One Direction

Four

Syco Music

Pop/Rock

The group's fourth strong album in four years is filled with '80s-influenced pop, melancholic love songs, and a handful of ballads.

— Tim Sendra

Ariel Pink

Pom Pom

4AD

Pop/Rock

Pink's first official solo album features some of his most engaging pop and some of his most aggressively weird music.

— Heather Phares

Bryan Ferry

Avonmore

BMG / BMG Rights Management

Pop/Rock

A cannily seductive revival of Ferry's exquisitely melancholic and danceable '80s sound.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

David Bowie

Nothing Has Changed [Bonus Disc]

Columbia / Legacy

Pop/Rock

Thanks to its expansive track listing and reverse sequencing, this three-CD set presents a new perspective on Bowie's career.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

TV on the Radio

Seeds

Harvest

Pop/Rock

The band returns after the loss of bassist Gerard Smith with their most streamlined and empowering set of songs yet.

Joni Mitchell

Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced

Elektra / Rhino

Pop/Rock, Jazz

Four-disc box set offers the celebrated singer/songwriter's own unique take on her extensive catalog of music.

— Mark Deming

Various Artists

The Art of McCartney

Arctic Poppy

Pop/Rock

The stumbles on this overly generous, star-studded tribute to the Beatle are outweighed by moments of delight.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Wilco

Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014

Nonesuch

Pop/Rock

Features 77 rare non-LP tracks that follow how Jeff Tweedy's band grew and evolved during its first 20 years in the studio and on-stage.

— Mark Deming

Wilco

What's Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994-2014

Nonesuch

Pop/Rock

The "greatest hits" of a band that hasn't scored a hit, this set features 38 memorable songs from this acclaimed, eclectic group.

— Mark Deming

Thompson

Family

Fantasy

Pop/Rock

Remarkable collaborative album featuring members of one of the most celebrated families in U.K. folk-rock.

— Mark Deming

Peter Brewis / Paul Smith

Frozen by Sight

Memphis Industries

Pop/Rock

Collaboration between Maximo Park singer and Field Music brothers yields artful, beautifully arranged pop for deep thinkers.

— Tim Sendra

Bo Ningen / Savages

Words to the Blind

Pop Noire / Stolen

Pop/Rock

The bands bring out the experimental best in each other on this surging, partly improvised performance.

— Heather Phares

Ty Segall

$ingle$ 2

Drag City

Pop/Rock

Ripping collection of the prolific garage punk's singles, B-sides, and covers from the years 2011 through 2013.

— Tim Sendra

Buzzcocks

The Way

1234 Records

Pop/Rock

U.K. punk icons sound tight and professional on their ninth studio album, but the final product feels stale and uninspired.

— Mark Deming

Nickelback

No Fixed Address

Republic

Pop/Rock

Chad Kroeger abandons post-grunge for power ballads, disco-rock, and EDM flirtations on Nickelback's best record to date.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Trisha Yearwood

Prizefighter: Hit After Hit

Gwendolyn / RCA Nashville

Country

Six new songs combined with ten old hits provide an effective reminder of Yearwood's strengths.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Kristin Chenoweth

Coming Home

Concord Records (Canada)

Vocal, Pop/Rock, Stage & Screen

The singer's first-ever live album was recorded in her Oklahoma hometown and offers an aural autobiography.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Fugazi

First Demo

Dischord Records

Pop/Rock

The seeds of future greatness are present in these vibrant 1988 demo recordings from the legendary D.C. punk heroes.

— Fred Thomas

The Saints

King of the Sun/King of the Midnight Sun

Fire Records

Pop/Rock

This re-release of the iconic Australian band's 2012 album offers two very different takes on the same set of songs.

— Mark Deming

Robert Wyatt

Different Every Time

Domino

Pop/Rock

This wonderful double-disc companion to Marcus O'Dair's biography is the first to authoritatively compile his solo and collaborative work.

— Thom Jurek

Loscil

Sea Island

Kranky

Electronic, Avant-Garde

Incorporating piano, violin, and vocals, the follow-up to Sketches from New Brighton builds on its riveting, sometimes unsettling, mood.

— Heather Phares

Machinedrum

Vapor City Archives

Ninja Tune

Electronic

No mere scrap collection, this ends Travis Stewart's Vapor City concept with more of his alluring house, drum'n'bass, juke, and bass-music hybrids.

— Andy Kellman

Manchester Orchestra

Hope

Favorite Gentlemen / Loma Vista

Pop/Rock

A full-length album of acoustic reworkings of songs from 2014's Cope.

— Matt Collar

Nothing / Whirr

Split EP

Run for Cover Records

Pop/Rock

Two of the best shoegaze-noise rock bands of 2014 split an EP, with no clear winner except fans of melodic dream pop with loud guitars.

— Tim Sendra

Art Department

Natural Selection

No. 19 Music

Electronic

A fascinating mix of next generation and retro, the dark Canadian duo's sophomore release is a synth pop and avant house wonder.

— David Jeffries

Old 97's

Hitchhike to Rhome [20th Anniversary Edition] [Bonus Tracks]

Omnivore

Pop/Rock, Country

Debut album from the Dallas alt-country band is a spirited rough draft of their distinctive approach to roots rock.

— Mark Deming

The Ghost Inside

Dear Youth

Epitaph

Pop/Rock

Tightly wound, muscular, old-school screamo blasts of aggression with a punk-metal center.

— James Christopher Monger

Devo

Miracle Witness: Live in Ohio 1977

Futurismo

Pop/Rock

The band is captured at a 1977 gig in one of Cleveland's more surly biker bars.

— David Jeffries

Diarrhea Planet

Aliens in the Outfield

Infinity Cat Recordings

Pop/Rock

Five-song EP from these Nashville guitar shredders finds them moving into slightly dreamier songwriting styles.

— Fred Thomas

Duct Tape

Less We Can

BBE

Electronic, R&B

Two electro ex-pats based in Berlin get funky and way weird on this lark of an album.

— David Jeffries

Fishboy

An Elephant

Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records

Pop/Rock

Taking on the story of Topsy the Elephant, the band delivers a rip-roaring, hook-filled concept album.

— Tim Sendra

Fryars

Power

Fiction

Electronic, Pop/Rock

The British artist's ambitious sci-fi concept album touches upon neo-psych, R&B, baroque pop, and EDM.

— Matt Collar

Brooke Fraser

Brutal Romantic

BMG / Vagrant

Pop/Rock

On her fourth LP, the Kiwi star commits to a dark new pop sound full of drama and intensity.

— Timothy Monger

Christian Scott

Christian Scott Collection

Concord Jazz

Jazz

Compilation showcasing the adventurous jazz trumpeter's albums for Concord.

— Matt Collar

Exit Verse

Exit Verse

Ernest Jenning

Pop/Rock

New power trio marks the return of ex-Karate songwriter Geoff Farina to springy rock sounds.

— Fred Thomas

Girlpool

Girlpool

Wichita

Pop/Rock

Teenage guitar-and-bass punk duo from L.A. delivers a strong debut with heaps of attitude.

— Timothy Monger

Lace Curtains

A Signed Piece of Paper

Female Fantasy

Pop/Rock

A genre-hopping, slightly disjointed (yet stuffed) horn of plenty from ex-Harlem frontman Michael Coomers.

— James Christopher Monger

Legendary Wings

Do You See

Dirtnap Records

Pop/Rock

Second album from Kalamazoo-based punk trio is a simple and satisfying exercise in solid old-school stomp.

— Mark Deming

Monster Magnet

Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Last Patrol

Napalm Records

Pop/Rock

An alternate universe version of the group's tenth studio album that dials up its psychedelic tendencies considerably.

— James Christopher Monger

Rhyton

Kykeon

Thrill Jockey

Pop/Rock

Third album from Brooklyn psych improvisers sees upgrades in both clarity and collective vision.

— Fred Thomas

The Memories

Hot Afternoon

Burger Records

Pop/Rock

The lo-fi stoner pop act from Portland goes mid-fi under the direction of producer Sonny Smith.

— Timothy Monger

Various Artists

Disco: A Fine Selection of Independent Disco, Modern Soul and Boogie 1978-82

Soul Jazz

R&B

Companion to a large disco artwork book, released by the reliable Soul Jazz label, that features several cuts previously unavailable on CD.

— Andy Kellman

Various Artists

While No One Was Looking: Toasting 20 Years of Bloodshot Records

Bloodshot

Pop/Rock, Country

38 artists play their favorite songs from the catalog of Chicago's long-running "Insurgent Country" label.

— Mark Deming

William Onyeabor

LP Boxset 2 [CD Version]

Luaka Bop

International, R&B

All of the mysterious and mercurial African electronic musical genius' impossibly rare studio albums in one place. Essential.

— Thom Jurek

Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London / Felicity Lott / Rupert Gough

Hymns to Saint Cecilia

Hyperion

Classical

This program is novel, reaching back to Elgar and Vaughan Williams and forward to a works by James MacMillan and Gabriel Jackson.

— James Manheim

Hansjörg Albrecht

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Oehms Classics

Classical

Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and the Rákóczi March are played by Hansjörg Albrecht on the organ in the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center.

— Blair Sanderson

Alexandre Tharaud

Mozart, Haydn: Jeunehomme

Erato

Classical

Tharaud's approach is reminiscent of the old days with the major symphony orchestras: big sound, expansive phrasing, and use of the pedal liberal.

— James Manheim

The King's Singers

Postcards

Signum Classics

Classical, Vocal

This an unusually satisfying and enjoyable release even by the high standards of these perennial favorites.

— James Manheim

David Curtis / Orchestra of the Swan / Tamsin Waley-Cohen

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending; Violin Concerto; Elgar: Introduction and Allegro; Serenade for Strings

Signum Classics

Classical

Vaughan Williams' Violin Concerto is underplayed, but Tamsin Waley-Cohen gives it a performance that should secure it in the repertoire.

— Blair Sanderson

Jonathan Plowright

Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 2; Variations; Three Intermezzi; Scherzo

BIS

Classical

Plowright's style here is delicate, sensitive, and extremely precise, able to express fine details and shades.

— James Manheim

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