5 Seconds of Summer

5 Seconds of Summer

Capitol

Pop/Rock

High-energy, sugary-sweet, guitar-based pop from the Australian four-piece.

— Matt Collar

La Roux

Trouble in Paradise

Cherrytree Records / Interscope / Polydor

Pop/Rock

Five years after her influential electro-pop debut, Elly Jackson returns with a set of vulnerable, disco and reggae-inspired songs.

— Heather Phares

Common

Nobody's Smiling

Def Jam

Rap

Strengthened by intense productions from No I.D. and appearances from fellow Chicago natives, this is some of the rapper's heaviest, hardest work.

— Andy Kellman

The Raveonettes

Pe'ahi

Beat Dies Records

Pop/Rock

The duo's excellent seventh album is more proof that they are the premiere noise pop group of their era.

— Tim Sendra

The Muffs

Whoop Dee Doo

Cherry Red

Pop/Rock

Kim Shattuck bounces back from her brief run with the Pixies with her band's best and hookiest album in ages.

— Mark Deming

Freeman

Freeman

Partisan / PTKF

Pop/Rock

The beguiling Freeman is a soft, melodic hybrid of Y2K Ween and early Paul McCartney.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Jesse McCartney

In Technicolor

808 Records

Pop/Rock

The Justin Timberlake disciple improves on The 20/20 Experience by making it a pop album.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

ZZ Top

The Very Baddest of ZZ Top [One-CD]

Rhino / Warner Bros.

Pop/Rock

Solid collection of the best, biggest, and baddest from that lil' ol' band from Texas.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Kaskade

I Remember

Ultra Records

Electronic

A companion to the 2004 set Here & Now, this compilation rounds up the progressive house producer's years on Ultra.

— David Jeffries

Overkill

White Devil Armory [Bonus Tracks]

eOne / Nuclear Blast

Pop/Rock

Overkill continue their riff-fueled renaissance on their searing 17th studio album.

— Gregory Heaney

Anberlin

Lowborn

Tooth & Nail

Pop/Rock

The seventh and final studio album from the Florida outfit features a darker, electronic-tinged sound.

— Matt Collar

La Hell Gang

Thru Me Again

Mexican Summer

Pop/Rock

The Chilean band's second album trades hard-charging garage rock for sounds rooted in stoner rock and shoegaze.

— Heather Phares

PS I Love You

For Those Who Stay

Paper Bag Records

Pop/Rock

A shimmering, cacophonous, and often glorious mess of an album that subverts most guitar-and-drum-duo tropes.

— James Christopher Monger

Bobby Patterson

I Got More Soul!

Omnivore

R&B

Veteran Texas soul man shows he can write, sing, and swagger just as he did in the '60s and 70s on this strong comeback effort.

— Mark Deming

King Creosote

From Scotland with Love

Domino

Pop/Rock

The Scottish folksinger has delivered his most focused and detailed record with this moving soundtrack to director Virginia Heath's historical documentary.

— Timothy Monger

King of Asgard

Karg

Metal Blade

Pop/Rock

Karg's third album finds the band blending ominous doom with bone-chilling black metal to create their bleak and punishing Viking metal sound.

— Gregory Heaney

Martyrdöd

Elddop

Southern Lord Records

Pop/Rock

On its fifth -- and best -- full-length, the Swedish d-beat crustpunks keep the aggression level high while expanding their sonic reach.

— Thom Jurek

RX Bandits

Gemini, Her Majesty

Mashdown Babylon / MDB Records

Pop/Rock

Veteran third wave ska act drops the horns and moves in a more progressive direction on its seventh studio album.

— Mark Deming

Yes

Heaven & Earth

Frontiers Records

Pop/Rock

In its 46th year, the British quintet employs producer Roy Thomas Baker, and all but give up prog rock in search of adult-oriented pop.

— Thom Jurek

Sugar Stems

Only Come Out at Night

Dirtnap Records

Pop/Rock

Wisconsin-based band delivers some sweet but spirited power pop on album number four.

— Mark Deming

Matthew Young

Recurring Dreams

Drag City

Pop/Rock, Electronic

Four years after the re-release of 1986's Traveler's Advisory, the composer's excellent debut album from 1981 is reissued.

— Thom Jurek

Dave Douglas / Uri Caine

Present Joys

Green Leaf / Greenleaf Music

Jazz

Duo album inspired by Sacred Harp music featuring trumpeter Douglas and keyboardist Caine.

— Matt Collar

Entrails

Resurrected from the Grave: Demo Collection

Metal Blade

Pop/Rock

The Swedish death metal purveyors resurrect two early, extremely limited-run demos on this collection from Metal Blade Records.

— Gregory Heaney

Fire! Orchestra

Enter

Rune Grammofon

Jazz

Nordic supergroup is a jazz-tinged, kaleidoscopic sonic adventure.

Got a Girl

I Love You But I Must Drive Off This Cliff Now

Bulk Recordings

Pop/Rock

A stylized set of retro French pop and lounge-influenced tunes from duo featuring Dan "The Automator" Nakamura and actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

— Timothy Monger

Nico Vega

Lead to Light

Five Seven Music

Pop/Rock

L.A. alt-rock trio offer a second album that trades some of their snarl for pop-leaning singles with uneven results.

— Timothy Monger

Anti-Flag

A Document of Dissent: 1993-2013

Fat Wreck Chords

Pop/Rock

Two decades of social and political unrest are archived on Anti-Flag's career-spanning best-of compilation.

— Gregory Heaney

Kodomo

Patterns & Light

Kodomo

Electronic

Chris Child's melodic IDM goes in a slightly different direction with the incorporation of samples from assorted classical recordings.

— Andy Kellman

Lee "Scratch" Perry

Master Piece

Born Free / Megawave Records / Wienerworld

Reggae

An EP's worth of odd chants, loose music, and electronic reggae with appeal for the hardcore Perry fan.

— David Jeffries

Monomyth

Saturnalia Regalia!

Mint / Mint Records

Pop/Rock

Excellent debut from Halifax indie rockers who meet at the point where Sloan's hooks and Eric's Trip's noisy scruff intersect.

— Tim Sendra

The National Jazz Trio of Scotland

Standards, Vol. III

Karaoke Kalk

Pop/Rock

Simple, streamlined fusion of keyboards, electronics, and voices that manages to be charming and powerful.

— Mark Deming

Neil Hamburger

First of Dismay

Drag City

Comedy/Spoken

Half comedy-filled music, half mucus-filled comedy, the conceptual comedian is as awful and as excellent as ever.

— David Jeffries

OBN IIIs

Live in San Francisco

Castle Face

Pop/Rock

Texas-based garage punks explode like a brick of firecrackers on this live disc, recorded during a frantic 2013 Bay Area gig.

— Mark Deming

The Ramona Flowers

Dismantle and Rebuild

Distiller

Pop/Rock

Debut album from English quintet falls somewhere between low-key indie electro fare and arena-ready alt-rock.

— Fred Thomas

Lawrence Power / Simon Crawford-Phillips

Arthur Benjamin: Violin Sonatina; Viola Sonata

Hyperion

Classical

Violin and viola music by an obscure Australian-British composer during this era might not make most must-have lists, but this is a gem.

— James Manheim

Ronald Brautigam

Beethoven: The Rage Over a Lost Penny; Rondos & Klavierstücke

BIS

Classical

This is the 13th in Brautigam's series and as a whole is a pleasurable tour through some of the back hallways of his music.

— James Manheim

Various Artists

Richard Strauss: Complete Works for Voice and Piano

TwoPianists

Classical

To mark his 150th anniversary, Richard Strauss' extant songs and melodramas have been recorded under the direction of Brigitte Fassbaender.

— Blair Sanderson

Kazuki Yamada / L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

R. Strauss, Liszt, Korngold, Busoni, Schreker

PentaTone Classics

Classical

Kazuki Yamada and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande present a sonic extravaganza of post-Romantic dance music.

— Blair Sanderson

Michèle Gurdal

Extase: Études for Piano by Alexander Scriabin

Challenge Classics

Classical

For her debut on Challenge Classics, Michèle Gurdal presents an exciting survey of Scriabin's dazzling etudes for piano.

— Blair Sanderson

The King's Consort

Purcell: Ten Sonatas in Four Parts

Vivat

Classical

The Vivat label gets the edge here with its near-ideal small-auditorium sound. A very strong choice for Purcell fans.

— James Manheim

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