Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is another bonafide masterpiece.

Its feeling lingers long after her patient request. Despite the humor, wit, and sharp-edge of illuminati hotties, there’s a definable sense of sadness throughout the album, and its resulting resonance is a major success for Sarah Tudzin and Co.

Opeth’s chemistry feels as tight as it is playful, heartfelt as it is engaging, as they explore a plethora of intriguing and majestic sounds. The instrumentation and vocals, in both versions, serve to present emotion and instrumental wonder. In Cauda Venenum is among Opeth’s strongest albums when it comes to the band’s progressive sensibilities.

Ultimately, Valentine is the perfect marriage of concept and skill at this point in Snail Mail’s career.

Musically, the band sounds as tight as ever, matching Lyxzén’s dynamic vocals with monstrous riffs and rhythm all through War Music. ... With War Music, Refused have delivered a rousing call to arms, and perhaps a call to their punk-rock peers to join the fight.

If you’re already a fan of Voivod, then you know how incredibly unique they are, and the quality of songwriting on The Wake is top-notch, making it one of the strongest metal albums of the year. Voivod have progressed exponentially since their raw punkish days.

For the first time in a long time, an artist riding on hype surfaced with an album that lives up to the very hype that lifted it. Better yet, in time, Blonde will surpass its hype. The album’s greatest feat is its ability to expand when it’s listened to in a new mindset, each reveal seemingly so apparent that you wonder how you missed it the first time.

There is no question that this album is a game changer. It's Kanye West's greatest work.

While one could argue Lord-Alge’s mix brought the band their first Billboard Hot 100 hit in “I’ll Be You”, time has proven that hit didn’t really bring them any long-term success. By scaling back then, Wallace has created an album that truly fits with their narrative, and that’s probably worth more now than then. After all, time has been very kind to The Replacements, who continue to build upon their legacy with each passing year, and Dead Man’s Pop is a welcome addition.

James Blake is an essential for anybody interested in witnessing how pop music can and will continue to change, progress, and grow into something new with time.

With everything under one roof and no vacancies in sight, the 25th anniversary return to Singles is a pleasant one. It’s a humble reminder of a time when soundtracks could rule the roost and yet also serve a greater purpose.

Even though other recent interviews and richly realized tracks like those imply that Ocean's songwriting is just a vessel, his own devil is still in the details, and that's what makes his music compelling.

Throughout Unlimited Love, you can still hear their enthusiasm breathing life into these tracks: when Flea, Frusciante, and Smith really lock in on a groove, they’re indestructible.

As perfect as Illmatic is, there are plenty of crevices that can be explored and different musical avenues to test Nas’s verses/scriptures.

In spite of everything that Oasis would become on record, on stage, in the tabloids, Definitely Maybe stands above it all.

By forsaking greatness, Stevens has unearthed a wonder altogether more tremendous than the one at the top of those towers he used to stack.

The more you spin it, the more you wear out that thin needle of your record player, you realize that Granduciel is discovering the problems of his life, not figuring them out or even reflecting on them. This all makes for an album that truly sounds like it’s coming to life.

Twenty minutes of pedal-to-the-floor, tension-igniting rock ‘n’ roll can just be too much in most hands, but Here and Nowhere Else condenses these moments into more reasonable servings that are successful across the board.

The singles have zing, the pacing is superb, and the back half is just as fun as the front. With i,i, you feel the whole last decade: the exploration, the lessons learned. i,i is a mature masterpiece and a stunning marriage of ambition and technique.

A stunning listening experience, even for longtime fans of Rosalía.

The characters and artifacts that surround these songs feel artificial, like stock props, but the music that Del Rey pulls them through splits them open, shakes them to life.

Be the Cowboy shows that love and loss can be grand and small at the same time. That two minutes is more than enough time to melt down emotion into a pure concentrate and nearly drown yourself in it. That every moment can be a epic love story, that every heartbreak can be as hard and small as a pearl and just as coveted.

I Loved You At Your Darkest is another strong addition to Behemoth’s remarkable run, which has now lasted more than a quarter century. It reveals some welcome growth within a subgenre of heavy music that has often been resistant to evolution.

Twenty-one years later, Gentlemen remains as much an outlier as ever due to its unlikely fusion of sounds and uncompromising view that breakups are as much about anger and resentment as wallowing and pining. Listen to Gentlemen again, and you’ll find it’s all still “in our heart, in our heads, in our love, and in our beds.”

Love, Damini delivers like an 80-pound baby. The Afrobeats album gets into the soul with Burna’s typical flair, but the insights are deeper.

There’s nothing wasted on GHETTO GODS, as every move purposefully builds to a crescendo. Even the skits, which can easily be a distraction on any album — especially one with 17 tracks — have a reason for existing.

After one listen or 10, In Colour reflects brightly, a phenomenally poised and universally approachable solo debut.

Nas saved the best for last, if this is the trilogy’s end. KDIII is the exclamation point at the end of his career’s most consistently dope stretch. It pays tribute to everything that came before it while whetting the appetite for what’s next.

Nothing is off limits, and it makes Diaspora Problems a delight to listen to. There’s not a lot of repetition, and for as immediate and spontaneous as the recordings are, every musical element and lyric comes off as hand-crafted and deliberate: all killer, no filler.

The rapping is impeccable, and the project doesn’t overstay its welcome.

The band opened the vaults for this reissue to give us a sparkling remaster, a sturdy live set from the 40 Watt Club (though it hardly begs for canonization like 2009’s revelatory, rarity-packed Live at the Olympia), and a juicy third disc of demos. Some of these are pretty fun.

Though the music of Face The Wall can be relatively straightforward indie rock, her enchanting voice is what really separates her from the pack. ... Face The Wall is a remarkably assured statement from a 21-year-old artist.

There's more than enough here to disavow thoughts that this is a needless cash grab by Corgan.

Through it all is a patient sense of comfort and understanding, retaining the playfulness of their previous efforts, the seriousness of being a rock musician in the 2020s, and the approachable air that ties it all together.

After claiming his place in the spotlight by overwhelming force with The Epic, Kamasi Washington capitalizes on both his newfound fame and his journeyman work ethic to produce a follow-up that’s more intimate and just as daring at the same time.

It is an absolute monster of a record that clocks in at just over 67 minutes with a staggering 23 tracks — and boy, was it worth the wait. If Ctrl was a near-perfect debut, S.O.S might be an inch closer to masterclass status.

Death of a Cheerleader is a cohesive, emotionally affecting work. With this album, Mia Berrin solidifies her place among the newest class of indie stalwart songwriters, carving out this space in a fearless and vulnerable way.

It cements what she does best: giving trends of the past a clever and useful update. Our Extended Play comes from a place of sincerity, relying on familiar comforts without ever feeling out of date.

Bolt Cutters delivers a much-needed auditory exercise for the sequestered masses and surely one of the best albums to grace us in 2020. Eight long years later, Fiona Apple proves her return was worth every second in waiting.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness doesn't need rose-colored lens for appreciation. The album's success still lies from all the stylistic risks the band assumed, especially in comparison to music other alternative bands were creating at the time.

Baroness currently find themselves in a place of great maturity, exhibiting superb musicianship. It’s fitting for Gold & Grey to be the conclusion of the band’s color-themed albums. The array of instrumentation and emotion throughout not only make Gold & Grey a joy to listen to, but also an achievement of which Baroness can truly be proud.

Woods embodies the cultural makeup of Chicago, tackles the multiplicity of identity, and balances her dominance with flawlessly selected features that build her up. ... This record could be the basis for a college course or used as an actually accurate history book.

It’s clear that these five musicians have learned the rules and are actively breaking them, and their unpredictability from moment to moment is powerful, fun, and enigmatic. ... If Projector is any indication, Geese will be breaking conventions for years to come.

It’s in her own vocal and musical versatility that Polachek can create a new map to discover, and the results are nothing short of thrilling.

It's easy to lose yourself in the countless studio takes. Little gasps of pure genius here and there. The slow dissolution to it all. The echoes of things to come. It's a history lesson come to life, and that's part of the reason the collection here works so well.

The first big album of 2022 delivers like an 80 lb. baby.

The 2013 remix is a bit of a wash, if only because the album already sounded great.

Adams assembles a stunning scrapbook that captures heartbreak in an intimate array of snapshots, a collection that marks his most accomplished record since Heartbreaker.

With this collection, she proves that she was not just a shot in the dark or a blaze lighting up the sky for only a moment.

This isn’t so much an evolution, but a complete restructuring of Van Etten’s sound. It’s her OK Computer if you want to get frank.

Laurel Hell follows suit in Mitski’s determined approach, and the resulting album is a sophisticated and magnetic collection of songs. But more than that, it’s Mitski trusting herself, confidently blazing forward into the next decade of her storied career.

Nova Twins bend and blend genres like alchemists, generating a sound specific to them and the undertones of their social movement. ... Supernova is like our generation’s “f**k you” to every version of “the man,” much like The Clash did in 1977 and Rage Against the Machine did in 1992.

The biblical book of Hebrews says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Never has an album expressed this idea clearer than Ghosteen.

We now have an album from him so masterful that it'd be greedy to ask for much more.

With their latest studio album, Slipknot have released one of the strongest albums in their career. When it comes to We Are Not Your Kind, Slipknot live up to the title.

Even when Parks tries on different hats, Natural Brown Prom Queen still manages to feel cohesive and genuine. ... Meanwhile, songs like “Ciara” and “Freakalizer” feel like hits ahead of their time.

This is the best album for 2011, and not just the last two months.

On Honey, Samia finds her power in being an open book.

What makes Rumours so remarkable and relevant is that it remains fragile and passionate 35 years later.... From a historical, archival standpoint, this package is extremely valuable, as Rhino left in the studio banter and rough cuts from the recording sessions; you get to overhear Fleetwood Mac as they make the record.

Squeeze is an album like no other, and it serves as a massive statement piece from SASAMI.

This is music that wants to be read as a text, and deserves to be. The fact that it comes to us in an era of smartphones and shortening attention spans only serves to underscore its audacity.

While Coloring Book successfully channels the musical conventions of African-American church tradition without sounding dated or pastiche, the album also subtly chronicles black history and uses it as inspiration for artistic freedom.

While that record [Pomegranate] was expansive and full of divergent genres and characters, This Is Our Science condenses the process into a tight 40 minutes of rhythm and revelations.

While her songwriting has always been among the most powerful of the past decade, it’s not only refreshing, but thrilling, to see Big Thief take a broader sonic direction without ever losing the raw passion that put them on the map.

It delivers on every promise in a sleek, incredibly catchy package and does it all in under 50 minutes. Yes, it’s music made by young adults obviously aimed at young adults. Yes, it could be more subtle about its influences. And yes, it’s going to make a whole lot of year-end lists.

Juno is bursting at the seams with pop idiosyncrasies, thirteen tracks of controlled chaos. ... It’s also a remarkably cohesive album.

The Basement Tapes Raw, like the original ’75 release, blends brilliant performances with pure curiosities. What’s remarkable, though, are how many beautiful, emotionally daunting moments came into being during these rather informal sessions.

The remastered mixes highlight how incredibly complex the arrangements were originally, a testament to the true magnitude of Led Zeppelin’s vision all those years ago.

Kendrick can’t be Pac or know everything it took to be him, but he isn’t going to let doubts stop him from making groundbreaking music. With To Pimp a Butterfly, it’s never been more apparent that he’s doing just that and prepared to stride past any and all obstacles.

Forgotten Days is arguably the best doom metal album of 2020 and an impressive label debut. Thanks to Dunn’s minimalist production, the album is a sonic pleasure, and it’s instantly more listenable and accessible than Heartless.

Tomorrow’s Hits doesn’t boom like The Men’s early material (namely, 2010’s Immaculada and 2011’s Leave Home), but it’s more rousing instrumentally than last year’s New Moon.

OK Computer never stopped sounding timeless. In its new form as OKNOTOK, unreleased songs feed off beloved B-sides, forming a web that supports the concrete themes of the original album so as to make its points even sharper.

Lil Nas X’s 15-track rookie album is filled with raw emotion, honesty, and a lot of insight.

Torn Arteries has an absolutely rotten personality, but one soaked with black humor and charm — not to mention stellar riffs and performances — for those with the patience to get to know it. Those looking for unrepentant brutality can look to Cannibal Corpse, but those looking for something more complex need to taste this masterpiece of bitterness.

Yeezus feels very proto- something, the roots of some aesthetic that has yet to be minted. It’s revolutionary at its most urgent, as on “Black Skinhead”.

Paradise Lost have found an almost ideal balance between grit, atmosphere and songcraft. What Obsidian lacks in lyrical subtlety or song variety, it makes up for with sonic depth and sheer catchiness. ... Paradise Lost float above the fray, synthesizing aggression and accessibility in every song. It’s hardly a new trick for these Brits, but that they’ve made it par for the course makes their career all the more remarkable.

For Adele, 30 is an emotional breakthrough — a refreshingly candid body of work that is revelatory. While the album is about “divorce, babe,” the record’s 12 songs go deeper.

Lemonade marks Beyoncé’s most accomplished work yet. It is the perfect combination of the sharp songwriting of 4 with the visual storytelling acumen of her self-titled record. Here, we see Beyoncé fully coming into her own: wise, accomplished, and in defense of herself.

It shows that the Some Girls era was, and remains, one of the most productive of the Stones' career.

Push is in complete control of his flow, his delivery, and his pen game is sharper than it was 20 years ago. ... It's Almost Dry is the perfect complement to Dayonta, creating Pusha's very own gangster saga on wax.

m b v creates a new timeline for My Bloody Valentine, and one that recalls the past in a broader and bolder light. They’re better for it, their catalog is stronger for it, and by album’s end, they’re still the best at swirling guitars.

The exploration and craft put into Blythe’s lyrics, along with the stunning musicianship of each member, allows for an exhilarating work of pure heavy metal. This album isn’t just an awesome release from Lamb of God, but a perfect record to unite metalheads as one.

All Mirrors is a successful example of how being bold and staying true to yourself pays off. Undeniably, this is Olsen’s most cohesive, self-aware, and searing album to date, and the era of Olsen is far from finished.

We’ve Been… is unmistakably the sound of an artist in their prime, hitting at all the conceptual points that they set out to reflect while remaining true to their strengths. ... We’ve Been… is certainly her strongest, boldest experiment as a songwriter yet.

White briskly blows through each idea and wraps up the album in a tight 40 minutes.

What Sawayama has successfully captured with Hold the Girl is the healing power of pop music, and the catharsis that can come just as easily with an arena-ready banger as it can with a feral scream.

Wet Leg is by all means a daring debut for the duo, demonstrating that the success of “Chaise Longue” was not at all an accident.

Fossora is filled with Björk’s reliably lush, sensual instrumentation and poetic lyricism, at times playing like a thematic and musical companion to its predecessor. ... Across its delectable slate of richly orchestrated songs, Fossora’s best tracks are also the most personal.

The more valid question is whether Senjutsu is worthy of Iron Maiden’s illustrious catalog, and the answer is an emphatic yes. The LP stands out among the second Dickinson-era albums for its symphonic touches, memorable songs/riffs, and airtight mid-tempos.

As a new release, it’s got more than enough exploratory factors to keep the band from sounding stale, but it also stays true to the sounds that have turned us all into maggots in the first place.

Led Zeppelin I is a fantastic glimpse into the time capsule, a standing testament to rock pageantry.

While not the towering achievement of its brothers in numerology, Led Zeppelin III remains one of the great albums in rock and roll history, significant for its role in establishing the legend of Led Zeppelin that would become fact with Led Zeppelin IV.

There are fewer moments of complete chaos, giving over instead to more detailed-oriented dissections of experiences from puberty. While this might sound like dangerous territory for an artist who’s known for searing riffs and vicious live performances that include screaming into the pickups of her guitar, Mitski uses her voice to measure the slightest nuances within complex emotions.

Indigo, which RM describes as “a sun-bleached record faded like old jeans,” feels like a gift to his own creative spirit as much as it does a gift to the listeners.

It’s a bit of cruel irony that in the face of so much adversity, the band has somehow managed to helm their most creative and compelling album in over 20 years. It may be hard for the band to recognize it, but believe it or not, Foo Fighters are learning to live again.

Model Citizen is a clear and cohesive step towards a post-Warped Tour, pop-punk-celebrating audience. And though some of their more specific reference points may be stuck in the MySpace era, Meet Me @ the Altar are proving that they’re right on time.

Tillman’s writing, already literate and caustically funny, has progressed as well as his arrangements.

The story he set out to tell ends up linear and cohesive, remarkably so, even for people who don’t speak Korean and experience the album first solely as a sonic journey. ... This collection is a body of work people will turn to for years to come.