CeeLo Green

CeeLo's Magic Moment

Elektra

Holiday, R&B

CeeLo's Magic Moment offers a wide range of Christmas and wintertime music that can be enjoyed by those who otherwise loathe it.

— Andy Kellman

Calvin Harris

18 Months

Columbia

Pop/Rock

Collaborations with Rihanna, Kelis, Florence Welch, and Ellie Goulding, among others, help make Harris' third album a shiny showcase of modern pop.

— Tim Sendra

Toby Keith

Hope on the Rocks

Show Dog Nashville / Show Dog Universal Music

Country

Toby Keith strips his music down to the basics on the satisfying Hope on the Rocks.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Alan Hampton / Andrew Bird / Martin Dosh / Jeremy Ylvisaker

Hands of Glory

Mom + Pop Music

Pop/Rock

Recorded around a single microphone, this companion piece to March 2012's Break It Yourself sounds both out of time and incredibly immediate.

— James Christopher Monger

Neil Young / Neil Young & Crazy Horse / Crazy Horse

Psychedelic Pill

Reprise

Pop/Rock

Neil Young & Crazy Horse take the long, long road on the sprawling, churning Psychedelic Pill.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The Coup

Sorry to Bother You

Anti-

Rap, Stage & Screen

Despite a shift to muscular new wave and a diversion into chamber agitprop, Sorry to Bother You contains some of the Coup's most focused output.

— Andy Kellman

Meek Mill

Dreams and Nightmares

Maybach Music

Rap

The former Grand Hustle signee make his debut on Rick Ross' Maybach Music with slick, swaggering results.

— David Jeffries

Tracey Thorn

Tinsel and Lights

Strange Feeling

Holiday

Tinsel and Lights is as singular in its choice of seasonal material by contemporary songwriters as Tracey Thorn's emotionally resonant voice is.

— Thom Jurek

Flyleaf

New Horizons

A&M / Octone Records

Pop/Rock

Flyleaf manages to transcend the many trappings of the genre (clean verse/explosive chorus/rinse/repeat) by masterfully exploiting them.

— James Christopher Monger

Matthew Friedberger

Matricidal Sons of Bitches

Thrill Jockey

Pop/Rock

This soundtrack to an imaginary horror film is intermittently fascinating and unrepentantly indulgent.

— Heather Phares

Black Country Communion

Afterglow

J&R Adventures

Pop/Rock

Black Country Communion take listeners back to hard rock's glory days on their third album, Afterglow.

— Gregory Heaney

Waves of Fury

Thirst

Alive / Alive Naturalsound Records / Alive Records

Pop/Rock

Blending noisy indie rock and vintage R&B replete with horns, the album is a fiery whirlwind of lo-fi passion and soul.

— Tim Sendra

Poncho Sanchez / Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Ensemble

Live in Hollywood

Concord Picante

Jazz

Pancho Sanchez celebrates his 30-year anniversary with Concord Picante with the burning Latin jazz set Live in Hollywood.

— Thom Jurek

Punks on Mars

Bad Expectations

Zoo Music

Pop/Rock

Overflowing with sci-fi-tinged power pop, this is Punks on Mars' most polished and accessible work yet.

— Heather Phares

Maurizio Pollini

Chopin: 24 Préludes; Nocturnes; Mazurkas; Scherzo

Deutsche Grammophon

Classical

At 70, Maurizio Pollini shows he still plays Chopin with the freshness and spontaneity he showed in his youth.

— Blair Sanderson

The Soft Moon

Zeros

Captured Tracks

Pop/Rock

Zeros is the Soft Moon's darkest, most streamlined set of songs yet.

— Heather Phares

The Barbaras

2006-2008

Goner Records

Pop/Rock

Due to a falling out with producer Jay Reatard, the Memphis band's super poppy garage punk songs are only now seeing the light of day.

— Tim Sendra

Delerium

Music Box Opera

Nettwerk

Electronic

After six years off, Bill Leeb's ethereal project returns to the studio with an album that's melancholy, precious, and lush.

— David Jeffries

Aperture Science Psychoacoustic Laboratories / Mike Morasky

Portal 2: Songs to Test By [Original Soundtrack]

Ipecac / Valve

Classical, Stage & Screen

Featuring the first Portal game soundtrack and a mini comic, the deluxe edition of Portal 2's score caters to the game's hardcore fans.

— Heather Phares

Henry Jackman

Wreck-It Ralph [Original Score]

Walt Disney

Stage & Screen

Wreck-It-Ralph's soundtrack relishes video game culture from the '80s onward.

— Heather Phares

Menahan Street Band

The Crossing

Daptone

R&B

This glowing sophomore album finds as much inspiration in obscure '70s soul acts as it does in the '90s hip-hop producers who sampled them.

— Fred Thomas

Tito Puente

Quatro: The Definitive Collection

Sony Music

Jazz

Quatro: The Definitive Collection contains four classic chronologically recorded Tito Puente albums from 1955 to 1960 in a deluxe remastered package.

— Thom Jurek

West End Motel

Only Time Can Tell

ADA / West End Motel

Pop/Rock

Mastodon's Brent Hinds goes on a metal-free journey through the sounds of early rock with West End Motel's first full-length, Only Time Can Tell.

— Gregory Heaney

Marcia Griffiths

Marcia Griffiths and Friends

VP Records

Reggae

Covering a large spectrum of Jamaican music, this weighty collection includes 38 duets between Griffiths and some of reggae's biggest names.

— Fred Thomas

Bobby Bare

As Is/Ain't Got Nothin' to Lose

Raven

Country

Raven two-fer pairs two Bobby Bare LPs: 1981's Rodney Crowell-produced As Is and its 1982 sequel Ain't Got Nothin to Lose.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Incubus

The Essential Incubus

Epic / Immortal / Legacy

Pop/Rock

The Essential Incubus is a double-disc collection of the modern rock band's best.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The Black Keys

The Tour Rehearsal Tapes

Nonesuch

Pop/Rock

A fun little EP of the Black Keys running through selections from El Camino and Brothers prior to going on tour.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Renaud Capuçon / Daniel Harding

Brahms, Berg: Violin Concertos

Erato / Virgin Classics

Classical

Renaud Capuçon's recording of the Brahms and Berg violin concertos makes this an attractive release for Virgin Classics.

— Blair Sanderson

Chris Mann

Roads

Republic / Universal Music / Universal Republic

Vocal, Classical

Showcases the burnished pop and classical vocals that helped him finish second on the 2012 season of The Voice.

— Matt Collar

Neurosis

Honor Found in Decay

Neurot Recordings

Pop/Rock

The tenth studio album from the Bay Area drone/folk-metal cult heroes is both ominous and grand.

— James Christopher Monger

Cradle of Filth

The Manticore and Other Horrors

Nuclear Blast

Pop/Rock

On Manticore and Other Horrors, Cradle of Filth look back to their root sound for inspiration and come up with a winner.

— Thom Jurek

Dada Life

The Rules of Dada

So Much Dada

Electronic

Big room beats meet snarky humor on the Swedish EDM duo's fun and flippant 2012 release.

— David Jeffries

Streetwize

Feelin' Sexy

Shanachie

Jazz

Waters has built a niche around interpreting these modern-day R&B standards and urban pop hits into relaxing, sexy background jams.

— Matt Collar

Indian Handcrafts

Civil Disobedience for Losers

Sargent House

Pop/Rock

Canadian psych-sludge duo Indian Handcrafts blow speakers and minds in equal numbers on Civil Disobedience for Losers.

— Gregory Heaney

Alisa Weilerstein / Daniel Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin

Elgar & Carter: Cello Concertos

Decca

Classical

Cello virtuoso Alisa Weilerstein and Daniel Barenboim present major works for cello and orchestra by Elgar, Carter, and Bruch.

— Blair Sanderson

Rusted Root

The Movement

Shanachie

Pop/Rock

The Movement finds Rusted Root at their most playful, tight, and focused.

— Thom Jurek

Parkway Drive

Atlas

Epitaph

Pop/Rock

The fourth album from this Australian metalcore act strays away from the traditional devices of the genre, with adventurous production and instrumentation.

— Fred Thomas

Various Artists

Holidays Rule

Hear Music

Holiday, Pop/Rock

A diverse cross section of artists ranging from Holly Golightly to Paul McCartney contributes to this lively collection of holiday tunes.

— Fred Thomas

Doris Day

Complete Christmas Collection

Columbia / Real Gone Music

Vocal, Holiday

The entirety of 1964's Christmas album plus 10 rare holiday songs recorded from 1946 to 1959.

— Charity Stafford

Katherine Jenkins

This Is Christmas

Reprise

Holiday

The Welsh mezzo-soprano's first official holiday album burns with the warmth of a thousand fireplaces.

— James Christopher Monger

Rita Coolidge

A Rita Coolidge Christmas

429 Records / Savoy / Savoy Jazz

Holiday

This Christmas set, Rita Coolidge's first new album since 2005's And So Is Love, fits and flows together like a warm holiday quilt.

— Steve Leggett

Smash Mouth

The Gift of Rock

429 Records

Holiday, Pop/Rock

The California outfit applies its exuberant brand of pop-punk to a handful of upbeat Christmas rockers.

— Matt Collar

Run-D.M.C.

The Essential Run-D.M.C.

Legacy

Rap

This thoughtful two-disc compilation features every necessary Run-D.M.C. track.

— Andy Kellman

Martina McBride

The Essential Martina McBride

Legacy / RCA

Country

This set collects the hits and other important tracks from Martina McBride's career, and they show a singer with accessibility and grace.

— Steve Leggett

Jefferson Airplane / Jefferson Starship / Starship

The Essential

Legacy / RCA

Pop/Rock

There's a lot of good stuff here, even if it sounds like it's from three different bands -- it's how the story went.

— Steve Leggett

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