Featured New Album Releases

Rodney Crowell / Emmylou Harris

The Traveling Kind

Nonesuch

Country

The second duets album from these longtime friends and collaborators is sweet, heartfelt, and just rough enough to satisfy.

— Mark Deming

Surfer Blood

1000 Palms

Joyful Noise

Pop/Rock

The band returns to its indie roots, delivering chiming guitar pop that's strictly D.I.Y.

— Heather Phares

Rhett Miller

The Traveler

ATO / Maximum Sunshine

Pop/Rock

Sixth solo effort from the Old 97's frontman, who is joined in the studio by members of the Decemberists and R.E.M.

— Mark Deming

Snoop Dogg

Bush

Columbia

R&B, Rap

Pharrell executive produces an excellent throwback album of disco and funk-flavored party starters.

— David Jeffries

Róisín Murphy

Hairless Toys

Play It Again Sam

Pop/Rock

The former Moloko frontwoman's first album in eight years takes a tender, personal approach that's all the more powerful for its subtlety.

— Heather Phares

Tyondai Braxton

Hive1

Nonesuch / WEA

Electronic, Avant-Garde

Written for modular synths and percussion, the composer's delightfully mercurial second album is some of his most playful and audacious music yet.

— Heather Phares

The Tallest Man on Earth

Dark Bird Is Home

Dead Oceans

Pop/Rock

The Swedish singer/songwriter embraces a bigger, poppier sound on his fourth album that meshes nicely with his songs.

— Mark Deming

Crocodiles

Boys

Zoo Music

Pop/Rock

The scuzz pop duo continues to grow into a great pop band where the guitar noise is equaled by the sharp hooks and catchy choruses.

— Tim Sendra

Blanck Mass

Dumb Flesh

Sacred Bones

Pop/Rock

By turns ominous, poignant, and playful, Benjamin John Power's second full-length is a danceable memento mori.

— Heather Phares

Leonard Cohen

Can't Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour

Columbia / Legacy Recordings / Sony Music

Pop/Rock

The veteran singer/songwriter's fourth live album in six years reveals he's still a magnetic performer while pushing 80.

— Mark Deming

CHAPPO

Future Former Self

Votiv

Pop/Rock

Join our protagonist Rene on his journey through a black hole on this sassy, grooving, infectious concept album by the Brooklyn psych-rock quartet.

— Marcy Donelson

Prefuse 73

Rivington Não Rio

Temporary Residence

Electronic

Enhanced by Sam Dew, Rob Crow, and Helado Negro, the most substantial installment in a flurry of 2015 releases from Guillermo Herren.

— Andy Kellman

The Holydrug Couple / Ives Sepulveda

Moonlust

Sacred Bones

Pop/Rock

The Chilean duo embrace romantic '70s French pop and breezy cinema music on their second album.

— Thom Jurek

Chris Connelly

Decibels from Heart

Cleopatra

Pop/Rock

The Scott singer/songwriter explores his pop side (with help from six female duet partners) on this stellar offering.

— Thom Jurek

Juan Wauters

Who Me?

Captured Tracks

Pop/Rock

Second solo album from the former frontman of the Beets balances pleasant folk-rock with uneasy, self-questioning lyrics.

— Paul Simpson

Novella

Land

Sinderlyn

Pop/Rock

Debut full-length by the London dream pop band finds them assimilating their influences and creating something fresh and haunting.

— Tim Sendra

Warm Soda

Symbolic Dream

Castle Face

Pop/Rock

After revamping their lineup and moving to Austin, the AM-friendly power poppers return to form on their third album.

— Tim Sendra

Della Mae

Concord / Rounder / Rounder Records

Country

Della Mae's sophomore set is a deceptively dexterous and pleasurable roots record.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Flyying Colours

EPX2

Shelflife

Pop/Rock

Collection of the Australian shoegaze revivalist combo's first two EPs, 2014's Flyying Colours and 2015's ROYGBIV.

— Tim Sendra

Emika

Drei

Emika Records

Electronic

After the all-instrumental, mostly piano effort Klavírní, the artist returns with her third proper album of bewitching electro.

— David Jeffries

Guantanamo Baywatch

Darling...It's Too Late

Suicide Squeeze

Pop/Rock

Much improved second effort from these Portland surf punks and party enthusiasts.

— Mark Deming

Hard Left

We Are Hard Left [LP]

Future Perfect

Pop/Rock

Inspired, angry, and unapologetically leftist political punk from members of Lunchbox, Black Tambourine, and Boyracer.

— Tim Sendra

Smurphy

A Shapeless Pool of Lovely Pale Colours Suspended in the Darkness

Leaving Records

Pop/Rock

Astrologically inspired, dream-like collage album from the Mexican producer.

— Paul Simpson

Sóley

Ask the Deep

Morr Music

Pop/Rock

The Icelandic singer and multi-instrumentalist delivers a sophomore LP of elegant art pop that is moody and lonesome, yet warmly engaging.

— Timothy Monger

Steve Aoki

Neon Future, Vol. 2

Ultra / Ultra Records

Electronic

Rivers Cuomo, Snoop Dogg, and JJ Abrams join the producer on this varied blast of EDM.

— David Jeffries

White Eyes

Numero

Pop/Rock

Previously unreleased demo from lost Missouri psychedelic band; graceful tunes with sharp guitar work and stellar harmonies.

— Mark Deming

William Fitzsimmons

Pittsburgh

Groenland / Grönland

Pop/Rock

A sad, sweet, and spectral meditation on love and loss inspired by death of the singer/songwriter's grandmother.

— James Christopher Monger

Patrick Watson

Love Songs for Robots

Domino / Secret City Records

Pop/Rock

Ambient synths, lamenting guitars, and yearning falsetto achieve a strange melancholy, like a fictional chamber pop band from the Twin Peaks universe.

Pfarmers

Gunnera

Joyful Noise

Pop/Rock

Experimental rock by members of the National and Menomena explores timbre, texture, and rhythm in synth pop soundscapes.

— Marcy Donelson

Lakker

Tundra

R&S

Electronic

The Dublin techno duo's first R&S album incorporates assorted field recordings and voices to grim, bracing effect.

— Andy Kellman

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Power in the Blood

True North Records

Pop/Rock, Folk

On her first album in seven years, the songwriter delivers a bracing contemporary set of covers and new and revisioned songs.

— Thom Jurek

Banditos

Bloodshot

Pop/Rock, Country

Skillful but high-spirited fusion of roots rock, country, blues, jazz, and gospel on this Nashville band's impressive debut.

— Mark Deming

Barbarossa

Imager

Memphis Industries

Pop/Rock

Londoner James Mathé delivers a slow-burning, soulful set of late-night electronic pop on his third LP.

— Timothy Monger

Bernard + Edith

Jem

Bella Union

Pop/Rock

The underground Mancunian electronic duo offer up an appealingly moody and slightly menacing debut.

— Timothy Monger

Hinder

When the Smoke Clears

The End / End Records

Pop/Rock

With new singer Marshal Dutton, Hinder offer an ode to all the radio-ready sounds of the golden age of hair metal.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Icky Blossoms

Mask

Saddle Creek Records

Pop/Rock

The Nebraskan electro-pop trio return with a bigger, louder, and more fully realized sophomore effort.

— Timothy Monger

J.D. Souther

Tenderness

Masterworks / Sony Music

Pop/Rock, Jazz

On his Sony Masterworks debut, the enigmatic songwriter teams with Larry Klein and comes up with a gem.

— Thom Jurek

Seiji Ozawa / Boston Symphony Orchestra

Maurice Ravel: Orchestral Works

PentaTone Classics

Classical

Ozawa's quadraphonic recordings with the Boston Symphony of Ravel's orchestral works are an audiophile treat.

— Blair Sanderson

Ensemble Signal / Bradley Lubman

Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

Harmonia Mundi

Avant-Garde, Classical

Music for 18 Musicians, Steve Reich's minimalist masterpiece, receives a brilliant performance by Brad Lubman and Ensemble Signal.

— Blair Sanderson

Lara Downes

A Billie Holiday Songbook

Steinway & Sons

Classical

Distler takes music beyond what Gershwin did, aligning the arrangements with various classical models according to the mood of the text and of Holiday's singing.

— James Manheim