Another 50 years down the line, it is a truly transformative experience to listen to these old, mysterious songs with fresh ears. You can hear antecedents of everyone from Dylan to Mumford, sure, but what is all the more exciting, as these 100+ songs pile up, is the sensation of access to a voice at once ancient and full of life.

1973-1980 is a fitting, touching and extensive tribute to one of Africa's greatest musicians.

The impressive thing about the return of the progenitors of Swedish melo-death isn't the time elapsed since their last album; rather, it's how much it sounds like none has.

Lemay has reinvented Gorguts while showcasing their roots, as the immensely anticipated Colored Sands exceeds expectations and proves to be every bit worth the wait.

With Everybody is Going to Heaven, Citizen have forged a visceral, stunningly nuanced work that is nothing short of immaculate.

To See More Light is a masterpiece that organically and coherently blends Stetson's avant-garde playing and dark, complex themes with accessible and compelling compositions that bring a ray of hope not just for the characters in his underlying narrative, but for the future of music.

Sturgill Simpson has been running in a different direction for a while, and with A Sailor's Guide To Earth, he's finally arrived in another world.

It is masterful, it is heartening and it represents today's best from an R&B/soul perspective.

Recorded mostly live off the floor, and full of loose, garage rock accents and playfully shambling flourishes, everything about Most Messed Up feels exquisitely messy.

20 years later, what stands out about the sound of Kid A and Amnesiac isn't how influential they are, but how they resemble little else. ... The recent single "If You Say the Word" is a clear highlight, its acoustic arpeggios and skulking rhythms fitting in nicely with the more straightforward moments of Amnesiac.

Grimes has given us a complete record that's everything pop should be in 2015: utterly uncompromising, imaginative and, somehow, universally accessible.

On one hand, it's an endlessly engaging artifact for music dorks interested in an education straight from the source; on the other hand, it simply overflows with some of the best, and most enjoyable rock 'n' roll of all time.

Rough and Rowdy Ways is the work of a man in love with language and philosophy, and, at 79, he continues to take the pulse of the zeitgeist with unerring precision. He ain't no false prophet, he's an artist, he don't look back.

Taken together, these 97 minutes of music provide a tantalizing glimpse of the direction the group could have taken had it not disbanded at the end of 1989. Absolutely essential.

The fact that Stetson can draw such varied sonic references together in one cohesive display of virtuosity makes him a national treasure. ... Genius.

The scope of Fetch the Bolt Cutters' meaning, its infinite feeling, will likely take years to fully absorb. An album like this doesn't come often, and an artist like Apple will never come again — she's given us an invaluable piece of light, a reminder to stay alive and awake and angry and kind.

It's simultaneously a distillation of his many trademark sounds while also a massive departure from his previous works. The album demands multiple, active listens, but it's well worth the effort. Hidden beneath its complex layers lies an endless well of new modalities, critical interpretations and potent ideas. ... It's not an album we could have ever expected in 2020, but it is the one we deserve.

While less vulnerable than Lemonade, RENAISSANCE takes the reins as Beyoncé's grandest record to date because of the technical achievements in production and seemingly effortless experimentation without losing any of her lyrical cool. ... Beyoncé's RENAISSANCE is a modern classic.

It's unfortunate that Vicious Lies has come out after everyone has finished compiling their year-end lists, but it's already a contender for best record of 2013.

If this truly is the end for Dillinger Escape Plan, they've ended things by throwing down the gauntlet with such force that the reverberations will be felt for generations.

They have both found, on their eleventh album (and best since the early 2000s), a renewed purpose and direction in this time of existential crisis for America.

Artistic, intelligent (but not overly intellectualized), and executed with a skill and care many of us can only hope to comprehend, The Enduring Spirit is this year's best metal album, and one of the best albums of 2023, period, full stop.

The lyrics and arrangements are stellar.

A heavily introspective tour de force, Lamar has created a stubbornly parochial soundtrack to his life in Compton, CA.

A flurry of emotion — joyful and pointed — and clattering noise blending into haunting sparseness, this is the record the Sadies have been working on capturing for their entire existence. Thankfully, and with bittersweet timing, they got it done when we most needed them to, making the best record that has ever been made by anyone. Ever.

As much as it is possible to describe the hissing whispers and supernova roars John Haughm's vocal performance, or the galactic wonder of Don Anderson's guitars, the sticky and celestial spirals of Jason Walton's bass lines, or the powerful alchemical engine of Aesop Dekker's drumming, together they form something greater: a massive, sublime universe unto itself.

This is the album on which Daft Punk are truly and convincingly "human after all." And on this toweringly grand achievement, they've never sounded better.

The record is a perfect amalgamation of everything they've done across their career, with a few new sounds tossed in for good measure.