Reinterpreting and rearranging a series of older songs with new tones and styles — especially songs off of an album widely acclaimed for its tone and style — is a vision that not everybody could pull off, but Olsen does.

Despite its intimacy, Piano & A Microphone doesn’t feel like trespassing on Prince because it doesn’t truly expose him. This recording doesn’t reveal the nuts-and-bolts inner workings of one of the greatest artists of all time. How could it? We get to listen as a visionary works with simple tools--and in the end, Prince’s genius remains as mysterious as ever.

He's a little scatterbrained on Blunderbuss, as if he's still shaking up his past to move forward into the future, and as a result, Jack White represents everything Jack White has already accomplished.

Their dulcet, vintage tones intoxicate and overwhelm the senses, while the cutting lyrics set the table for a thoroughly emotional listening experience.

FlyLo's Until The Quiet Comes is an exercise in dense rhythmic layers and melodic dissonance.

This is music that also stands on its own, a work by turns eerie and sparse, but also tinged in the warm nostalgia of bike rides at dusk and the loyalty of friends.

There are incredibly emotional moments throughout the record, really driving the anger and sadness of the music. Some songs lack depth and don’t land as well as others, but, overall, The Nothing remains an emotionally potent experience that longtime fans of Korn will enjoy.

Dupuis and Speedy Ortiz walk along intersections effortlessly: now and then, power and fragility, intricate poetry and direct prose, pain and pleasure. Foil Deer does this as well as their excellent debut, but also takes some risks in its growth.

The Men may not be hailed as the genre's saviors, nor should they be, but here they have done an excellent job as its purveyors.

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

Polo’s previous album, Die a Legend, was meticulously crafted but unrousably lethargic; all the beats sounded hungover. The Goat has more pep in its step.

Garden Window is, by and large, a successful 11-track record that scrapes a wide palette to enhance each nuance tastefully, movingly, manically well.

case/lang/veirs is certainly a cut above whatever record is playing in your local Starbucks at the moment, but it’s also content to steer clear of grand statements in favor of something more real-life.

It’s full of the kind of warm G-funk that never fails to transport you to the part of the country it belongs to.

Wildflower comes out swinging.

That framework [on 2008′s Lost in the Sound of Separation] is largely in tact on the new effort, except it's decidedly richer and more vibrant, showcasing each member's strengths in ways not realized before in Underoath's decade-old career.

Every ounce of Hot Sauce spectacle comes from so many ridiculous angles, it's a wonder that a single arbitrary reviewer could just throw words about it onto one page.

The band fails to make a significant statement of their immediate necessity with this sophomore effort.

We’ve been graced with a look into his personal refuge, and it’s been beautiful.

Every track hits, and this album will certainly leave people clamoring for more.

Every number attempts something at least a little differently, and succeeds for the most part.

Thundercat’s advancements on Apocalypse reconfigure the foundation that his debut album built.

Though Williams is no stranger to an effective narrative, rarely have her stories captured such a concrete portrayal of human experience at its most unsure moment: the end.

Burial’s still dealing in shadow and echo here, but for the first time he’s harnessing them for what sounds a lot like joy.

Push is in complete control of his flow, his delivery, and his pen game is sharper than it was 20 years ago. ... It's Almost Dry is the perfect complement to Dayonta, creating Pusha's very own gangster saga on wax.

Even though this is the band's most accessible album yet, casual listeners should still beware. Like most Gang Gang albums, it first comes off as overwrought jumble. But with repeat spins, it gradually morphs into its true nature of earworm irresistibility.

These sessions are a timely reminder of the musician and the man Chilton wanted to become: the musician who would provide us a sense of magic through a lifetime of perseverance.

The album sincerely embraces every dark corner of the brain, not just the ones that are easiest to sum up. Nothing Feels Natural is daring, sincere, and intimate, somehow more universal in its particularity.

Like the rest of the LP’s most successful tracks, all of these songs latch their loosey-goosey lyrics to an ironclad repetition, the core guitar line of each tune distinguished by a clarity that turns it into a hook. Because Gunn has a solid foundation, he can wander the earth, air, and ocean freely.

By making a space that fits his creative style, Frahm found a way to give complex compositions even more room to weave themselves into the world while you listen.

Wounded Rhymes offers a less atmospheric soundscape with more percussion alongside organs and frequent layered harmonies.

A striking, adept piece made accessible by Tillman's clear-as-a-bell voice, Fear Fun is the ideal companion for a weird headspace.

Marciano has emerged with an album that doesn't so much use long-established sounds as insurance as remind why they're tried-and-true in the first place.

Rotten Thing to Say delivers the band's scathing reports with a vastly improved level of clarity from prior efforts while retaining all of their trademark grit.

Megafaun shines the brightest on thematic tracks like "Scorned," in which you can practically feel the dust clouds after each harmonica blast and the heat shimmering in the vibrating background guitars.

The five-piece isn’t interested in comfort, but rather an intensity created directly by that push-pull exchange, their strangely humorous song titles, and primitive, warlike lyrics.

Mountains is a simple name for a band. But it's also an utterly mysterious one that stretches implications across eons. In the right setting, Centralia just feels that deep and rich.

Laurel Hell follows suit in Mitski’s determined approach, and the resulting album is a sophisticated and magnetic collection of songs. But more than that, it’s Mitski trusting herself, confidently blazing forward into the next decade of her storied career.

The Octopus Project pushed farther than they ever had on their last record, and in a sense, Fever Forms is a step closer to their comfort zone. That said, the comfort zone for a band like this is a weird, wonderful place.

A delicately fingerpicked intro gives way to an expansive soundscape that, more than anywhere else on The Hunter, brings the band's mastery of dynamics to the surface before culminating in a pair of colossal solos that are among the most intense Hinds has ever ripped.

For so long, ANOHNI had felt like a supernatural force, of this world but able to see a thread of love and hope through all the sadness. By expressing the grimmest realities, that thread becomes harder and harder to find. But ANOHNI’s music makes that struggle all the more powerful.

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.

While the highs last time around ("Slow Burn," "This Ain't A Scene") still feel a bit higher, Twenty Five, even while it grasps at noise and disorder, comes together as a fully formed, mature statement of an album.

Though adept, it’s not entirely an original racket.

Deheza and Curtis make nothing droopy or lachrymose here. The energy of the original demos--again, a broadcast from a time before Curtis knew he was sick--save the album from being, strictly speaking, morose.

It’s more streamlined yet just as powerful as previous albums. Although the flow of Electric Messiah occasionally drags in parts, it’s a welcome addition to the band’s discography.

A Written Testimony is one hell of a promising effort that was well worth the wait. The skillset of Jay Electronica as both an MC and a producer is on full display.

Dudu is a welcome gesture of support from kindred souls. Consumed in moderate doses, it raises the spirits.

The end result sees Misty at his most desperate, heartbroken state, making a solid comedown record from I Love You, Honeybear and Pure Comedy that doesn’t quite hit the profound highs of its predecessors, but gets carried quite a long way on the backs of its honest songwriting.

“What If I Can’t Give You Anything But Love?” is pleasing enough, yet undeniably cliché in terms of both its music and its central topic. Those issues notwithstanding, The Boy Named If is a wonderful record and a testament to Costello’s enduring originality and talent.

By challenging their listeners and pushing themselves, they manage to sound fresh by refusing to settle. Watching them work through their identity as a band offers a promising take on what an assured statement in the future would look like.

Parts of Nikki Nack are interesting, deeply beautiful, and insanely catchy. Other parts are painful to listen to given their overt blindness to the nuances of holding conversations like the ones she attempts to initiate.

It’s a unique recording, a shocking, exciting collaboration performed in full faith. But it too often fails to be more than the sum of its parts.

It turns out they were right to push through the breakup, but a few bleak songs dampen the high they’re chasing after as a result.

Through his distortion of smooth adult contemporary ballads, Lopatin proves that in the right hands, often-ridiculed elements of culture can be crafted into something transcendent.

The 1975 don’t presume to have all the answers, but their sincerity and vulnerability make for a tremendous record that speaks to the state we live in. It’s their best work yet.

Wall of Eyes is the sound of a more confident, collaborative The Smile, a version of the band willing to let their ideas ferment, even at the expense of immediacy.

PUP is an incredibly self-assured and refreshing debut for a band unwilling to shake the pressures of becoming an adult.

There’s a duality here, and it’s present throughout Fear of Men’s debut album, Loom.

Few Good Men builds on Saba’s quest to just live life while acknowledging that’s a loaded proposition at times.

Seek Shelter is a rich representation of Iceage’s bravery as a band.

It's incredibly beautiful and soothing--perfect music for laid-back late-night hours.

Their democratic process and persistence has resulted in an elevation of their sound.

M doesn’t differentiate itself greatly from the early work of many black metal artists. That said, the album shines with potential and the promise that a more unique followup waits further down the trail.

LiveLoveA$AP is worth nearly all of the incredible amount of buzz it's accumulated in recent weeks.

With each additional listen, this album opens itself up to being more than just an instrumental soul album, but one layered in blues and gospel, sunshine pop and the rhythmic groove of soul jazz.

The record’s impromptu release was surprising; that Star Wars delivered on all of the excitement surrounding it is anything but.

Despite the uneven results between that last track and the album’s superlative opener, Goths is a record that grows on you.

For Walker, it’s about breathing life back into ’60s folk until it bursts with springtime charm, and Primrose Green is 2015’s ultimate encompassment of that sound.

This album definitely draws from painful places, but comes out of its explorations is multifaceted, deeply considered, and above all full of kindness. The questions it asks — what does caring really look like, how do we show one another kindness when we’re angry, how do we show ourselves kindness when we’re upset or hurt or numb — are essential ones, and we’re lucky we have Parks to guide us through them here.

Likewise is a gorgeous solo debut from a unique singing and writing voice, a record that quietly gets under your skin and stays there.

Locrian invites the listener not only to imagine a world in which humans have become extinct, but to explore every inch of it.

Though brief, a tardy reprise of the adventurous sound that opens the release is an exciting display of The Internet’s true brilliance, which finds them absolutely nailing every transition and avoiding the anticlimactic ending suggested by a number of the preceding tracks with a pair of stone-cold bops.

It should come as no surprise that follow-up b’lieve i’m goin down... finds Vile continuing to self-deprecate, amble, and sigh, despite the new tier of success. Neither should it be a surprise that all those qualities remain entirely charming.

If listeners return the love even half as much as the band has dished it out, both parties will be highly satisfied.

Even when the record bites a little harder on tracks like the politically charged “Fiscal Cliff”, or the Nirvana-inspired rendition of “She Can See Me”, there’s an energy to Bubblegum that allows for endless fun, even when the band furrows its brow in spots.

From the gruesome, sweary brawls to the softer elegies, Transgender Dysphoria Blues comes wrapped in some of the best melodies Grace has penned to date.

While the writing on Weathervanes is carefully crafted and wildly impressive, what sets the record apart in a discography full of tattoo-worthy couplets is the contributions of The 400 Unit. They’ve undoubtedly been an integral part of Isbell’s past few efforts, but the band has never sounded so locked into an album’s singular vision.

In the end, the record feels like a copy of a copy, though produced on what may just be the world’s best copier. If nothing else, though, the record works as a pleasing re-centering for one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

Offering sanctuary to anyone with a soul full of longing, At the Party with My Brown Friends is a beautiful affirmation of our common needs and a reminder that love is possible.

You believe that the band feels this good, and given their creative freedom, escalating success, and near flawless discography, they probably do.

Although his knack for delivering the “incredible hook” remains Cartwright’s strongest suit, there’s a weighty sense that all of this would mean nothing if not for his insatiable spirit.

For the first time in a long time, the future feels uncertain and unformed. This is the music that will help us charge forward into the unknown.

On Record, they bring a sharpened tune-smithery to their noise-punk.

The sheer quality that Red Hot + Rio 2 maintains over the course of its two discs and 33 tracks makes this a very noteworthy effort.

A Creature I Don't Know stands up well against its feted predecessor and can only add to Laura Marling's reputation as a songwriter and musician.

Despite the misery that inspires and thrives within their suffocating work, the band shows a remarkable sense of vitality, inspiring to longtime and new fans alike.

Falkous and his mates also keep the musicality lean, groovy, and (mostly) accessible throughout Peace & Truce.

While she hasn’t quite inherited the pop monarchy from Swift and the other elites, Eilish’s debut makes a strong case that it won’t be long until we see her in a crown.

Together [Björk and Arca], assisted at points by a 12-piece Icelandic flute ensemble and the Hamrahlid Choir (in which Björk herself sang as a teenager), they grow a thriving sound world rich in nuance and detail.

The album’s heavier points tend to slant alternately intriguing and confusing.

One of Eagle’s more consistently engaging outings, this elegy for the since-demolished Robert Taylor Homes projects the 36-year-old rapper grew up in isn’t necessarily one of his most ear-catching records. More than his other albums, it’s consumed with his thoughts, possibly even a bit smothered; it cries out for some showing to break up all the telling.

It’s a very large world, but one stocked with charming character, tasty pop, and enlightening lyricism that shines like an electric heart through the android framework.

Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper rides high on his proven strengths, but doesn’t exactly explore new territory.

Present and post-lockdown, how i’m feeling now will be a definitive album of its time. Aitchison has captured this space we now all exist in and all its facets.

Baroness possesses an acute sense of melody, unpredictable songwriting, and vision for its work. Yellow & Green encapsulates all of those things, and, consequently, it's one of the year's most engaging metal albums.

...Like Clockwork is one of the year’s finer rock albums--an exercise in songwriting, production, and musicianship.

You can pick out all kinds of wonderful instrumental moments on Sepalcure. It's full of sonic treasure troves.