Featured New Album Releases

Carly Rae Jepsen

The Loveliest Time

Interscope / School Boy / Silent Records

Pop/Rock

The companion release to The Loneliest Time turns heartache on its head with blissful disco and playful, surprising production.

— Heather Phares

The Doors

Live at the Matrix 1967: The Original Masters

Elektra / Rhino

Pop/Rock

Remastered from the original analog tape reels, this long-bootlegged material captures the band in their raw, primal state just before they became superstars.

— Fred Thomas

Fleetwood Mac

Rumours: Live

Rhino / Warner Music

Pop/Rock

A live document of an ascendent Fleetwood Mac captures a band that still sounds a bit raw and enthusiastic.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Ashley McBryde

The Devil I Know

Warner Music / Warner Nashville

Country

The country maverick polishes and straightens out her swagger.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Sparklehorse

Bird Machine

Anti-

Pop/Rock

Completed by friends and family, Mark Linkous' fifth album is a heartbreaking, uplifting tribute to the way his music moved so many people.

— Heather Phares

Low Cut Connie

Art Dealers

Contender Records

Pop/Rock

A powerful understated statement of political solidarity that also rocks hard.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Romy

Mid Air

Young

Electronic

The xx member's solo debut album channels the highs and lows of falling in love with a woman into soft-spoken, sure-footed dance music.

— Heather Phares

Courtney Barnett

End of the Day [Music From the Film Anonymous Club]

Milk! Records / Mom + Pop Music

Pop/Rock

A nearly ambient, improvised instrumental album from the singer/songwriter.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The Coral

Sea of Mirrors

Virgin

Pop/Rock

Designed as a soundtrack for a lost spaghetti Western, the band nimbly add strings and some country-rock along the way to another triumph.

— Tim Sendra

The Chemical Brothers

For That Beautiful Feeling

Casablanca / Republic / Virgin

Electronic

The iconic dance duo continue to deliver their signature style of festival-sized rave psychedelia on their tenth album.

— Paul Simpson

Tyler Childers

Rustin in the Rain

RCA

Country

The progressive country singer/songwriter cuts away the fat on this vibrant and vital album.

Various Artists

A Song for Leon: A Tribute to Leon Russell

BWSCD / Primary Wave

Country, Pop/Rock

An affectionate and effective tribute to roots rock eccentric Leon Russell.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet

For Mahalia, with Love

Tao Forms

Jazz

The saxophonist reunites his Red Lily Quintet to explore the music and example of iconic gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

— Thom Jurek

Genesis Owusu

Struggler

Ourness

Rap, Pop/Rock, R&B

The hard-to-define Australian's second LP is a wild, nervy concept album of defiance and existentialism.

— Timothy Monger

Kvelertak

Endling

Rise Records

Pop/Rock

A lively black metal throwdown that cements the validity of the Norwegian band's second act.

— Timothy Monger

The Woods

So Long Before Now

Dot Matrix Recordings / Dotmatrix

Pop/Rock

Off-kilter and experimental jangle pop from an overlooked band of the '80s, this is all their work collected in one wonderful package.

— Tim Sendra

Folk Implosion

Music for KIDS

Domino

Pop/Rock, Stage & Screen

Improvisatory recordings this lo-fi indie duo made for the 1995 film Kids find them experimenting freely with style and genre and achieving unlikely results.

— Fred Thomas

Yussef Dayes

Black Classical Music

Brownswood / Nonesuch

Jazz, R&B

The drummer/composer's debut studio album is a sprawling 19-track musical autobiography wedding electric jazz to R&B, funk, reggae, and Afrobeat.

— Thom Jurek

Laura Burhenn / Dntel / Ben Gibbard / Jenny Lewis / The Postal Service

Everything Will Change

Sub Pop

Pop/Rock

Celebratory live set that captures nearly everything the indie electronic duo ever recorded, along with a few surprises.

— Neil Z. Yeung

Kristin Hersh

Clear Pond Road

Fire Records

Pop/Rock

The singer/songwriter puts acoustic guitar at the forefront of songs filled with mesmerizing sounds and lyrics.

— Heather Phares

The Blind Boys of Alabama

Echoes of the South

Single Lock Records

R&B, Religious

The iconic singing group's album of originals, covers, and traditional songs recalls the 1940s-era gospel and looks back at their live radio beginnings.

— Thom Jurek

Jonathan Wilson

Eat the Worm

BMG / BMG Rights Management

Pop/Rock

The singer, songwriter, and producer's first album in three years relishes in sonic and lyrical experimentation while retaining his persona.

— Thom Jurek

Boris

Heavy Rocks [2002]

Third Man Records

Pop/Rock

Reissue of one of the band's earliest and most straightforward rock albums, including a few rare outtakes and demos.

— Paul Simpson

Swansea Sound

Twentieth Century

Skep Wax Records

Pop/Rock

The indie pop supergroup's second album is darker, more political, and more musically varied, but still incredibly hooky and fun.

— Tim Sendra

Hilario Durán / Hilario Durán & His Latin Jazz Big Band

Cry Me a River

Alma Records

Jazz

The Cuban-born pianist's second album to feature his big band since their Juno Award-winning 2006 debut.

— Matt Collar

Soft Science

Lines

Shelflife

Pop/Rock

The California noise pop sextet dial up the shimmer and deepen atmospheres while keeping tempos high and melodies bittersweet on their fourth LP.

— Marcy Donelson

Graham Parker & the Goldtops / Graham Parker

Last Chance to Learn the Twist

Big Stir Records

Pop/Rock

The former Angry Young Man has matured into a wise, witty Pub Rock Elder Statesmen, and it suits him well on these songs.

— Mark Deming

Holm

Alien Health

PNKSLM

Pop/Rock

Themes of isolation and alienation fuel a visceral sophomore LP that the Yung leader tracked with his backing band, no overdubs, and a Marshall stack.

— Marcy Donelson

Irreversible Entanglements

Protect Your Light

Impulse! / Verve

Jazz

Protect Your Light is focused and fierce; it is, in places, measurably different as the band learned to use the studio as a musical instrument.

Jalen Ngonda

Come Around and Love Me

Daptone

R&B

Strong Daptone album debut from a soul traditionalist with a distinctive tenor voice.

— Andy Kellman

Tall Tall Trees

Stick to the Mystical I

Joyful Noise

Pop/Rock

A colorful, animated dive into the electric banjo player's unique spin on experimental psych-pop born of improvisations with Why? drummer Josiah Wolf.

— Marcy Donelson

Darcy James Argue / Darcy James Argue's Secret Society

Dynamic Maximum Tension

Nonesuch

Jazz

A kinetic, swinging, dystopian jazz atmosphere marks the big band's ambitious fourth album.

— Matt Collar

Prison

Upstate

Drag City

Pop/Rock

The debut studio set from this fluid N.Y.C. collective captures their lawless space-blues jamming on five tracks that span more than 90 chaotic minutes.

— Fred Thomas