This time she kicks butt as a world-class singer with excellent material and a top-notch band all working together.

The 16 tunes comprising her latest song cycle oscillate gracefully around piano keyboards and introduce a series of portraits of fictional and real-life characters (from a terrified child with a traumatized best friend to a ghost scrutinizing her enemies at her funeral) to complement her reflections on the social distancing of quarantine time.

Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years gets to the heart of this matter comprehensively, dishing up all three albums and a modest peek behind the curtain. The packaging is lovely, and the Mescaleros never made a bad album.

The Dirty South is an absolute gem, and The Complete Dirty South is an upgrade over the original version. However, it may be that this edition only appeals to Drive-By Truckers’ hardcore fans. The physical two-CD set is wonderful and the best available version of the record.

Beyond serving as an excellent follow up to The World Won't End, Yours, Mine & Ours reveals a whole new side to the Pernice Brothers.

The Shins dare to take some chances on this CD, and their boldness winds up elevating this album over their first one by a considerable margin.

People are still willing to give music their time and money. With albums like To Be Kind, it’s easy to see why.

Valentine delivers on the hype and proves—in case there was any doubt remaining—that Lush wasn’t a whip-smart fluke.

It’s a treasure trove for the faithful and a comprehensive baptism for the brave newbie.

With just enough experimentation to hint at new and future directions, while seamlessly blending improvisation and smartly conceived songs, Hypermagic Mountain is Lightning Bolt's finest achievement to date.

The result of this incredible journey, Memorial, is the first landmark post-metal release since Isis’ Panopticon, Russian Circles’ greatest achievement, and unquestioningly one of 2013’s true artistic masterpieces.

Make no mistake, her risks are still very within the context of a 4/4 pop structure, but she still finds such color and joy in her surroundings it's hard not to get swept up in her energy. Such risk-staking, however, can still lead to a few moments that could've used a bit more polish.

Like Volume 8 in the Bootleg Series, Tell Tale Signs, which gave us a new context for Dylan's recent output, The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 give us a new frame for his genesis.

Less immediate than her debut but not as challenging as her most recent work, Divers is an ideal distillation of everything that makes Joanna Newsom one of the most unceasingly fascinating musicians working today.

There are no glaring missteps, and it’s generally a very good effort from a singer who could have crumbled under the pressure of heightened expectations, but instead continues on the path she forged for herself.

For its epic length, the collection occasionally (rarely) drags, but when it does, it doesn't for long.

Hayter's already dynamic aesthetic. Her thoughtful amalgam of opera, neoclassical darkwave, and death industrial continues to produce theatrical yet still intimate pieces. But above all, Hayter's uncompromised voice tells a necessary story that contests the dominant narratives of women's trauma. Her vivid, brutal portrayal of the enduring effects of misogyny and domestic abuse strictly reveals the gruesome realities of it.

For all of Blount’s intelligence on the record, it might be this heart that comes through strongest.

It’s an impressive record to listen to--the compositions are even more beautiful than Ekstasis, even though they’re often more fragmented--but it’s also a frightening depiction of what it feels like to have a whole population making you up in its head.

Waits has given us another brilliant album in Bad as Me, his best in a long while (maybe since 1992's Bone Machine), but he also lays down a gauntlet.

It’s an album worthy of Radiohead’s peerless catalog, a rich addition to what is the most vital and important string of rock albums of the last 30 years.

With Dream Weapon, Genghis Tron don’t so much transition as achieve transcendence of everything they once were. And the change is so fully realized that it renders notions of genre loyalism utterly moot.

Masseduction doesn’t always sound comfortable letting its artifice crumble, and its half-hearted attempts at social commentary cause it to sag at times. It might not be the preeminent masterpiece many are already making it out to be, but the album does have some great moments, and it bodes good things for the trajectory of St. Vincent’s ongoing career.

Put simply, Accelerando is an album filled with highlights.

It's not an easy feat to sustain good, entertaining pop music during 15 tracks (plus one remix track) without fading into boredom. TWICE prove they’re more than capable.

Saint Cloud, like Car Wheels, finds an artist operating at the top of her game, embracing, as Crutchfield put it, "the contradictions and the unknown" to produce a thrilling and inspirational work.

There’s a sense of purpose here, of direction and clarity, shafts of accessibility that relegate the din to the background without ever compromising the potentially hostile underbelly of the band’s core sound.

Throughout Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, Little Simz continues to swaggeringly craft her bio, relating how she navigated myriad challenges, never losing sight of her goals.

It may sound strange and unwieldy on first (or second or third) exposure, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with an album of surpassing intricacy, filled with an abundance of musical nooks and crannies, the likes of which reward sustained attention and concentrated effort on the part of the listener.

Film Music is a beautiful package, even if it is, in the grand scheme of things, one-sided.

Brutalism is bracing, caustic, and relentless from the speed-tweaked industrial drum beat that lights the fuse of “Heel Heal” to the final confessions of “Slow Savage” at the end. It is also one of the more clever and articulate rock records you will hear this year.

Sometimes I Sit is not just tighter and more cohesive as it should be, but it’s a more confidently proficient work as well.

How viable their politics actually are is a debate for another day, but as a hip-hop record in 2017, few will come close to creating such an enthralling and vital listen.

With a mix of analogue synths, warped acoustic instruments and an unmatched passion for effects pedals, West has produced easily one of the most vivid and soul-stirring electronic albums of the year.

Some of the most euphoric, mind-blowingly beautiful music we have heard in years.

Jeff Rosenstock's POST- is a frustrating, yet important, journey into American society to be sure, but its eventual optimism makes it worth remembering in the current soundtrack of our country trying to make a change.

Although Bomb the Music Industry! may not have laid waste to the music business with this record, they have made an incredibly enjoyable listen that is clearly a product of talented musicians who love their craft.

Dirty Pictures (Part 2) winningly shows the other side of life through open-eyes. While Dirty Pictures (Part 1) largely celebrated good times, the new album suggests that life is not always so grand, love can fade away, people can behave in ways against their self-interest, and such. The songs empathize with their characters, who often lack financial resources, self-confidence, and emotional stability.

On Heaven to a Tortured Mind, Yves Tumor clearly relishes his shift to microphone caressing rock star. Whereas on previous albums, he would obscure himself behind the music, here he steps out of his sonic chrysalis, dons some shiny black wings and soars.

The record's sparse instrumentation (the album was produced by Griffin and her longtime musical partner Craig Ross) enhances the personal nature of the project. It doesn't matter if these songs are literally autobiographical or clearly fictional. She sings them as if they were factual.

The collection is a warm, poignant, deeply immersive set that is sure to please fans of the genre but quite honestly belongs in every home. It's that beautiful.

While the set’s melodies are not pronouncedly hook-driven, they are indeed entrancing due primarily to Olsen’s consistently sensual tone and precise phrasing.

Complete doesn't break any new ground, but it does allow you to have one of the most influential bands in all of rock music rounded up in one place.

Both of these compilations [A Collection and 1992-2012: The Anthology] offer an embarrassment of riches, and in very different ways excellent overviews of one of the few long-running, still productive techno bands out there.

The scary thing about Marc Ribot and his new(ish) band is that all of these styles and quirks are pulled off so convincingly.

It’s never derivative and always manages to sound fresh and new.

That's the trick he managed to successfully pull throughout his career--making music that covered an enormous amount of stylistic range yet still sounded coherent and instantly enjoyable.

Margo Cilker serves as a stand-in for all of us, which is why she can get her audiences to sing with her in concert or make listeners pay attention to the details in Valley of Heart’s Delight. She trusts in her visions of the outside world to tell the story of what she finds within her heart.

Whilst certainly not flawless, Black America Again sees Common deliver some of his most vital work and reaffirms his place in the discussion of greatest conscious rappers of all time.

Bejars songs have, in the past, sometimes seemed like vehicles for his lyrics, yet with Destroyer’s Rubies he seems to have made peace with the musical element of his work as well.

This album may not replace fans’ favorites at the top of the Vampire Weekend rankings, but it shows this band has much more to offer as it approaches its third decade of existence.

There's a core of strength running through this darkly unobtrusive music which lends it a coherence of vision, drawing as it does on place and character as it roams the less fashionable byways of an older America, hitching the frayed strands of the past to the lurching wagon of the present.

Sometimes elegance and grace are enough to spark a transformative introspective journey. It is a rare occurrence, but that's what FKA twigs has delivered with Magdalene.

Despite its various faults, undun is righteously solid.

From “Communication Breakdown” to “Stairway to Heaven”, nearly all the hits are here, making The Complete BBC Sessions a de facto greatest hits collection. New to Zeppelin? Start here. A longtime fan of the band? You don’t need to be told twice to check this collection out.

While Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love are considered by many to be forgettable aberrations in an otherwise sterling discography, there are even more who realize that this was a crucial period in the career of one of music's most exciting and revolutionary artists. Trouble No More provides plenty of evidence of this.

The 16 songs that appear on Rejoicing in the Hands, are so striking in their sound and so original, that no producer could've have imagined them. If anything, they affirm Devendra Banhart as one of the most unique musical talents to emerge in quite some time.

The best album of Björk's career

Review #1: <A HREF="http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/s/smithelliott-fromabasement.shtml" TARGET="_blank">A decisive triumph, and probably a personal best for Smith</A> [score=90]; Review #2: <A HREF="http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/s/smithelliott-fromabasement2.shtml" TARGET="_blank">May be Smith's finest.</A> [score=90]

While The Blueprint falls short of his debut's brilliance, it is easily the best Jay Z recording since that release.

The album proves itself to be what we all thought Radiohead couldn’t make again: a masterpiece.

A record that sounds as if it would be very much at home on any AOR radio station in the 1970s.

It is fresh, original, and points the way.

With 23 discs to sort through what matters most is the main album cuts and not the odds and ends unique to this box with one exception: a 1980 recording from Woodstock, New York titled Wild in Woodstock. Recorded in a studio up there with the understanding that the band would add crowd noises later, this “live” album retains the best Isley sensibilities for the stage.

Meticulously choppy and frequently free of inherent genre boundaries, it's an askew masterpiece of brains, brawn, heart, and soul.

It imparts that expansive happiness of catchy songs just at the margins of your memory, not quite in your grasp, a reminder of the pleasure of music, something beyond yourself.

With nearly three dozen guest musicians chipping in, the aptly titled Monoliths and Dimensions is far and away the band’s most ambitious project to date, but typically, the many guest contributions are so subtly performed and arranged, not to mention entirely in keeping with O’Malley’s and Anderson’s collective vision, that we hardly notice.

It's sad for Ford's memory, but lucky for us: Harlan County remains a solitary delight, away and apart, to itself.

The musicians on this compilation are a testament to the creativity, dynamism and exuberance of the Haitian people.

If there are any faults on Foundations of Burden, it’s that the middle portion of the album tends to succumb to a sameness sound, which is almost inevitable when you have two 10-minute plus tracks back to back. Fortunately, the demand for subsequent listens is hardly a laborious task, given Brett Campbell’s stellar, sustained vocal delivery.

All We Love We Leave Behind is proof positive that the incandescent flame of Converge's fury is fully under their direct control, and because of this ability to harness their elemental power, the Converge of 2012 sound just as fearless and peerless as ever.

One of this year’s most striking releases so far. Add in a killer style, playful energy, impeccable production, incredible performances, and some very important representation, and you’ve got one of the most striking pop records of the last few years.

There is a profound sense of joy on the album. A loud, often frenetic, intense joy but joy all the same. The album extols the virtues of inclusion, of community, of love.

In the fiercely competitive pop world, the coalescence of earworm melodies, lush production, and dynamic performances is usually the unlikely result of an ensemble effort of high-salaried professionals; alone, Boucher beats them at their own game and then some with one of the most rebellious, uncommonly bizarre records of the young post-modern pop era.

Black Tambourine is indispensable listening for anyone with even a passing interest in indie pop's past or current renaissance and a wholly welcome reminder of the unwavering greatness of one of the genre's truly seminal bands.

This massive re-release of what is arguably the Pumpkins' crowning achievement lives up to the lofty heights set up by the original album: it's sprawling, ambitious, overlong, frustrating, and fascinating all at once.

So fresh, so revelatory, so alive.

Fishscale owes a large part of its success to Ghostface’s vivid storytelling.

The music is deceptively complex in its simplicity. The individual tracks always carry us to places we didn’t know we were heading.

While Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is indeed a lot of things, if it’s anything in particular, it’s a flex. It’s a reassertion that the band can essentially do no wrong, and even when they get close, it’s easier to interpret them toeing the borders of brilliance.

Cadillactica stands on its own as a deviation in sound but a continuation of greatness. An intriguing concept, exceptional production, and captivating lyricism ensure that a trip to Cadillactica is one that will stick with you for life.

It's an accessible album, but one containing challenging contrasts. In the end, what's most impressive is how Arulpragasam powerfully weaves a consistent theme of rootlessness throughout the record, drawing on her experiences in both the third world and modern London, from civil war to Western urban culture, and her own, highly unique, bastardized form of pop music is the extraordinary end result.

You’re Dead! is arguably his most imposing album thus far.

Tokumaru’s music, it’s now well established, is quirky but profound, foreign but still universal.

This is a remarkable album, and made even more so by Moctar's insistence that the concept of rock music as a genre is fairly new to him. What he does is not rock for rock's sake, but music for music's, and that might be the most rock and roll approach of all.

These are deeply personal songs that chart the different kinds of emotions he’s working through, whether it’s to do with the affairs of the heart or the turmoil of the outside world; it’s also a wildly ambitious record that takes its musical cutes from Black American popular music. The sum of all these great parts makes for a thrilling listen.

Bon Iver defiantly makes a small-scale statement on For Emma, Forever Ago, so much that if you don’t concentrate, you’ll pass this over.

The new album doesn’t have the political commentary that we saw on those two [Childish Things (2005) and Just Us Kids (2008)], but it’s likely we’re going to see Complicated Game on the nominee list come next year. It’s that good.

Unwound plays with a tightness and richness that few bands can touch anymore; they have turned into the metal Minutemen.

This is a record that revels in the chaos of electronic music, its crazed rhythms and its infectious grooves.

The assured, varied, and ear-pleasing Everything Harmony raises anticipation for whatever choices the Lemon Twigs will make next.

We get to hear that continuous struggle that she chronicles in all of the songs on Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again. She faces these issues with brilliant songwriting.