, even if it's only a brief aside, both the Roots and Legend expand through experimentation.

Six years later she returns healed, exuding hope and whimsy on her often wondrous new record.

Their respective styles are occasionally at odds, but to amusing effect.

It is not an instant classic, but it is the work that fans who admire Nicki Minaj the rapper, this critic included, have been waiting for her to make.

Lisbon is the New York quintet's sixth album, and it hinges on a precision that wasn't there previously.

If there was ever a record created to turn a pop singer into a star, it's Brown's sophomore effort.

The album is brimming with fabulously skewed turns of phrase that make sense from different angles, as White's protagonists wrestle with what it means to be alternately besotted and gutted.

This new album, their first in four years, is a fine return to form, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray trading lead vocals and reclaiming their pristine harmonies without much fanfare.

The knotty, gleaming structures often have hooky pop appeal (bassist Reid Anderson’s “Dirty Blonde,”), and the band can deliver an affecting ballad with brushes.

She’s the star of her own movie--and that’s very much what this album feels like--and she’s in charge.

Edge of the Sun, the band’s new album on Anti-, is no less adventurous, but it feels curated in a way that sets it apart from previous releases.

This album debuted at No. 1 in her native Ireland, and it has the muscle to catch on here.

Hunter keeps on doing what he does, and on Hold On! he’s doing it as well as he ever has.

This deeply introspective album is vast in scope while retaining the intimacy of a concert-hall recital.

Whereas second LP “You’re Gonna Miss It All” delivered Facebook rants from a self-pitying underclassman, Holy Ghost is the hard-charging graduation speech.

Young, sexy, and chic, Dark Red is an album that undeniably is made for this moment, blurring the lines among past, present, and future in a way that could appeal to both EDM neophytes and history-obsessed nerds.

Arc Iris puts Adams through the paces, as a composer of mercurial melodies, a nimble singer, and a force to be reckoned with.

If dance is the religion YACHT's preaching this summer, consider us converted.

Troubadour, the Somali-born artist's follow-up to his great debut, is a smart fusion of influences.

Coproduced and primarily co-written by Auerbach and Michels, Yours, Dreamily satisfyingly careers from gauzy, reverb-soaked late-night soundscapes to raucous, fuzzy freak-outs.

More than just another tapestry of gorgeous guitar-scapes to get lost in, it’s the fullest portrait yet of the human behind that Cheshire Cat grin.

Grand conceit aside, "American Doll Posse" is a great art-pop album.

The crowning achievement, though, comes with a fantastic slice of raw Southern soul, 'Humble Me,' that sounds like it came straight out of Muscle Shoals circa 1969.

Appropriately, each track on the debut from this masterful quintet of Irish and American musicians feels like a freshly flipped spade of sod--its ripe turf’s most ancient facets made new just by touching air.

The group’s power has always come from its Spice Girls-like ability to form a massive unit of self-actualization, and the peppy 7/27 has no shortage of that, both lyrically and musically.

This collection of 10 instrumentals, recorded live with no overdubs along with a trusted crew of accompanists, captures the late Rose’s limber, relaxed guitar style, and the charm of his low-key songs.

The Book of Souls is a triumph, packed with instantly memorable songs and riffs, vocal heroics, triple-guitar fireworks, and vital, committed performances.

Blak and Blu pays off; it's not a perfect album, but it is bold and exciting.

Small Black proves it isn't merely the finest exemplar of a fleeting trend, but the best possible crew to be on top when the wave (finally) breaks.

On his fourth album, the Arizona-born artist continues to impress on one well-written song after another.

Unlike his spotty debut, this is a seamless, brilliantly produced affair featuring his unmatched contemporary pop technique and songwriting craftsmanship.

The appropriately named Sewn Together finds 50-year-old Curt Kirkwood and his 48-year-old brother Cris Kirkwood crafting mongrel music as fine as anything in the band's catalog.

Patty Griffin has got religion, or at least the urge to sing about it, on her transcendent new gospel record. When she bends her raspy, gale-force voice to the task, it sounds as if she was born to do it.

The album is certainly not the obvious follow-up to a smash record meant to redefine her as a bad girl. It exceeds those expectations.

Thanks, in part, to Sudbury native and co-mixer Daniel Lopatin (lately more well known as vibe-conjuring electronic artist Oneohtrix Point Never), the sound of Free Reign is both fantastically new and classic Clinic.

This is another Alan Jackson record that will stand the test of time.

Norwegian songsmith Sondre Lerche has done it again: assembled another batch of perfect pop tunes that manage to be upbeat while wistful, optimistic while nostalgic.

If this is as close as you get to hearing Waits live, it’s an illuminating snapshot of an artist whose concerts are increasingly rare and compelling.

The Desired Effect absolutely brims with pop-rock goodness, spanning several styles that are tied together by the singer’s gifts for combining an instantly memorable tune, clever turns of phrase, ace instrumentation, and his airy yet powerful voice.

FFS is more than worth the wait: a stylish, outsized romp that balances Franz Ferdinand’s gentlemanly muscle with Sparks’s adoration for the theatrical.

As with her previous works, Scott makes music on her own terms and she isn't interested in hook/chorus factory-produced songwriting. Intermittently, Scott veers from the warm, intimate keyboard-based sound that has dominated much of her work. When she does, it's inspired.

Church had already set the bar high for himself with his watershed 2011 release, “Chief,” and more disparate 2014 album, “The Outsiders.” He vaults over that bar with “Mr. Misunderstood,” in some ways a love letter to music itself and to the ways it can save a soul, a heart, a sense of self.

The whole set is a treat.

It's a dark, personal record that holds big promises for the future.

The buoyancy at the center of the open-road-ready “Dopamine,” subtly urgent “Yr Not Far,” and chiming “Loose Ends” makes the 17 tracks drift by like a breeze on a particularly carefree spring day.

blast it loud and blast it proud. This is a summer album. It’s as colorful and sweet-tart as a cone melting in the sun, rolled in crunchies and glitter.

n album of movement that reaches toward the sublime.... Ratchet meanders a bit near the end, but its haze also mirrors the slow awakening that marks the end of a night spent reaching for dance-floor ecstasy.

Chesney isn’t one to rest on his laurels, and his 17th album, Cosmic Hallelujah, bears that out.

His second full-length, out today, is a mighty thing, every bit as turbulent and achingly defensive as Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy."

Carnival Dreams, a worthy successor to Underwood's 6-million-selling debut, will surely install the blond belter from Checotah, Okla., on the crossover throne once occupied by Faith Hill and Shania Twain.

Made in the Dark announces its intent early: it's straight electro, with a naked disdain for the minor key.

Simply Grand is an album whose charms are too subtle to catch on the first spin or third, but enough listens will make it clear that the album's title is nothing more than a statement of fact.

The band does not so much make this record as keep it from flying apart. The intoxicating sound is matched with incisive word play, with the Felices using quirky laments and dark, urban poetry to bridge hillbilly and hipster.

It’s no slight to say there’s not much here beyond the classic songcraft, the splendor of their high-lonesome harmonies, and the way their guitars entwine and frame the songs so beautifully.

It’s a reminder that no matter how badly you might think he behaves, Morrissey still does not mince words. And his music is vital because of it.

His formula-defying sixth record probably won’t provide his breakthrough [in the United States], but it’s an undeniable creative triumph.

For all its immediately recognizable debts, "Dance Mother" is something fresh.

If you prefer your pop preternaturally gleeful, Mika is your man. The Boy Who Knew Too Much, his second kaleidoscopic pile-up, is chock-full of bright, brash anthems.

Meaning of Life has few weak links, unfolding instead as an album-long emancipation for one of our best female vocalists, released from pesky contractual obligations and channeling her delight at that newfound freedom into songs that, while signaling a new stage in her career, appear to flow directly from both heart and soul.

Stott doesn't just produce these tracks, he haunts their halls.

Sleek and sophisticated, this third full-length careens from muscular blasts of ’80s guitar rock (“In the Wake of You”) to spectral ballads (“Are You Okay?”).

Levon Helm's "Midnight Rambles" in Woodstock, N.Y., have become nearly as legendary as Helm. Occasionally, he takes the party to larger venues, as evidenced by this fabulous live CD.

Church and his co-writers also shine as clever lyricists, making his formula-following peers sound even more generic.

Finn’s second solo album is packed with songs rich in street intelligence and wry humor.

A power-pop record that’s unfussy in its pursuit of jingle-jangle melodies and circular choruses that linger long after they’re over.

It sounds like a recipe for a dozen buzz bands this year, but Atlas Sound transcends the fads. Melodies shine through like faint stars through the window.

All of McLachlan's sonic trademarks are present and accounted for--dreamy keyboard washes, lilting rhythms, that angelic voice. They're combined with her raw emotion in a beguiling manner that ranges from ethereal to rollicking.

Freedom’s Goblin gives Segall room to play with a dizzying array of styles and genres, yet his excellent taste and melodic sensibility ensure that the whole wild endeavor stays firmly on the rails.

With Norwegian noise artist Lasse Marhaug producing, Hval walks a tightrope over melodic, sometimes lush pop music surrounded by dissonance straight out of a horror film.

On LP1, Stone mostly imbues her songs with passion and energy.

[Posthumous albums] run the risk of being hobbled packs of demos and half-finished ideas. But with the right guidance, they can also be effective final chapters of a career. This 10-track collection of rarities, arranged by Bradley’s friends at soul-revivalist labels Dunham/Daptone Records, proves to be the latter, with the love and passion Bradley exuded in life fully preserved and present.

Wilson's voice has aged; once-effortless high notes stay out of reach. But like a hard-living blues diva who subs soul for sweetness, Wilson makes those whiskey tones work.

There are no chart-baiting superstar guest vocalists or gimmicks, just gut-punching, funky, loose-limbed, rock 'n' soul jams recorded in down-and-dirty sessions without an inch of fat.

It’s the type of near-perfect, swooning synth-pop rush that Oakey was riding with the Human League in the ’80s.

McCombs’s well-mannered missives certainly aren’t cheery, but they manage to stir up disarming warmth nonetheless.

Parker's compositions are not played as he intended (speedily, with torrents of notes); Lovano upends them, infusing them with modern sensibilities

It's Robyn's detours from these tough-gal tunes that offer genuine surprises.

The album is assured and seductive, to the point that the despair underpinning so many of the songs isn’t immediately obvious.

The result is an album that is every bit as engaging as ear-candy as humor.

The songs are crisp, uptempo, concise.

It's the most ambitious and evocative they've ever sounded.

This is Cliff's first studio album in seven years--and he indeed sounds reborn.

The exploration of yet another new form on Penny Sparkle shows how exquisitely Blonde Redhead can continue to add cogs to an amorphous musical wheel without tripping up.

Captivating.

It's a beautifully composed disc that Harper fans should love -- and it should also convince boomers, especially, that there's still great new music out there.

Eschewing any concept of "radio ready" and singing with a gruff immediacy, Mellencamp tackles all of the titular concepts on this folk- and blues-based material with a sense of liberation that is keenly palpable.

With her lovely, expressive voice, she finds the truths at the core of each song, making this one of the early year’s breakthroughs.