Editors' Choice for August 2019

Album cover for Comforter

Comforter

Luminelle Recordings

A dazzling debut from a Montreal band that merges dream pop, shoegaze, and trip-hop influences with noise experimentation.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for How Far

How Far

Arrowhawk

The excellent third album by a Detroit trio whose sweet and bouncy noise pop has a dark lyrical undercurrent.

— Tim Sendra

Album cover for Gypsy

Gypsy

Signature

On her first album of originals in four years, the Americana singer/songwriter addresses the tumult of the times with wit and empathy.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for Live 1969

Live 1969

Legacy / Sony Music

A hefty box containing 11 complete concerts from Presley's return to the stage in August 1969.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for Twelve Nudes

Twelve Nudes

Bella Union

The follow-up to 2018's Transangelic Exodus, Furman and company deliver a savage, amp-melting set that's all teeth.

— James Christopher Monger

Album cover for A Dream Is U

A Dream Is U

Memphis Industries

Evoking Baroque pop, Merseybeat, and Spector, the full-length debut of Tom McClung (WU LYF) is filled with well-crafted retro pop for romantics.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for Black Love & War
G&D

Black Love & War

eOne
Rap

The third, funkiest, and most galvanizing duo LP from the prolific Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins.

— Andy Kellman

Album cover for Venus in Leo

Venus in Leo

Ghostly International

Australian duo HTRK's excellent fourth album contains their most romantic, sensuous material yet.

— Paul Simpson

Album cover for Anak Ko

Anak Ko

Polyvinyl

A Los Angeles-based Melina Duterte continues a trend toward sharper songwriting and increasingly immersive sound design.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for Sunset Kids

Sunset Kids

Wicked Cool

Malin collaborates with his friend Lucinda Williams on this appealingly relaxed record.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for Free Cell

Free Cell

Captured Tracks

The New England native emerges with an elegantly introspective and ultimately more confident sophomore set.

— Timothy Monger

Album cover for Blume

Blume

Domino

An earthy debut from the London jazz group that sounds like a mix of the Jazz Messengers and Hugh Masekela.

— Matt Collar

Album cover for Caretakers

Caretakers

Working with Jackson Phillips of Day Wave, Yorn adds dreamy synths to his sturdy songs.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for Devour

Devour

Sacred Bones

Margaret Chardiet interprets a vicious cycle of self-destruction with her fourth album as Pharmakon.

— Paul Simpson

Album cover for Perfumed Earth

Perfumed Earth

Flying Nun

The duo's ambitious second album is a divine union of the mystical and down-to-earth, the spiritual and the sensual.

— Heather Phares

Album cover for Superbloom

Superbloom

Universal / Universal Music

The band's second album recorded with Rostam Batmanglij is an effusive production full of lyrical hooks that balances all of their broad musical influences.

— Matt Collar

Album cover for Beyond the Door

Beyond the Door

Merge

Their first album of new material in 20 years doesn't miss a trick and delivers the hard rock bubblegum thrills in established Redd Kross style.

— Tim Sendra

Album cover for Texas

Texas

Rc1 Records / Rodney Crowell

With a cast of fellow Texans, the Houston native pays wry, affectionate tribute to the Lone Star State.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for Blood Year

Blood Year

Sargent House

Recorded with Converge's Kurt Ballou, Russian Circles' seventh studio album is one of their most unmistakably raw, direct releases.

— Paul Simpson

Album cover for Forevher

Forevher

Secretly Canadian

The singer/songwriter's triumphantly romantic second album celebrates love with joyous disco-pop and introspective ballads.

— Heather Phares

Album cover for We Are Not Your Kind

We Are Not Your Kind

Roadrunner Records

The masked Iowans sixth full-length effort sees a confident and apoplectic Slipknot in full command of their craft.

— James Christopher Monger

Album cover for Lover

Lover

Republic / Virgin EMI

Taylor Swift embraces all sides of her musical personality on this generous, colorful album.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for Tommy 30

Tommy 30

Scopitones

Thirty years later, David Gedge and company revisit their earliest songs, giving them a lively and much heavier sonic update.

— Tim Sendra

Album cover for Face Stabber

Face Stabber

Castle Face

A wildly expansive album that finds the band pushing their psychedelic formula even further out without breaking it even a little.

— Tim Sendra

Album cover for Fear Inoculum

Fear Inoculum

RCA

Long-awaited LP finds the enigmatic prog-metal outfit older, wiser, and at the peak of their craft.

— Neil Z. Yeung

Album cover for Every Girl

Every Girl

Gwendolyn / Gwendolyn Records

With her first recording of new material in 12 years, the singer delivers these 14 songs with an abundance of authority, emotion, and pure class.

— Thom Jurek

Album cover for Country Squire

Country Squire

Hickman Holler Records / RCA

On his second album, Tyler Childers sharpens his attack and broadens his horizons.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for Folia
Various Artists

Folia

Glossa

Glossa presents a variety of interpretations of the classic La Folía, by such Baroque masters as Vivaldi, Corelli, Lully, Geminiani, and others.

— Blair Sanderson

Album cover for Rewind, Replay, Rebound

Rewind, Replay, Rebound

Republic / Virgin EMI

The Danish-American quartet re-channel the ghosts of arena rock's past and emerge with their strongest collection of songs to date.

— Thom Jurek

Album cover for Forever Turned Around

Forever Turned Around

Secretly Canadian

Returning with most of the crew from their breakthrough debut Light Upon the Lake, the follow-up delivers more of its dulcet country-rock.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for GUV I

GUV I

Run for Cover Records

Brilliantly written and executed lo-fi power pop from the restless musical mind of Fucked Up's Ben Cook.

— Tim Sendra

Album cover for FourFront
Zo!

FourFront

Foreign Exchange Music
R&B

Lorenzo Ferguson's fourth Foreign Exchange LP freshly refines his first three, featuring new collaborators Devin Morrison and Madison McFerrin.

— Andy Kellman