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.

While the majority of the songs on the album are lush ballads, a playfulness shines through here like never before.

That Fleet Foxes have crafted such a sublime debut less than two years into their existence as a band speaks to their collective pop genius .

Dirty Computer succeeds overall because of it mostly delivers the same elements that made the Metropolis lineage soar.

Baroness simply lets the songs do their thing, never beating us over the head, never pandering, and in so doing, they’ve created a surprisingly adventurous album, further establishing their position as one of the finest, not to mention likeable bands in America these days.

The most sonically satisfying statement to emerge yet from the Collective.

That level of "realness", the way that the songs ring true whether he's bragging or self-criticizing, joking or praying, is what makes The College Dropout more than worthy of all of the attention that it's getting.

He understands these lessons have been learned by every generation and is part of the traditions from which we have emerged. His artistry lies in how he does it, with talent, humor, and grace.

Aside from being a gifted musician and lyricist, he also has a gorgeous voice, soulful and thrilling. Building on the excellence of his previous albums, What We Call Life is easily one of this year’s best albums.

It’s trippy and majestic head-music spun from moonage daydreams and made for gliding in and out of life.

What Something More Than Free does best is confirm that Isbell is a rare talent, one who doesn’t need a major life event to inspire him to make great music.

It’s a good album, but not a great one, and though the long tail of history will eventually render such a long production time moot, it’s certainly not a record justifying the ludicrous wait.

U.F.O.F., then, is an almost perfect album.

My Woman is a new watermark for Olsen. It somehow elaborates on the disparate missions of both Half Way Home and Burn Your Fire For No Witness while reaching out into the unfamiliar spaces of dreamy synthpop and more hook-driven, pop-oriented songwriting.

Carlile has been making high-quality music for years, and In These Silent Days adds to that legacy. The songwriting is so good throughout, and Cobb and Jennings’ production is spot-on. ... Regardless of genre, though, this record deserves recognition as being one of the year’s best.

Sufjan Stevens’ musical journeying over the past two decades comes to its fullness as he grapples with these concepts. Every piece fits perfectly, but more than that, he knows what sort of puzzle to construct.

Silent Movies is able to take all of the disparate descriptions above and press them into one unifying album. Marc Ribot really ought to have the opportunity to score films more often, because the results can be breathtaking.

This reissue of A New Way to Pay Old Debts tacks on the two-song "High Wasted" 7-inch and four previously unreleased tracks from the original recording sessions, making this scuzz-fuzz journey through the dirt and clay beneath the Mississippi Delta even more essential than it was upon its initial run through the experimental woodlands.

John Howard and the Night Mail is nothing short of a triumph.

This is truly a virtuosic tour de force. Every time you hear a new Jane Weaver album and think to yourself, well, that’s about it, there’s nowhere she can go from here, and then she goes to yet another level, forging still new paths.

It’s tempting to say that Absence is a successful crossover project, but that would make it sound like the music is bringing disparate components together. Instead, Absence feels natural through and through.

Putting her body and feelings out in the open makes them real, especially when portrayed so artfully as in songs such as “Patron Saint of the Dollar Store” and “Heart Swell”.

In London Ko, Diawara uses a broader sonic palette than her earlier music and generally dials up the amplitude. While the music aims to move your body, its Bambara lyrics are also meant to move your spirit.

Hey Panda is a bold update of the group’s sound—layered, complex, day-glow-colored with decidedly modern R&B and hip-hop influences. Here is a band that’s not done evolving.

Elverum has been recording the same song since he was a teenager in the mid-1990s, making tapes late into the night after his shift at the record store. Microphones in 2020 might be his apex.

Few bands today are as good at telling a simple, straightforward, from-the-gut story like the Drive-By Truckers are.

Aside from a couple of hiccups (the clunky R&B of "Get By", the silly call and response of "Knock Knock"), it's every bit as good as Boy in da Corner, and sometimes even better.

While most artists would have drowned under the pressure, hype, anticipation and scale of an album like Blonde, he passes with flying colors, making him not only one of the most unique R&B artists of our time, but also one of the best as well.