Featured New Album Releases

HAIM

Something to Tell You

Columbia / Sony Music

Pop/Rock

The trio's long-awaited second album doubles down on reassuring '80s and '90s mainstream pop influences.

— Heather Phares

Broken Social Scene

Hug of Thunder

Arts & Crafts

Pop/Rock

A dense, soul-searching blast of civic-minded indie rock/alt-pop comfort food.

— James Christopher Monger

Laura Nyro

A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection

Real Gone Music

Pop/Rock

This double-disc package offers painstaking mono remasters of Nyro's enduring first two albums and contains the artist's versions of many of the songs that established her.

— Thom Jurek

Chris Bell

Looking Forward: The Roots of Big Star

Omnivore

Pop/Rock

Recorded from 1969 to 1971, 22 rare tracks offer a look at what the underappreciated pop genius was doing before Big Star.

— Mark Deming

Toro y Moi

Boo Boo

Carpark Records

Pop/Rock, R&B

Turning away from the expansive power pop of What For?, this is a chilly batch of introspective post-R&B ballads, lightened by the occasional electro-funk jam.

— Tim Sendra

Little Barrie

Death Express

Non-Delux

Pop/Rock

By turns thunderous and moody, the London power trio's fifth album is their toughest and most immediate-sounding to date.

— Tim Sendra

Lucy Rose

Something's Changing

Communion

Pop/Rock

The English singer/songwriter's exquisite third studio LP is a welcome return to a more acoustic palette.

— Marcy Donelson

Prins Thomas / Bjørn Torske

Square One

Smalltown Supersound

Electronic

Low-key album of minimalist space disco from eclectic Norwegian producers Bjørn Torske and Prins Thomas.

— Paul Simpson

Offa Rex

The Queen of Hearts

Nonesuch

Pop/Rock

The debut collaboration between the Decemberists and Olivia Chaney is as committed a piece of retro-leaning English folk-rock as one could hope for.

— James Christopher Monger

k.d. lang

Ingénue [25th Anniversary Edition]

Nonesuch

Pop/Rock, Country

Canadian country traditionalist chucks the spurs in favor of a classic Tin Pan Alley pop approach.

Violent Femmes

2 Mics & the Truth

Add It Up

Pop/Rock

Warts-and-all live album from the veteran new wave act shows they still have plenty of scrappy energy left in them.

— Mark Deming

Public Service Broadcasting

Every Valley

PIAS

Pop/Rock, Electronic

Plunderphonic pop group Public Service Broadcasting integrate more vocals and acoustic instruments into their sample-heavy sound on their third album.

— Paul Simpson

Melvins

A Walk with Love & Death

Ipecac

Pop/Rock

Double album from the veteran heavy-mongers is one-half muscular heavy rock, one-half experimental noise collages.

— Mark Deming

Randall Bramblett

Juke Joint at the Edge of the World

New West

Pop/Rock

The singer and band deliver greasy, exotic, rootsy tunes as if performing live on the other side of midnight, where anything can happen.

— Thom Jurek

Sarah Jaffe

Bad Baby

Kirtland Records

Pop/Rock

The Texan electropop songstress delivers her most confident release to date.

— Timothy Monger

This Is the Kit

Moonshine Freeze

Rough Trade

Pop/Rock

This Is the Kit return with another fine collection following the success of 2015's Bashed Out.

— Bekki Bemrose

Dan Black

Do Not Revenge

Embassy of Music

Electronic, Pop/Rock

The wonky pop artist's second album features his kinetic production style as well as collaborations with Kelis and Imogen Heap.

— Heather Phares

Decapitated

Anticult

Nuclear Blast

Pop/Rock

Decapitated's seventh full-length delivers a lethal mix of blastbeats and brawny riffage that finds the sweet decaying spot between melody and destruction.

— James Christopher Monger

Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart / Jah Wobble

The Usual Suspects

3Ms

Jazz

The great bassist revisits his long career and some of his favorite tunes through a dazzling array of arrangements and genres.

— Thom Jurek

STRFKR

Vault, Vol. 2

Polyvinyl

Pop/Rock

The second of three installments of demos rescued from Josh Hodges' dying hard drive is coherent and again largely engaging, if fragmented.

— Marcy Donelson

Various Artists

The Complete Loma Singles, Vol. 1

Real Gone Music

R&B

The first installment of a four-volume series chronicling the short history of the Warner R&B subsidiary Loma.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Breakfast Muff

Eurgh!

Amour Foo

Pop/Rock

Eurgh! finds Glaswegian D.I.Y. punks Breakfast Muff in satisfyingly chaotic form.

— Bekki Bemrose

Keely Smith

Little Girl Blue, Little Girl New [Expanded Edition]

Real Gone Music

Vocal, Jazz

The vocalist's sophisticated debut for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label featuring arrangements by Nelson Riddle.

— Matt Collar

Star Tropics

Lost World

Shelflife

Pop/Rock

Late-'80s-inspired dream pop and college rock from this Chicago-based quartet.

— Timothy Monger

Vadim Gluzman

Brahms: Violin Concerto & Sonata No. 1

BIS

Classical

Gluzman's Brahms is a superb reading in the Russian tradition. Highly recommended throughout.

— James Manheim

Laurence Cummings / FestspielOrchester Göttingen

Händel: Water Music

Accent

Classical

This 2017 Accent release by Laurence Cummings and the Göttingen Festival Orchestra marks the 300th anniversary of the premiere of Handel's Water Music.

— Blair Sanderson