The Internet

Hive Mind

Columbia

R&B

The R&B band follows their Grammy-nominated third album with a comforting set of loose dance grooves and languid ballads.

— Andy Kellman

Ty Segall / White Fence

Joy

Drag City

Pop/Rock

A second teaming of the garage rock dynamo and the bedroom psych weirdo yields results as oddly entrancing as their first effort, 2012's Hair.

— Tim Sendra

Eddie Palmieri

Full Circle

Ropeadope

Latin, Jazz

El Maestro's late career surge offers fans a killer set of his salsa classics completely revisioned for jamming by his tentet and big band.

— Thom Jurek

Pram

Across the Meridian

Domino / Domino Recording

Pop/Rock

The group's first album in a decade finds them as weird and wonderful as ever.

— Heather Phares

Ovlov

TRU

Exploding in Sound

Pop/Rock

The re-formed band overload the speakers with guitar noise and pluck heartstrings with melancholy songs on this instant classic indie rock album

— Tim Sendra

Public Image Ltd.

The Public Image Is Rotten: Songs from the Heart

UMC / Universal

Pop/Rock

Massive box set takes a long (if fragmented) look at John Lydon's long-running post-Sex Pistols project.

— Mark Deming

Soul Asylum

Made to Be Broken

Omnivore

Pop/Rock

Expanded edition of first full album from Minneapolis favorites that marks the spot where they began to hit their stride.

— Mark Deming

Soul Asylum

Say What You Will…Everything Can Happen [Expanded Edition]

Omnivore

Pop/Rock

Plenty of energy and fiery guitars, but not so much focus or cohesion on this reissue of the band's debut recordings.

— Mark Deming

Kendl Winter

Stumbler's Business

Team Love Records

Folk

After five albums with the Lowest Pair, the Washington-based singer/songwriter returns to solo work with a winsome, poetic, and haunted album.

— Timothy Monger

Mulatu Astatke

Afro-Latin Soul, Vols. 1 & 2

Strut

Jazz

This package contains the Ethiopian genius' first two albums cut in New York in 1966 and fusing African and Latin sounds with American jazz.

— Thom Jurek

Vinyl Williams

Opal

Requiem Pour un Twister

Pop/Rock

The L.A. artist has mastered dreamy psych-gaze and this album is his dreamiest, most pleasingly psychedelic to date.

— Tim Sendra

Optiganally Yours

O.Y. in Hi-Fi

Joyful Noise

Pop/Rock

Years in the making, the duo's witty, charming third album trades the Optigan's hissy sounds for crystal-clear sonics.

— Heather Phares

Punch Brothers

All Ashore

Nonesuch

Folk

An ambitious yet intimate song suite about modern relationships.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Liars

1/1 [Original Soundtrack]

Mute

Pop/Rock, Stage & Screen

Recorded during a time of flux, the band's unsettling score for Jeremy Phillips coming-of-age film sums up their work and points the way ahead.

— Heather Phares

We Are Muffy

The Charcoal Pool

Tapete Records

Pop/Rock

Rustic textures, sensory description, and whimsy color the childhood reminiscences of Brits Nick Duffy and Angeline Morrison.

— Marcy Donelson

DJ Seinfeld

DJ-Kicks

!K7

Electronic

The Swedish producer's first mix CD is generally a smooth, pleasant blend of low-key house and interstellar electro.

— Paul Simpson

Earth Girl Helen Brown

Four Satelittes, Vol. 1

In the Red Records

Pop/Rock

Spacy and charming indie pop from this highly collaborative, cosmically inclined project led by the Sandwitches' Heidi Alexander.

— Timothy Monger

LFZ

Name Plus Focus

Castle Face

Electronic, Pop/Rock

As LFZ, former folk guitarist Sean Smith makes minimalist synth soundscapes which are meditative as well as slightly haunting.

— Paul Simpson

Negative Scanner

Nose Picker

Trouble in Mind

Pop/Rock

The Chicago punks' second album is an immediate, irreverent, much-needed burst of vitriol.

— Heather Phares

Jim Lauderdale / Roland White

Jim Lauderdale & Roland White

Yep Roc

Country

Long-lost 1979 recordings with the singer/songwriter and the mandolin master teaming for a spirited bluegrass session.

— Mark Deming

Jukka-Pekka Saraste / WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln

Beethoven: Symphonies 4/5

Profil - Edition Günter Hänssler

Classical

Jukka-Pekka Saraste launches his Beethoven cycle with the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, recorded for broadcast on Cologne radio.

— Blair Sanderson

Ray Chen

The Golden Age

Decca

Classical

An often-daring renewal of the classic virtuoso violin recital, mixing chamber music, concertos, and violin-and-piano works.

— James Manheim

Guttenberg / Enoch zu Guttenberg / Orchester der KlangVerwaltung

Franz Schubert: Große Symphonie in C-Dur

Farao Classics

Classical

Enoch zu Guttenberg and Orchester KlangVerwaltung give an agile and fleet performance of Schubert's Ninth, the symphony of "heavenly length."

— Blair Sanderson

Iván Fischer / Budapest Festival Orchestra / Barbara Kozelj / Anna Lucia Richter

Mendelssohn: Overture & Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream

Channel Classics

Classical

Superbly lively Mendelssohn from a Hungarian veteran.

— James Manheim

Duo Noire

Night Triptych

New Focus / New Focus Recordings

Classical

Beautifully recorded, often compelling music for guitar duo, all of it newly composed by women.

— James Manheim

Thomas Søndergård / BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Sibelius: Finlandia; Swan of Tuonela; Oceanides; En saga; Valse triste

Linn Records

Classical

Søndergård's unorthodox Sibelius, dry and transparent, works well even in the warhorse Finlandia.

— James Manheim

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