Featured New Album Releases

Owl City

Mobile Orchestra

Island / Republic

Electronic, Pop/Rock

Adam Young's fifth album finds him incorporating EDM, country, and '90s pop into his distinctive electro-pop.

— Heather Phares

Various Artists

Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone

Columbia / RCA

R&B, Jazz

An excellent and free-form tribute featuring Lauryn Hill, Robert Glasper, Usher, Mary J. Blige, and others.

— David Jeffries

Veruca Salt

Ghost Notes

El Camino Records

Pop/Rock

Seventeen years after their last album together, the band's original lineup reunites for a consistently enjoyable set of songs about falling apart.

— Heather Phares

Ghostface Killah / Adrian Younge

Adrian Younge Presents Twelve Reasons to Die II

Linear Labs

Rap

The Wu-Tang rapper reunites with film composer Younge for this excellent sequel, which features a new nemesis.

— David Jeffries

Ezra Furman

Perpetual Motion People

Bella Union

Pop/Rock

The frenetic Chicagoan offers a brilliant and colorful field guide to her personal chaos on this doo wop-inspired third LP.

— Timothy Monger

Stacy Barthe

BEcoming

Motown

R&B

Co-writer of hits for Rihanna and Miley Cyrus delivers a fine, rare major-label R&B album for introverts.

— Andy Kellman

EZTV

Calling Out

Captured Tracks

Pop/Rock

Full of breezily bittersweet power pop, the Brooklyn trio's debut feels like a long-lost classic.

— Heather Phares

R5

Sometime Last Night [Bonus Track]

Hollywood

Pop/Rock

The band's second album shows some artistic growth while delivering plenty of modern pop fun.

— Tim Sendra

Flying Saucer Attack

Instrumentals 2015

Domino

Pop/Rock

Veteran U.K. space rock project resurfaces after 15 years with an album of atmospheric guitar explorations.

— Paul Simpson

Little Boots

Working Girl

Dim Mak / WEA

Electronic

Pulsing disco beats and icy synths underscore this smart, feminist concept album.

— Matt Collar

Lee Bannon

Pattern of Excel

Ninja Tune

Electronic

Genre-defying producer Lee Bannon shifts away from hip-hop and jungle, entering the realm of experimental ambient/drone.

— Paul Simpson

Four Tet

Morning/Evening

Text

Electronic

A pair of side-long ambient/techno pieces from Kieran Hebden that reward casual listening.

— Andy Kellman

Anneli Drecker

Rocks & Straws

Rune Grammofon

Pop/Rock

On her first solo album in a decade, the former Bel Canto vocalist/songwriter turns in an elegant tour de force.

— Thom Jurek

Best Friends

Hot. Reckless. Totally Insane.

FatCat Records

Pop/Rock

The U.K. quartet's debut album is a lighthearted, joyful romp through the indie rock of the '90s and the garage pop of the 2010s.

— Tim Sendra

The Smoking Trees

TST

Ample Play

Pop/Rock

The West Coast duo's second record is a relaxed and calming modern-day psych-pop masterpiece.

— Tim Sendra

Between the Buried and Me

Coma Ecliptic

Metal Blade

Pop/Rock

This concept record reveals the adventurous metal band at their most accessible while still exploring new musical terrain.

— Thom Jurek

Simon Ankenman / Trevor Baird / Mac DeMarco / Pierce McGarry / Joe McMurray / Mathew Sharpe / Walter TV

Blessed

Sinderlyn

Pop/Rock

The Montreal group offers up a sophomore effort of tone-bright art-pop and lo-fi garage slack.

— Timothy Monger

Duke Ellington / Duke Ellington & His Orchestra

The Conny Plank Session

Groenland

Jazz

A near mythical collaboration between the great bandleader and the German engineer finally surfaces.

— Thom Jurek

Anderson East

Delilah

Elektra

Pop/Rock

Modern-day blue-eyed soul singer reveals he's a very impressive vocalist and a pretty good songwriter.

— Mark Deming

Negative Scanner

Trouble in Mind

Pop/Rock

Chicago post-punkers deliver a fiery debut.

— Heather Phares

Westkust

Last Forever

Run for Cover Records

Pop/Rock

The Swedish shoegaze band debuts with an impressive album that flawlessly meshes noise and melody into a beguiling mix of sound and feeling.

— Tim Sendra

Richard Buckner

The Hill

Merge

Folk, Pop/Rock, Country

Remastered edition of this striking, eclectic musical adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters' poetry collection Spoon River Anthology.

— Mark Deming

Prefuse 73

Every Color of Darkness

Temporary Residence

Electronic

The last in Guillermo Herren's spate of 2015 releases for Temporary Residence, a 20-minute EP laced with stupefying transient sounds.

— Andy Kellman

What's Eating Gilbert

That New Sound You're Looking For

Hopeless Records

Pop/Rock

New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert's retro-rock album delivers with a fun set of power pop tunes.

— Timothy Monger

Years & Years

Communion

Interscope / Polydor

Pop/Rock

Avant-garde electronic sounds and groove-oriented R&B combine on the British trio's stellar debut.

— Matt Collar

The Beautiful Bodies

Battles

Epitaph

Pop/Rock

Fun if somewhat featherweight debut from the Kansas City emo-pop outfit.

— Matt Collar

Cradle of Filth

Hammer of the Witches

Nuclear Blast

Pop/Rock

After three years and personnel changes, England's symphonic extreme metal horde return creatively rejuvenated.

— Thom Jurek

Datura4

Demon Blues

Alive / Alive Naturalsound Records / Alive Records

Pop/Rock

Retro-style rock from this Australian band that delivers boogie, blues, psychedelia, and non-metal heaviness.

— Mark Deming

Envy

Atheist's Cornea

Temporary Residence

Pop/Rock

Japanese emo/post-rock quintet Envy's first full-length in five years is their shortest, most direct album since their early hardcore era.

— Paul Simpson

Gossamer

Automaton

Innovative Leisure

Electronic

Evan Reiner's debut features delicately arranged beats and lush melodies combined with found sounds gathered over a two-year period.

— Paul Simpson

Hunter Hunted

Ready for You

RCA

Pop/Rock

A meaty set of hook-laden, stadium-ready electro-pop that evokes names like Imagine Dragons, Walk the Moon, and Passion Pit.

— James Christopher Monger

Matrixxman

Homesick

Ghostly International

Electronic

San Francisco-based acid house producer explores technological paranoia on his debut full-length release for Ghostly International.

— Paul Simpson

Nap Eyes

Whine of the Mystic

Paradise of Bachelors / You've Changed Records

Pop/Rock

Promising debut from Canadian band that draws equally from dusty Americana and scrappy, New Zealand-inspired indie rock.

— Tim Sendra

The Pointed Sticks

Pointed Sticks

Sudden Death

Pop/Rock

Vancouver new wave heroes mature gracefully on an album that shows they're as smart, witty, and tuneful as ever.

— Mark Deming

Sea of Bees

Build a Boat to the Sun

3 Loop Music

Pop/Rock

Armed with full-band instrumentation, Julie Baenziger returns after three years with the contemplative but decidedly more upbeat third Sea of Bees LP.

— Marcy Donelson

Spraynard

Mable

Jade Tree Records

Pop/Rock

The Pennsylvania pop-punk trio returns from its hiatus with a near-wistful set of suburban heartache.

— Timothy Monger

Stereo Total

Yeye Existentialiste

Blow Up Records / Blow Up Records

Pop/Rock

A celebration of two decades' worth of the duo's cheap and chic pop.

— Heather Phares

Steven Isserlis / Stephen Hough

Mendelssohn, Grieg, Hough: Cello Sonatas

Hyperion

Classical

Mendelssohn's sonata is given an energetic, driving performance, and the entire album is satisfying. But the Grieg is the real news here.

— James Manheim

The Sixteen / Harry Christophers

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Vol. 6

Coro

Classical

This is a good place to start with the Sixteen's series, but also a Palestrina recording that's going to be heard for a very long time.

— James Manheim

Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen

Haydn: Sinfonia concertante; Mozart: Concertos

Hyperion

Classical

The list of things to be enthusiastic about here is long, but it begins with the differentiation of the instruments in the solo passages.

— James Manheim

Album cover for Carl Nielsen: Violin Concerto; Flute Concerto; Clarinet Concerto by Robert Langevin / Anthony McGill / Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider / Alan Gilbert / New York Philharmonic

Robert Langevin / Anthony McGill / Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider / Alan Gilbert / New York Philharmonic

Carl Nielsen: Violin Concerto; Flute Concerto; Clarinet Concerto

Dacapo

Classical

Nielsen's Violin Concerto, Flute Concerto, and Clarinet Concerto complete Alan Gilbert's audiophile set with the New York Philharmonic on DaCapo.

— Blair Sanderson

Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick: The Wild Beasts

Wergo

Classical

Morton Subotnick's After the Butterfly and The Wild Beasts feature the modified sounds of voices and instrumenaltists through gestural sketches on tape.

— Blair Sanderson