A big leap from the already high elevation of Michigan.

Carrie & Lowell is tough to nail down, but it’s also tough to listen to.

Lal and Mike Waterson’s Bright Phoebus more than lives up to its legendary status. Long lost, it’s a necessary purchase for fans of British folk.

Saadiq puts his artistic skills to use in full, reaching new emotional and technical heights while delving into heartbreaking lows. Jimmy Lee shows why, even though he so often stays behind the scenes these days, his is one of the most compelling voices in modern-day soul music.

No Cities to Love exceeds all expectations of what a reunion album should sound like by not sounding like a reunion album.

Despite its girth, Shout! Factory's The Complete Beat isn't really complete....Complete still gives you three Peel Sessions, a mini-concert, and some fine dubs and 12" mixes along with the original albums.

For fans, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) is a towering achievement. (It should be noted here that the set is also available on an edited, four-LP box.) However, the uninitiated would be better off purchasing the remasters of the original releases, The Asylum Albums (1972-1975). That said, it’s weird that the two complete live concerts are not available separately from the boxed set and are spread over more than one disc. They are worth buying the boxed set for in and of itself because they are so good.

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

This is essential for fans of Texas singer-songwriters, Americana, idiosyncratic albums, or for anyone looking to have an intimate exchange with a sensitive man during a turbulent time in American pop culture history.

Rio is a full range of emotion, created on the spot. All these years later, Keith Jarrett remains great.

While 1989’s vault tracks aren’t necessarily as immediately attention-grabbing as those from other re-releases, they still pack an emotional punch like only Swift can deliver.

Original Pirate Material, to put it plainly, is the most vivid evocation of life as a young person in the UK since Blur's Parklife, and yes, even The Clash's first album.

Mitski’s forte in her work has been her willingness to discuss her vulnerabilities. In The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, she imparts the idea that such vulnerabilities are better understood as mutual.

Completists may want everything and not be satisfied until that happens, but in the meantime The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings is a remarkably healthy--and even at its mammoth length (ten-plus hours) still not exhaustive account--of a time when the magic of a traveling carnival show, under the aegis of Dylan and theatrical director and co-conspirator/writing partner Jacques Levy, could accomplish anything.

Tom Waits has never made an album quite like Alice before.

It's really good, good enough to make you wonder why you haven't heard of Candi Staton (more often).

It's a shame only Church and Remy Zero fans will be inclined to check this out because it is a masterpiece lying beyond the power of the descriptive word.

These five discs show Hooker's talents in all their glory.

Funeral is a truly eccentric rock record: bizarre at turns and recognizable elsewhere, equally beautiful and harrowing, theatrical and sincere, defying categorization while attempting to create new genres.

The vastly competent array of MCs each have their own distinct flow and pace, but very little--from Flowdan’s lightning-fast verbal gymnastics, to Rick Ranking’s slow-cooked esophageal rumblings, to Roger Robinson’s soulful melancholy--clashes in a way that dulls or vitiates the album’s impact.

If you care a thing for rock ‘n’ roll, country, or American music in general, No Depression is simply essential.

Black Dog is the sum of these past strange adventures. The mysterious vibes of The Entiry City, the cold, brutal post-industrial of Unflesh, and the avant-pop musings of Pastoral. It is a work reminiscent of Gazelle Twin but also forges a new path. One that is able not only to merge these disparate aspects but also to surpass them.

Throughout its 12 quality tracks, it's interesting enough to engage listeners and engaging enough to keep the listeners interested. It's a step well above most of the hip-hop that has been released in recent years and will be played frequently until a new OutKast album materializes.

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

Democratically curated and effusing a palpable enthusiasm, the project stands as a testimony to the power of aesthetic commonality, enduring friendship, and the magic of teamwork, something we could all use more of these days.

It’s a little short in the tooth, but a little always went a long way with this band.

The eight albums collected on the two anthologies are offered as originally released with no extras, and this makes the collection especially effective for new fans discovering this extraordinary work.

If, by chance, Spaces happens to be the very first record which you pick up by Nils Frahm, I must proclaim to be extremely jealous--you have a beautiful and highly rewarding journey ahead of you, my friend.