In its enhanced and alternate history, complete with more stunning liners by Mehr, this Let it Bleed edition tells the tale as beautifully, clearly, and boldly as fans of the Replacements could ever hope for.

Smith's music resonates with the suffering and the dreams of a better life that embodied the decade of 1954 to 1964 that is the subject of this powerful compendium of compositions.

Though incomplete (those final Cale sessions are an important hole) presenting them as a whole paints a fuller picture of one of the most important bands of the rock era, and forces listeners to at least briefly reimagine one of their favourite records as a wholly different beast.

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.

Besides the remastering work and a detailed 40-page book with notes and photography, it is producer Nick Phillips' decision to present the recordings chronologically that is key to this collection's value proposition. Hearing the material organized for the first time by session, as opposed to original LP release, provides additional perspective on a master entering his prime.

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.

The urge to greet the commercial and artistic triumph of a major league debut hip-hop album with a subversive stiff-arm on sophomore efforts has notable precedents in De La Soul's De La Soul Is Dead and Digable Planets' Blowout Comb, but few have been as audaciously challenging and heavily layered as Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, which will likely be one of 2015's most discussed, dissected and debated album releases, regardless of genre.

In the face of enormous loss, Ghosteen finds comfort in what worldly wonders remain. It surely ranks among Cave and company's most ambitious efforts, and maybe among their most affecting, too.

Two-and-a-half-hour compilation Tunes 2011-2019 works its way backwards through the last decade of Burial's output, but like many of the producer's post-Untrue undertakings, it generally resists neat and tidy execution.

It's far more experimental than her last effort, but in a thoughtful way that makes for a refreshing listen.

The glowering strength of If I don't make it, I love u is in its commitment to both sides of the coin, an album both experimental and laid fully bare — The result is one of the best rock records of the year.

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.

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.

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

The 45 songs, presented chronologically, exhibit a somewhat expected musical maturing--from the raw piano attack of 1984's "From Her to Eternity" through to 2013's contemplative mantra "Push the Sky Away." ... It's the DVD, which jumps around in time, and includes both professionally shot official concert footage and fuzzy bootleg gems, that's the prize here.

The album is captivating from beginning to end, and shows Employed to Serve have mastered the art of making chaos digestible.

Summerlong showcases Johnson's prowess as a songwriter, as effortlessly as the sun shines on a clear summer day.

With a more dynamic and drastically enhanced sound, this is how Dopesmoker was meant to be heard.

Though not as consistently aggressive as past efforts, the Chariot ride through other seemingly non-related genres (à la Between the Buried and Me) throughout One Wing, adding a bipolar insanity to the album.

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You feels like the arrival of Caroline Polachek, a statement of intent that finally lassos her myriad musical ambitions into something singular.

This record possesses immense power to make listeners reflect on their own relationships and mortality.

If Noname has one glaring weakness, it's a tendency to ramble without ever seeing the need to switch up her rat-tat-tat triplet flow. She does, though, have the rumpled, mellower-than-thou swagger to pull it off, and why complain when Room 25 is the prettiest rap record to come along in months?

Although Box oddly and quite disappointingly omits Voigt's 1995 Modern EP and 1996 self-titled debut, the vinyl version adds in tracks that were previously unavailable in the format, along with the inclusion of 1999's Oktember EP and the hard-to-find "Tal 90" single.

This beautiful collection is a fitting tribute.

He has his own sound and stands out as an artist, with this album possibly being the one to distance himself from being overshadowed by other Chicago rappers. He does hold it down for showing his upbringing through his music as a Chicago artist in a more authentic way this time around.

On their new full-length, much-anticipated Epitaph debut On The Impossible Past, they exceed expectations once again.

The result is an album in which millions will find their own struggles reflected back to them, as therapeutic as it is utterly dazzling. If you've ever been handed lemons, you need Lemonade.

Like many sophomore albums, Ants from Up There serves both as a clearing house for leftover ideas from the debut and a tentative next step in Black Country's evolution. Serving both purposes results in an album that doesn't necessarily have the same electrical charge as what came before and would benefit from a little trimming here and there. That said, the band is still inarguably one of the most exciting prospects in new music at the moment, and here, the highs are head and shoulders above the majority of their contemporaries.