[A] near-classic, West’s Physical Graffiti, his White Album. The Life of Pablo makes the wonderful Yeezus appear minor by comparison.

Annie Clark stands astride St. Vincent, a colossus in total--and thrilling--command.

American Dream is as close to a unified artistic statement that Murphy has delivered. I’d argue it’s his first front-to-back, total triumph.

Once I Was an Eagle is a singular achievement: a haunting record, peopled with aural ghosts that come gradually crawling from out of the grooves.

It is not a return to form, because how could we expect or want it to be? It is a return to the contextually avant-garde, and for Deerhunter in 2013 that means rock n’ roll.

An album where the reminiscence of rock is revitalized by The Men’s gift of genre hybridization.

This is a record where the sum is greater than the parts, whereas The Epic was its parts (and having a lot of them). Harmony of Difference is another win in Kamasi Washington’s book.

Richard D. James has successfully crafted one of the most stunning records of his career, and he did so by exercising a deft amount of self-control.

This is music that moves the body along with the spirit, a damn fine step in the right direction.

What a breathless--and breathtaking--comeback it is.

Roosevelt listens less like a dynamic pop album and more like a static soundtrack that only becomes more and more significant as time goes on.

It sounds great while it’s playing and means nothing except that it sounds great and will sound just as great 10, 20, 30 years from now.

Tell Me How You Really Feel peaks midway, on “Nameless, Faceless”. The album’s lead single, with its descending guitar notes and a Margaret Atwood reference, finds Barnett employing old tools to tackle a newsworthy social ill. It’s breathless and gutting, a short and sweet examination of sex and violence. It draws blood, but so does the rest of the album.

The crowd-pleasers are big and full, richly accessible and eccentric at the same time.... And yet even at its most infectious this music can pivot on a dime, emotionally, and the effect is often shattering.

Truthfully, every song is a goodie, except “Sense”, which is a minute of breathing room which won’t kill you to listen to.

The experimentation keeps things interesting and is a rare and welcome sight for a musician in his fifties, but it’s the songs that aim for summer afternoon in the suburbs of “Gold Soundz” or “Range Life” that are his forte and the album’s best.

Torres is an album that is pulsating with life.

The record may be about repeating, but Jaar has yet to repeat himself.

This is an album that belongs in a 2016 time capsule, and one that any indie bard hopeful should be required to hear.

The best release from one of the most exciting artists of the 2010s.

1989 isn’t a “crossover” success. It’s the album every subsequent blockbuster must now reckon with.

Do It Again is foremost a marvel of mood and pacing. The trio doles out their riches with utmost care.

Volcano Choir’s second album is filled with memorable hooks, hummable melodies and arena-worthy choruses.

They have crafted a sound that is new for them and unique in its context, but that falls neatly into what we have come to expect from a trio whose power and creativity runs consistently unchecked.

So spend your capitalist dollars on this album. He’s worth them.

Her signature honest, unpretentious vocals shine through on each track, conveying her struggle with each note she sings.

These eleven joyous anthems and campfire sing-alongs find Harvey striding across fresh stylistic ground. Despite their bleak topicality, vibrant optimism radiates out from lyrical melancholy. Sonic warmth envelops the album like a sumptuous blanket.

Savages’ smart reorganization and shuffling of punk, post-punk, krautrock, and noise music into something brutal, jarringly confrontational, and completely singular is a breath of fresh air and an unignorable statement of power and resistance.