Kacey Musgraves

Pageant Material

Decca / Mercury / Mercury Nashville / Nashville

Country

Acclaimed country singer/songwriter digs deeper on her gorgeous second album.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Richard Thompson

Still

Fantasy

Pop/Rock, Folk

The British folk-rock icon goes into the studio with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, who helps him sound just like himself.

— Mark Deming

Bully

Feels Like

Columbia / Startime

Pop/Rock

Nashville-based band has seemingly passed through a time warp from the heyday of indie rock and grunge into 2015.

— Mark Deming

Son Lux

Bones

Glassnote Entertainment Group

Pop/Rock

Idiosyncratic rhythms, startling anthems, unsettling lyrics, and organic-mechanical timbres form a bold, inventive, unshakably dystopian-feeling LP.

— Marcy Donelson

Leon Bridges

Coming Home

Columbia

R&B

The young retro-soul artist, supported by two members of White Denim, nails an early-'60s R&B sound in understated fashion.

— Andy Kellman

The Rolling Stones

From the Vault: The Marquee Club Live in 1971 [CD/DVD]

Eagle Rock / Eagle Vision

Pop/Rock

Tight, hard-rocking, and hard-grooving set given at the Marquee Club a month before the release of Sticky Fingers.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Cairo Gang

Goes Missing

God?

Pop/Rock

Chiming guitars, melancholic tunes, and loads of jingle-jangle '60s-inspired goodness on the band's second album.

— Tim Sendra

Linden

Rest and Be Thankful

Slumberland

Pop/Rock

Joe McAlinden's second solo effort is a delight of appealingly age-worn sunshine guitar pop.

— Timothy Monger

Trey Songz

Trigga [Bonus Tracks]

Atlantic

R&B

Almost exactly a year after its original release, the singer's sixth album is expanded with five new songs.

— Andy Kellman

The Membranes

Dark Matter/Dark Energy

Cherry Red

Pop/Rock

First album since 1989 from the British post-punk noise brigade shows they're still in command of their brand of aural chaos.

— Mark Deming

The Orb

Moonbuilding 2703 AD

Kompakt

Electronic

Paterson and Fehlmann return to the Kompakt label for four sprawling, easy-flowing tracks that offer first-rate dub techno and a little hip-hop.

— Andy Kellman

The Royal Jesters

English Oldies

Numero Group

R&B

Crucial round-up of San Antonio's premier Chicano soul group, something of a sequel to Numero's anthology of the Dynamic label.

— Andy Kellman

Meg Baird

Don't Weigh Down the Light

Drag City

Pop/Rock, Folk

On her third solo album the songwriter streamlines her process to ascend to a new creative level in both singing and composition.

— Thom Jurek

Hardy and the Hardknocks / T. Hardy Morris

Drownin on a Mountaintop

Dangerbird Records

Pop/Rock

Opening salvo from T. Hardy Morris' band is a set of raucous country-rock that kicks like an amped-up garage band.

— Mark Deming

Smokey

How Far Will You Go: The S&M Recordings, 1973-81

Chapter Music

Pop/Rock

Wild collection documenting the little-known career of L.A.'s most out-of-the-closet rock band of the '70s.

— Mark Deming

Parlour Tricks

Broken Hearts/Bones

Bar/None Records

Pop/Rock

Elegant and affable indie pop with three-part female vocal harmonies led by Lily Cato's luxurious tone over danceable rhythms.

— Marcy Donelson

The Acorn

Vieux Loup

Paper Bag Records

Pop/Rock

First release in five years from the Canadian indie-folk ensemble is sparser, subtler, and more electronic-tinged than its predecessors.

— Paul Simpson

Wolf Alice

My Love Is Cool

Dirty Hit / RCA

Pop/Rock

The band's long-awaited debut album fleshes out their fiery rock with touches of anthemic dream pop.

— Heather Phares

Jamison Ross

Jamison

Concord Jazz

Jazz

Impressive gospel and R&B-infused debut from the 25th Annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition-winning drummer/vocalist.

— Matt Collar

Breaking Benjamin

Dark Before Dawn [Bonus Track]

Hollywood

Pop/Rock

The fifth studio long-player and first outing from the group to rely on the talents of a more or less completely new lineup.

— James Christopher Monger

Desaparecidos

Payola

Epitaph

Pop/Rock

Socio-political punk rock anthems shot through with enough pure '70s power pop acumen to ignite every lighter in the Nippon Budokan.

— James Christopher Monger

Elijah Blake

Shadows & Diamonds

Def Jam

R&B

Occasionally frustrating, ultimately promising debut from the co-songwriter of Usher's number one R&B hit "Climax."

— Andy Kellman

Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams

Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams

Red House / Red House Records

Pop/Rock

After nearly three decades of marriage, this professional couple delivers a righteous debut album.

— Thom Jurek

Fist City

Everything Is a Mess

Transgressive

Pop/Rock

Scrappy noise rock from Canada with lots of great guitar work and nicely strangled vocals.

— Tim Sendra

Tough Age

I Get the Feeling Central

Mint

Pop/Rock

Second album from these surf-happy Canadian garage punks shows how much good a couple years of touring can do.

— Mark Deming

The Units

Digital Stimulation

Futurismo

Pop/Rock

Debut album from a San Francisco-based performance art rock group who were retroactively credited as innovators of synth-punk.

— Paul Simpson

White Poppy

Natural Phenomena

Not Not Fun

Pop/Rock

Vancouver-based musician and artist Crystal Dorval refines her "therapeutic pop" style with her second proper full-length as White Poppy.

— Paul Simpson

Cayucas

Dancing at the Blue Lagoon

Secretly Canadian

Pop/Rock

Working with producer Ryan Hadlock, the Yudin brothers' second album gives their beachy indie rock a pristine polish.

— Heather Phares

Citizen

Everybody Is Going to Heaven

Run for Cover Records

Pop/Rock

The Midwestern indie outfit's intense second album ushers in a new era with dark, dissonant grooves and a brooding atmosphere.

— Timothy Monger

Class Actress

Movies

Casablanca / Universal

Pop/Rock

Disco-inspired, '80s-slick six-song EP executive produced by the legendary Giorgio Moroder.

— Tim Sendra

Corey Smith

While the Gettin' Is Good

Sugar Hill

Country, Pop/Rock

The affable, longtime D.I.Y. country tradtionalist's first outing with Sugar Hill.

— James Christopher Monger

Creepoid

Cemetery Highrise Slum

Collect Records

Pop/Rock

The Philadelphia band's brooding third LP is a textural pastiche of '90s-inspired shoegaze and grunge.

— Timothy Monger

Dave Douglas

High Risk

eOne / Greenleaf Music

Jazz

A hallucinatory and surprisingly organic collaboration between the trumpeter and electronic musician Shigeto.

— Matt Collar

De Lux

Generation

Innovative Leisure

Pop/Rock

The duo's second album of rubbery dance-punk offers a stylishly anxious soundtrack to quarter-life crises.

— Heather Phares

Everything Everything

Get to Heaven

RCA

Pop/Rock

Co-produced by Stuart Price, the band's third LP offers wall-to-wall dance-rock mired in 2010s Zeitgeist for their most focused release to date.

— Marcy Donelson

Last Days of April

Sea of Clouds

Tapete Records

Pop/Rock

The easygoing Swedish indie pop outfit's ninth full-length studio outing is pure Scandinavian Americana.

— James Christopher Monger

Lyfe Jennings

Tree of Lyfe

Relativity

R&B

The increasingly distinctive R&B singer, songwriter, and producer offers more wise Everyman observations on his sixth album.

— Andy Kellman

Susanna Ogata / Ian Watson

Beethoven: Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin, Vol. 1

Coro

Classical

The players' interpretation is so precisely done that there is an uncanny feeling of being close to how early audiences heard the work.

— James Manheim

Alina Ibragimova

Ysaÿe: Sonatas for Solo Violin

Hyperion

Classical

Alina Ibragimova's 2014 recording of Eugène Ysaÿe solo violin sonatas is concentrated in tone and polished in technique.

— Blair Sanderson

Simon Gaudenz / Odense Symphony Orchestra

Schumann: Symphonies

CPO

Classical

On this CPO release, Schumann's four symphonies are given focused performances by Simon Gaudenz and the Odense Symphony Orchestra.

— Blair Sanderson

Mahan Esfahani / Concerto Köln

Time Present and Time Past

Archiv Produktion

Classical

There's plenty to chew on here from one of the most daring figures in the modern harpsichord world.

— James Manheim

Philippe Jordan

Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé; La Valse

Erato

Classical

Philippe Jordan and the Orchestra and Choirs of the Paris National Opera present Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé and La valse in sumptuous sound.

— Blair Sanderson

ZOFO Duet

ZOFO Plays Terry Riley

Sono Luminus

Classical

A strong attraction here is the chance to sample some of the music Riley has written in the years since his epochal In C. Highly recommended.

— James Manheim

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