David Berman is one of our greatest living songwriters and he’s returned in beautiful, melancholic form as Purple Mountains to speak to the lifelong nihilistic depressive in all of us.

Although her bio insists that the narratives within the record aren’t intended to comment on gender roles, My Woman strikes down the notion that neither Olsen’s artistry nor her womanhood can be limited.

The music’s vision and beauty hold together regardless, a sturdy and unparalleled step of confidence.

His current labelmates include hitmakers like Big Sean and Justin Bieber, but also respected wordsmiths Jadakiss and Jeezy. It’s that latter strata where he belongs, and P2 proves he can hang.

Black Origami is an album that, like its predecessors, will be savored and analyzed for the rest of the year. It’s a lock for best albums of 2017.

Standards is by far the most bombastic album of Into It. Over It.’s career.

Dude Incredible, however, is also one of their most direct albums, the nine songs holding that same menacing gut-punch, despite that highfalutin thematic unity.

The newly turned-up volume and heavier instrumentals of synths, bass, and drum programming still never drown out Baker’s tender vocals, which are consistently unexpected and innovative.

Dixon and Stein’s music is a chance to revisit it, to envelop ourselves in its arms (or claws), and to bask in the glory of something supremely strange and wonderful.

Like a lot of the bands that inspired it, Omnium Gatherum is expansive, assorted, and at least a little self-indulgent, but that’s precisely what makes it brilliant.

Atlanta Millionaires Club is a masterpiece of claustrophobic intimacy that brings compelling immediacy to a time-tested story.

What Cave and Ellis have crafted with Carnage is a refreshing respite from chaos, a record that sits at the burning edge of dawn and anticipates destruction’s undoing.

Thanks to all involved in this loving project, we get a better chance to explore and understand what made Wildflowers bloom as fragrant and beautiful as it did more than a quarter century ago and what made Petty the perfect talent to pluck those blooms from the studio weeds.

It’s all at once contemporary enough to thrive in a market that demands constant innovation, yet nostalgic enough to shepherd the spirit of a bygone era on which the genre is founded.

Channeling the traditions of Southern music without getting caught up in it, Lateness of Dancers proves the genre’s vitality.

Freetown Sound stands concurrently as a deeply personal work and a striking representation of the struggles present in today’s society.

Her biggest fans may prefer less direct writing, but it makes St. Vincent her most widely appealing album to date, an infectious work that doesn’t ever feel like a compromise.

[Britt Daniel's] big statement is his Body of Work, of which every fine part adds up to a greater sum. Here comes another one.

Brand New manage to reinvent themselves while also recapturing the essence of what’s made them so special and enduring.

A raging confidence surges throughout Cool It Down, and the music showcases a band who older, wiser, more mature. It’s held together by the strength of Karen O’s lyrics, her signature voice, and the eclectic instrumentation that have made the band so loved. It’s also their most experimental effort yet, full of dramatic soundscapes that see the band push the boundaries of what it really means to be an alternative rock band in 2022.

With Attack on Memory, Baldi's never felt more alive or more authentic.

Learning how to untangle one of the richest experimental albums of recent memory becomes a challenge well worth the undertaking.

Kaputt is the sort of record that arrives only once in a while: an expansive world that captivates you from beginning to end, impresses you with its self-awareness and cohesiveness, then releases you from its grasp when it's all over.

Already so many people have been championing 2013 as the strongest year for music in recent memory, and they’re not wrong, but here’s an album that has the punch and wit to stick around with the best.

Resounding with enchanting vocals, a distinctly dusk-singed ambience and a keen precision thanks to its percussion, Blue Lines transcends the spills onto the dance floor and tinny thumps from laptop speakers, possessing a cosmic ability to remain a masterpiece 21 years after its release.

At this point, Win Butler is rock ‘n’ roll’s Christopher Nolan, a hyper-literate artist who crafts reliable, intelligent, and challenging blockbuster events that sweep our minds away. With the 85-minute Reflektor, he’s taken his most creative risks to date and at the cost of simply trusting what he sees, who he knows, and where he wants to go.

Simply put, they’ve evolved from a hype band to something much more coveted: a great band.

Hummingbird proves that these guys are maturing into a sound that's both singular and wrenching with severity.