Sleater-Kinney

Path of Wellness

Mom + Pop Music

Pop/Rock

Sleater-Kinney figure out a way forward into middle age on this reflective album.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Garbage

No Gods No Masters

Infectious / Infectious Music / Stunvolume

Pop/Rock

Defiant and fed up, the genre-blurring alt-rock mainstays deliver their most overtly political statement to date.

— Neil Z. Yeung

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

Butterfly 3000

KGLW

Pop/Rock

The Gizz add synth loops and breezy warmth to their tool kit; the result is hooky choruses, helium-light vocals, and songs perfect for a summer afternoon.

— Tim Sendra

Maroon 5

Jordi

Interscope

Pop/Rock

Maroon 5 relies on such collaborators as Megan Thee Stallion, Stevie Nicks, and H.E.R. on this stylish, amorphous album.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Danny Elfman

Big Mess

Epitaph

Pop/Rock

37 years and over 100 film scores after his last solo outing, the former Oingo Boingo frontman offers up a seething, cathartic pandemic album.

— Marcy Donelson

Lin-Manuel Miranda

In the Heights [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Atlantic

Stage & Screen

Adding a song with Marc Anthony, the abbreviated film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony-winning Broadway debut stars an effortless Anthony Ramos.

— Marcy Donelson

Noel Gallagher / Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Back the Way We Came, Vol. 1: 2011-2021

Sour Mash

Pop/Rock

A compilation covering the first decade of Noel Gallagher's solo career.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Black Sabbath

Sabotage [Super Deluxe Edition]

Rhino

Pop/Rock

The final chapter of the legendary First Six from this metal institution, remastered and expanded with a full concert performance from their 1975 tour.

— Fred Thomas

AFI

Bodies

Rise Records

Pop/Rock

The punk quartet's 11th set extends their late-era maturation with '80s-indebted sound and urgent emotions.

— Neil Z. Yeung

St. Lenox

Ten Songs of Worship & Praise for Our Tumultuous Times

Anyway / Don Giovanni

Pop/Rock

Profound and casually approachable, Andrew Choi's fourth album is a joyous explosion of spiritually questioning indie pop.

— Timothy Monger

Bad Brains

Bad Brains

Bad Brains Records

Pop/Rock

The debut album from the masterful D.C. hardcore band defines the power of the style while taking it places no other group could.

— Mark Deming

Quivers

Golden Doubt

Ba Da Bing Records

Pop/Rock

Australian indie quartet make difficult lyrical themes easier to digest with bright, sophisticated pop song construction.

— Fred Thomas

Julian Lage

Squint

Blue Note

Jazz

On his Blue Note leader debut, the guitarist's trio turn in a hip encounter between formal songwriting and swinging improvisation.

— Thom Jurek

Lukas Nelson / Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

A Few Stars Apart

Fantasy

Pop/Rock

A record conceived in isolation and executed with the warmth of a band reunion.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Scientists

Negativity

In the Red Records

Pop/Rock

Stunning return after decades away that shows the band have lost none of their noisy, swaggering power while adding some arch humor and subtle sonic alterations.

— Tim Sendra

Alessandro Cortini

Scuro Chiaro

Mute

Electronic

Balancing hope and despair, the pieces on Cortini's second solo album for Mute are expertly paced yet raw and vulnerable.

— Paul Simpson

Atreyu

Baptize

Spinefarm Records / Search & Destroy

Pop/Rock

The melodic metalcore institution's eighth full-length effort hits hard early on with a trio of nosebleed section-aimed sonic missiles.

— James Christopher Monger

Andy Bell

Another View

Sonic Cathedral

Pop/Rock

Companion piece to the Ride/Oasis member's 2020 solo album focuses on electronic remixes and acoustic material.

— Fred Thomas

Dave Koz / Cory Wong

The Golden Hour

Just Koz

Jazz

A funky, R&B-infused collaboration between the sax star and prolific guitarist.

— Matt Collar

Indigo De Souza

I Love My Mom

Saddle Creek Records

Pop/Rock

The full-length debut of a songwriter whose candid, jagged indie rock tunes are populated with restlessness and inadequate partners.

— Marcy Donelson

Jeb Loy Nichols

Jeb Loy

Timmion

R&B

Backed by Cold Diamond & Mink, the ex-pat singer-songwriter reflects on "big trouble" through a rich meld of soul, Americana, and balladry.

— Thom Jurek

The Merseybeats / The Merseys

I Stand Accused: The Complete Merseybeats & Merseys Sixties Recordings

Grapefruit

Pop/Rock

Definitive overview of an underappreciated U.K. pop group of the 1960s whose fans include David Bowie and Elvis Costello.

— Mark Deming

Charnett Moffett

New Love

Motéma Music

Jazz

A joyous, fusion-influenced third collaboration between the bassist and his wife, guitarist Jana Herzen.

— Matt Collar

Ches Smith / We All Break / Ches Smith / We All Break

Path of Seven Colors

Pyroclastic Records

Jazz

We All Break became an octet for its second outing, going ever deeper into its kaleidoscopic exploration of jazz and Haitian music.

— Thom Jurek

Doug Carn

Infant Eyes

Real Gone Music

Jazz

The husband-and-wife team initiated their classic run of albums for Black Jazz with this enduring spiritual soul-jazz masterpiece.

— Thom Jurek

Zubin Mehta / Münchner Philharmoniker

Haydn: Die Schöpfung [Live]

Münchner Philharmoniker

Classical

A clean reading of Haydn's oratorio by the octogenarian Mehta, with fine soloists and chorus.

— James Manheim

Les Arts Florissants / William Christie

N'esperez plus mes yeux: Airs sérieux et à boire, Vol. 3

Harmonia Mundi

Classical

More delightful material from Les Arts Florissants in the French air de cour tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries.

— James Manheim

James Ehnes

Ysaÿe: Sonatas for Solo Violin

Onyx / Onyx Classics

Classical

A superb traversal of the technically brutal Ysaÿe sonatas for solo violin, recorded in Ehnes' home.

— James Manheim

Alina Ibragimova

Paganini: 24 Caprices

Hyperion

Classical

A superb set of Paganini Caprices, recorded during the coronavirus pandemic, manages to be inward despite all of the fireworks.

— James Manheim

Craig Ogden

Craig Ogden in Concert

Chandos

Classical

An attractively varied, not-live guitar recital by Ogden, beautifully recorded.

— James Manheim

Mary Bevan / Ben Johnson / Ashley Riches / Kitty Whately

The Harmonious Echo: Songs by Sir Arthur Sullivan

Chandos

Classical

Highly entertaining songs by Sullivan, perfectly caught by the singers, are sure to appeal to Gilbert & Sullivan fans.

— James Manheim

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