Pixies

Beneath the Eyrie

Infectious

Pop/Rock

The band's third post-reunion album is their spookiest and most engaging music since getting back together.

— Heather Phares

Charli xcx

Charli

Atlantic

Pop/Rock

The singer/songwriter channels the freewheeling feel of her mixtapes on her third official album.

— Heather Phares

Korn

The Nothing

Roadrunner Records

Pop/Rock

Reeling from his wife's death, Jonathan Davis pulls his bandmates into the void with this intense career peak.

— Neil Z. Yeung

Devendra Banhart

Ma

Nonesuch

Pop/Rock

The tenth album from this former freak folk icon is a playful and inspired collection of songs in wide-ranging styles.

— Fred Thomas

The Lumineers

III

Dualtone Music

Pop/Rock, Country, Folk

The Lumineers write a song cycle about addiction and codependency.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Belle and Sebastian

Days of the Bagnold Summer

Matador

Pop/Rock

An elegant, clever soundtrack to a coming-of-age comedy.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Alex G

House of Sugar

Domino

Pop/Rock

A suffocating, strange, and affecting eighth album from lo-fi pop experimenter Alex Giannascoli reflects an upgrade in recording equipment.

— Marcy Donelson

Chelsea Wolfe

Birth of Violence

Sargent House

Pop/Rock

The doomy singer/songwriter's seventh album revisits the aching beauty of her earliest, acoustic-based music.

— Heather Phares

Metronomy

Metronomy Forever

Because Music / Caroline

Pop/Rock

Teetering between razor-sharp pop and quirky soundscapes, the band's sixth album revisits the try-anything spirit of their early days.

— Heather Phares

Jenny Hval

The Practice of Love

Sacred Bones

Avant-Garde, Pop/Rock

The multi-talented artist sets her musings on love as an action to '90s trance music with serenely complex results.

— Heather Phares

Prince

The Versace Experience: Prelude 2 Gold

Legacy / Sony Music

R&B

The first official reissue of a promotional cassette designed to hype The Gold Experience during Paris Fashion Week 1995.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Goo Goo Dolls

Miracle Pill

Warner Bros.

Pop/Rock

The Goo Goo Dolls reckon with middle age on this slick, earnest AAA-pop album.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Gruff Rhys

Pang!

Rough Trade

Pop/Rock

Collaborating with the South African electronic artist Muzi, Gruff Rhys constructs a vivid, refreshing pan-cultural pop album.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Chastity

Home Made Satan

Captured Tracks

Pop/Rock

The second album from the angsty Canadian rock group turns toward politically direct lyrics and moments of uncharacteristically jangly sensitivity.

— Fred Thomas

Sampa the Great

The Return

Ninja Tune

Rap, R&B

The Australian Music Prize winner's proper debut album is both soul-searching and triumphant.

— Paul Simpson

Sequoyah Murray

Before You Begin

Thrill Jockey

Pop/Rock, Electronic

Bold, genre-blurring debut from the Atlanta-based songwriter whose adventurous songs are filled with a sense of optimism.

— Paul Simpson

Cold

The Things We Can't Stop

Napalm Records

Pop/Rock

Unlike the alt-rock veterans' early works, Cold's sixth effort does its best to bear the weight of the world instead of just raging against it.

— James Christopher Monger

Sam Fender

Hypersonic Missiles

Interscope / Polydor

Pop/Rock

A confident debut from a young Brit dubbed the Springsteen of North Shields for his anthemic sound and social consciousness.

— Marcy Donelson

Various Artists

The Time for Peace Is Now: Gospel Music About Us

Luaka Bop

Religious, R&B

A sterling collection of independently released black gospel music that was deeply influenced by secular soul.

— Thom Jurek

Alasdair Roberts

The Fiery Margin

Drag City

Pop/Rock, Folk, International

Like a musical time traveler, the celebrated singer and songwriter presents more songs in the Scottish folk tradition.

— Mark Deming

The Souljazz Orchestra

Chaos Theories

Strut

Jazz

The Ottawa sextet's sixth Strut album, inspired most by the intersection of punk and reggae.

— Andy Kellman

Twin Peaks

Lookout Low

Grand Jury Music

Pop/Rock

Tracked live with Ethan Johns (Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon), the Chicagoans' hooky fifth LP favors druggy jams and '70s roots rock.

— Marcy Donelson

Puddle of Mudd

Welcome to Galvania

Pavement / Pavement Music

Pop/Rock

The stalwart post-grunge/nu-metal outfit's first collection of new music in a decade sees Puddle of Mudd attempting a rebirth of sorts.

— James Christopher Monger

Alex Cameron

Miami Memory

Secretly Canadian

Pop/Rock

The third album of bleak perspectives and '80s-styled radio pop presented by this Sydney songwriter's morally bankrupt alter ego.

— Fred Thomas

Art Pepper

Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings

Omnivore

Jazz

The saxophonist's Artist House sessions from 1979 showcase the urgency and soulful lyricism of his comeback years.

— Matt Collar

Ebo Taylor

Palaver

BBE / BBE Africa

International

BBE unearths a lost treasure in the Ghanaian highlife master's catalog that fleshes out his run of fine albums from the early 1980s.

— Thom Jurek

Emeli Sandé

Real Life

Virgin EMI

Pop/Rock

Working with Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Rebecca Ferguson), the singer/songwriter takes a less-introspective approach, highlighted by potent gospel and disco.

— Andy Kellman

Indian Summer

Giving Birth to Thunder

Numero

Pop/Rock

The complete studio recordings from an early-'90s band indispensable to the evolution of emo.

— Fred Thomas

Jeremy Ivey

The Dream and the Dreamer

Anti-

Pop/Rock, Country

A longtime behind-the-scenes Nashville collaborator and husband to Margo Price, Jeremy Ivey offers a surprisingly poignant and timeless debut.

— Timothy Monger

Jonah Tolchin

Fires for the Cold

Yep Roc

Pop/Rock, Folk, Country

A breakup album built around the weary sound of a man singing about his pain without waking the neighbors at 3 A.M.

— Mark Deming

Joseph

Good Luck, Kid

ATO

Pop/Rock

The Oregon sister outfit ditch their folk origins for an album of big, unabashed pop.

— Timothy Monger

Lee Hazlewood

400 Miles From L.A. 1955-56

Light in the Attic Records

Country, Pop/Rock, Folk

A revelatory collection of Hazlewood's earliest songwriting demos.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Luke Temple

Both-And

Native Cat Recordings

Pop/Rock

A sometimes erratic, mostly quietly meditative mix of song and experimentalism partly inspired by a move to scenic Marin County.

— Marcy Donelson

Mike Patton / Jean-Claude Vannier

Corpse Flower

Ipecac

Pop/Rock, Blues, Stage & Screen

Two musical iconoclasts deliver an ambitious, decadent, and delicious collection of collaborations with wry smiles.

— Thom Jurek

Corb Lund

Cover Your Tracks

New West

Country, Pop/Rock

The Canadian cowboy and his Hurtin' Albertans delivers a fun stopgap between albums with this EP of lifelong favorites.

— Thom Jurek

Escher String Quartet / Jason Vieaux

Dance

Azica Records

Classical

A delightful set of guitar quintets linked, unlikely as it may seem, by the dance theme.

— James Manheim

London Bridge Trio

The Leipzig Circle, Vol. 1: Chamber Music by Fanny, Clara, Robert & Felix

Somm

Classical

The chamber music of the Mendelssohns and the Schumanns is explored in this opening volume of the London Bridge Trio's series on Somm.

— Blair Sanderson

Howard Shelley / Ulster Orchestra

Stanford: A Song of Agincourt; Overture in the Style of a Tragedy; Verdun; A Welcome March; Fairy Day

Hyperion

Classical

More forgotten Stanford from the Ulster Orchestra, much of it stirring and optimistic.

— James Manheim

Alarm Will Sound

Donnacha Dennehy: The Hunger

Nonesuch

Classical

A stark treatment of the Irish potato famine, lying somewhere between opera and cantata.

— James Manheim

Antoine Tamestit / Masato Suzuki

J.S. Bach: Sonatas for Viola (da Gamba) and Harpsichord

Harmonia Mundi

Classical

As the artists claim, this is not a transcription, but rather something of a reimagining of these sonatas.

— James Manheim

Sharon Isbin / Pacifica Quartet

Souvenirs of Spain & Italy

Cedille Records

Classical

Wonderful guitar performances that add something new to the mostly well-worn music on the program.

— James Manheim

Previous Week Next Week