Without any context, White Men sounds like it could have been made at any time in the last few decades, it simply defies general tags (both in time and genre).

Death Dreams is another stellar album from another stellar band that has come out of one of Canada's most fertile music scenes-an essential and raw purchase for rock lovers everywhere.

Whether calming you with lush numbers like “Aerodrome” and “The Coming Days” or tickling the edges of your mind with “Thorn”, the result is another stunning record, no matter who’s pulling or plucking the strings.

The album is altogether catchy and enjoyable, and Yola has a mystical and inviting spirit to her voice complimented with the music she, Auerbach, and the Easy Eye musicians weaved.

There Will Be No Intermission is a triumphant return of an uncompromising artist. It is singularly the best piece of work that Palmer has produced in her career.

Musically, it is an often breathtaking listen as she straddles various genres with consummate ease. It serves as a dazzling celebration of her cultural and musical heritage that will resonate for years to come.

It is this process of combining darkness and light that make Ultraviolet such an interesting listen, as Moran attempts and succeeds in surpassing the confined spaces of individual genres and practices to create a more holistic work.

Never before has the producer been as sharp (or as murky) at the boards as he is here, seamlessly tuning long-winded drones with slavedriver clangs into hypnotic locked grooves.

The misfires are few and far between. Boarding House Reach may be a hard pill to swallow, but it's rarely boring and without a doubt the most far-reaching, experimental collection of songs in White's ample discography.

No Keys cracks the code with a quantum leap forward in songwriting, as well as relying on few to no gimmicks. This is no-frills rock and roll. ... They work the riff-heavy blues-rock template to their advantage, creating a masterpiece of instantly lovable hard rock.

To hear one of the greatest bands of all time make this sort of conscious evolution in front of an audience is something special and something that fans rarely get to experience. This is as close as many of us will get with the Velvet Underground, but it’s more than worth it.

Ultimately, Airtight's Revenge joins Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun, Van Hunt's Popular, Meshell Ndegeocello's Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, Rahsaan Patterson's Wines & Spirits, Joi's Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome, and Sy Smith's Conflict as a generation-defining masterwork of unflinching vision that captures the artist at the very moment in time that it is released.

It is fresh, original, and points the way.

Mixing the grit that was The Stooges with the bounce that was Gang of Four, Liars and their debut release are everything that should be praised about Brooklyn's music scene.

Best of Gloucester County announces itself as superlative--a high standard to meet for an artist that has already achieved such a distinct identity across so many compelling albums.

Your Mother Should Know is an artist at the peak of his powers, interpreting the songwriting of a group of musicians whose music will last long after we’re all gone.

A whirlwind but very well-paced tour of trends and tendencies across a plethora of genres, subgenres, rhythms and textures, and nothing that we hear last longer than three minutes before morphing into something else.

If you listen to Familiars--and you probably should because it is very great--it is crucial to do so with an open heart and an open head.

Alicia Keys decided to make something so raw, so honest, so palpable, that it should be all but impossible for soul music lovers to ignore this release.

Swimmin’ Time showcases the best of both old and new music, the idealized past and the disgusting, bloody, senseless present. Lyrics to make the soul shake loose from out of your chest meet harmonies that will convert new audiences through pure emotive conviction.

Their work, especially that displayed on Refinement, stands as some of the more original and evocative music being produced today, smart and technical without sacrificing atmosphere and feeling.

Gutterflower will undoubtedly take the Goo Goo Dolls to greater success, and deservedly so, such is it's quality and consistency.

Welcome Interstate Managers is the welcome aural equivalent of a great collection of short stories, each song offering a little snippet from a life, and presenting a range of characters to fill this musical spectrum.

This latest disc really seems to cement the notion that the collective combination of the songsmiths Owens and White simply cannot do no wrong, that all of that time spent kept away from the pleasures of modern music, at least in one member's case, has simply fostered an entity that is bemused and bedazzled with the charms of the past's reflective prism.

Song For Avery once again shows Avery deconstructing his various influences and welding them together to achieve something remarkable. The result is a sweeping, majestic album that sends the listener soaring above mountainous peaks or gently brushing the canyon floor, often during the space of a single track.

Each moment here is, though often minimally produced, fully realized. Together, Okzharp and Manthe Ribane are somehow even greater than the sum of their parts, and what they have made here promises a sonically-jeweled future.

Parachutes was impressive, but Coldplay's new album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, is stunning, the amount of growth from Album One to Album Two equally so.

Not only does Young accomplish his goal of creating a musical storyline that transcends the tedium and self-indulgence of your average concept album, but he's also crafted his finest set of songs since at least Freedom and Ragged Glory.

As a stand-alone release, it’s impressive; as a document and celebration of the greatest band of 21st century (sorry, Radiohead), it’s imperative.

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.

While the LP is smart and funky as hell, it distinguishes itself because it's part of a series.

Although Forget might not usher in a new musical era, it's a near-flawless album and certainly one of the most impressive debuts we've ever seen. It might not change your life, but it will bury itself deep into your brain and make you feel good and warm for a couple of days.

It’s a rare record that gives us a call to action, something to act on after the beats drop out and we’re left in silence.

It has gorgeous moments that replace silence by reorganizing the background sounds of everyday life, which is arguably what all music should do. With Romantic Piano, Gia Margaret has perfected her voice.

The new recording is by turns lovely, haunting, exciting, and emotive.

It's refreshing to hear such an intelligent, thought-provoking and political album as this. The Matthew Herbert Great Britain and Gibraltar European Union Membership Referendum Big Band are to be applauded for making an album that really could only have been made by Europeans, in Europe.

Few contemporary pop albums have spoken to the human condition so eloquently, and given the listener so much pleasure in the process, than Dark Night of the Soul.

Forever Today succeeds in every way that Forgiveness Rock Record didn't, and you can only hope that Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning and company are taking notes from the scene-stealers based out of Sweden. This is sticky sweet stuff, and it's a must listen.

On Red Devil Dawn, Crooked Fingers have made huge strides towards becoming one of the most fascinating bands in some time.

There's no doubt, though, that the Mermaid Avenue albums played a major role in sparking a revival of interest in Woody Guthrie-both in his home state, his country, and the world at large. And that renewed interest has finally allowed people to see Guthrie for who and what he truly was and continues to represent.

On their third album, Musow Dance, the lineup shifts again, and the energy is as vital as ever as the group continues to celebrate womanhood over some of their most engaging beats to date.

It may be less exuberant and therefore harder to love at first, but it delivers the goods just as surely. And with Paul Simon now old enough to face the ultimate questions and to do so with a stunning musical sophistication, it may just be a complete classic.

On an album that, through its title, implies intimacy and solitude, Styles shows there are no four walls that can contain him.

Small Craft on a Milk Sea gives us the classically transportive experience that Brian Eno excels in creating.

At any rate, having jabbed at indie success and scored at least one good hit, the band and its sole record--comprising just over twenty minutes of music--will surely be remembered for its insistent, unselfconscious songs as well as its endless playability.

It is a gift indeed that Trembling Bells can summon such realizations, tinged though they may be with melancholy. More importantly, the mixture of styles and traditions that each member brings to this project marks the collective as different, complex, and constantly intriguing.

Comparisons to Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright certainly make sense, but the consistent personality of Strangers affirms Harcourt's unique talent.

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

Great songwriters build fully realized worlds in their songs, but on Punisher Bridgers is often able to do it in just a few lines.

The human voice, the most striking change in Burial’s sound, renders Untrue superior to its predecessor.

It's truly great stuff. The future is, apparently, now.

Perhaps an elitist view is that Cole is too high-brow for the masses, but six hundred pre-purchasers say differently, and fifty million Elvis fans can’t be wrong. Oh yes, oh no, Standards is one for the ages.

Unlike most of their peers, Hysen and Picastro are dark without being cartoonish or goth, delicate without being merely pretty, sparse without being dourly ascetic.

Without sacrificing any of the confessional, emotionally rich material that made us love them in the first place, the band has dispensed with self-consciousness and proven their ability to expand upon previously held identities, thus cementing their continuing preeminence in the indie music world.

With Things Have Changed, Bettye Lavette hasn't just joined the ranks of first-rate Dylan interpreters, female and male--she's taken her place as leader of the pack.

The new Idiology takes the acoustic experiments of Niun Niggung even further, and it's this combination of electronic and "traditional" music -- melding keyboards and synthesizers with french horns and guitars and trumpets into a seamless whole -- that points the way through the dead-ends of most electronica.

The vast creativity and breadth of this project are impressive. Along with the great music, a suite of short films operates as a gorgeous visual interpretation of the music. Though, Röyksopp have sworn off releasing “traditional studio albums”, judging from Profound Mysteries, this new stage in their career is exciting and captivating.

Quite simply, Nashville is a necessary addition to the collection of anyone who respects the tradition of great singing and storytelling.

Throughout Send, Wire strike the right compromise, pushing their songs to brink of chaos without ever allowing them to disintegrate.

Magma hardly represents the epitome of the avant-garde in today’s metal scene, but in offering a concise anthology of accessible, immediately engaging songs that nonetheless manage to redefine the edge of the commercial envelope, Gojira set the bar for what arena metal could be five years from now, ten years from now... whenever the more casual heavy metal demographic finally catches up.

Audio Vertigo, Elbow’s tenth studio album, is both a return to form and a step into new musical territory. The sound familiar to long-term listeners remains prevalent, while elements of funk and Eurodisco creep into the grooves.

The combination of Jónsi and Cook may be an unlikely one but it works so well. This, the first release, of their collaboration, has produced an excellent album that is an exciting highlight of 2020 so far.

What makes The Great Destroyer surprising is how seamlessly they balance all these moods and sounds. Not to mention courageously. This is an album, not a collection of Low songs.

Ray Blk remains an individual, someone who can make mainstream soul music that still shows off impressive creativity and ingenuity.

Phenology is stunning, ranking right up there with the best hip-hop music of today.

It would seem that on this album, Ndegeocello is less concerned with how emotion strikes a person (be it love, pain, or sex), but how people relate to that emotion. And in the process she creates the tightest, most emotionally potent work she’s produced since Bitter.

He and his producers have constructed a monument to this New New New South. And you don't really have to believe in it in order to appreciate what a great record this is.

What pushes Safe in the Hands of Love beyond the producer's previous works is the emotion that the record transmits. No matter if the synths are harsh, or the rhythm section arrives with the perfect groove, this is a work filled with an emotive purpose, and it is that core that makes it such a wonderful listen.

placeholder is an album that never gets stuck but also never feels less than thoroughly cohesive. That is a hard trick to pull off and Hand Habits does it with consummate aplomb. It felt like Wildly Idle would be difficult, if not impossible, to follow, and placeholder feels similarly devastating and accomplished.

Sangaré is a force, and on Mogoya, she makes some truly showstopping waves.

Her stunning brand of Americana pop translates the 21st century breakdown into something worrying and sweetly touching.

No matter who gets credit, No Sounds is one bold and fascinating album. Nothing is on autopilot and even the slow, quiet passages are far from boring.

Even though there are a few tracks where Sleigh Bells try to get away with bluster and decibels alone, it's amazing how much of Treats backs up the talk and the walk.

This creative group of misanthropes have emerged a devastating proposition.

It's the kind of elegant, smart, and literate music that celebrates songwriters and producers who are working just a skosh out of the mainstream. It's pop with deep roots in club culture with subtle influences of underground and alternative soul. The tight-knit collaboration of Jordan and her crew make for an astonishing achievement.

Love Streams is at once familiar and totally alien; a work of art that reminds us why we need art in the first place.

As a whole, Love Letter for Fire is the sonic equivalent of sitting in front of a campfire on the starry night with a couple of close friends strumming their acoustic guitar; it’s bucolic, simple, and guaranteed to delight.

The Stimulus Package is nothing less than the album Freeway was born to make, a release that finds both Free and Jake One at the apex of their respective talents, milking each other for everything they’re worth.

This album is smart and fun, if you can but allow yourself to revel in its uber-production.

Third is a complete work of art to fully immerse yourself in, listened to start to finish.

Though All the Time indulges and dissects neuroses, it's not the sound of someone falling off the wagon. Rather, this lush and spacious collection of songwriting shows a hard-fought mental clarity, a deliberate effort to resist the instincts on display on "VV Violence" in pursuit of digging deeper into oneself. Intrusive thoughts flare-up, but they're allowed to wash over, eventually fading away. The payoff is immeasurable.

As impressive and imposing The Deal and What One Becomes are, Love in Shadow stands in a league of its own. The change of perspective, the stylistic deviations and the smooth transitions between different modes make Love in Shadow appear as a pivotal record for the band.

Part Lies, is absolutely the definitive collection to come from R.E.M. – the one to own and cherish and keep – and this one goes out to the ones who love what they've heard on the radio, but are unsure where to begin the begin.

Romano builds that most welcome of atmospheres: a straight-ahead, honest collaboration between like-minded artists committed to the songs.There is simply no note out of place.

Already the standard-bearer for today’s brood that includes Abney, Caleb Caudle and M. Lockwood Porter, Moreland proves there’s nothing sanctimonious about singing the truth on High on Tulsa Heat.

Since We Last Spoke continually subverts expectations of what an Rjd2 album is about, yet the songs all stick together in a cohesive way, and the album still somehow bears the distinct personality stamp of the RJ we already knew, even as some of it diverges wildly from the path he's been on so far.

For ardent followers of the '90s American underground, it is a near-essential purchase.

It is innovative but still rooted in a firm roots tradition. It is socially committed but not predictably or boringly so.

It may never occupy the place in the indie rock canon that "Slanted and Enchanted" has, and it may not be regarded as the band’s high point like "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," but 11 years later, this album still sounds great, maybe even better in its old age.

For all its gonzo, crackpot gestures, Source Tags & Codes is a remarkably coherent work. It stands as the most melodically-inclined album in their catalogue and boasts their strongest songwriting to date.

Norman Fucking Rockwell is Lana Del Rey unfiltered, full of beauty, emotion, heartbreak, and devastation.

Their sophisticated arrangements don’t waste a note or make a false step.

What makes The Life of the World to Come one of 2009's best albums, and the Mountain Goats' studio albums maybe the single greatest second act in modern American rock/indie/whatever music, is that he never assumes those groups are, at the heart of it all, different from each other or less deserving of our attention and compassion.

By the time she comes up with "Old Tin Tray", you are aware of two things. One is that this is a year-end top 10 album, and two, that she is getting better with age.

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

American Kid successfully recaptures Griffin’s acoustic roots in haunting and moving fashion.

The band has never sounded stronger on record as they do here.

As displayed in Loving You, Amanda Shires and Bobbie Nelson shared a profound connection. The result is a tribute to the artists’ talents and essential listening for piano-based country music fans and Americana listeners.