Editors' Choice for August 2023

Album cover for Spirit in the Room

Spirit in the Room

Western Vinyl Records

The band's hallucinatory second album uses otherworldly noise rock and electronics to capture the magnitude of loss.

— Heather Phares

Album cover for The Weight of a Wave

The Weight of a Wave

Uninhabitable Mansions

Disappointment and depression fuel earworms on a set of lo-fi synth pop that marries dark post-punk and bittersweet indie pop tradition.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for Haunted Mountain

Haunted Mountain

4AD

The Big Thief guitarist's third LP is again highlighted by poetic lyrics, charming melodies, an A-plus live-in-studio band, and disarming sincerity.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for Karpeh

Karpeh

Blue Note
R&B

Joshua Karpeh's second album -- his first for Blue Note -- is a pronounced and fascinating deviation from his debut.

— Andy Kellman

Album cover for Realms

Realms

Kill Rock Stars

The former B-52s singer's vibrant second solo album captures a turning point in her life with buoyant synth-pop and gauzy dream-pop reveries.

— Heather Phares

Album cover for The Rose of Aces

The Rose of Aces

ATO

By keeping melodies and harmonies at the forefront, these Grateful Dead disciples keep their shaggy music lucid.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Album cover for DOMINO

DOMINO

Bar Records / Bar/None Records / None

With Mo Troper producing, Blue Broderick dials up the energy on a short, sweet, infectious sixth LP that evokes acts like Big Star and Matthew Sweet.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for Prestige

Prestige

BWSCD / Moshi Moshi Records

The trio reinvent themselves again and delve into some pleasingly nostalgic, happily danceable disco with a side of emotional electro-pop.

— Tim Sendra

Album cover for World Music Radio

World Music Radio

Interscope / Verve

The pianist and singer brings a heartfelt intimacy to his seventh album's message of healing and unity.

— Matt Collar

Album cover for Radio Red

Radio Red

Bella Union

Interior art-pop ballads from the British singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer formerly known as Blue Roses.

— Andy Kellman

Album cover for Chrome Dreams

Chrome Dreams

Reprise

The first official release of one of the better-known "lost records" in rock history, finished in 1977 but existing only in bootleg form until this edition.

— Fred Thomas

Album cover for Alternate Forms

Alternate Forms

Joyful Noise

A tenth anniversary, track-by-track reworking of the band's thrilling breakthrough LP, Lanterns, featuring Sound of Ceres, Kishi Bashi, and many more.

— Marcy Donelson

Album cover for Live in Brooklyn 2011

Live in Brooklyn 2011

Silver Current

The veteran band's final U.S. show captures their greatness with a gripping set centered on their earliest, noisiest days in the underground.

— Heather Phares

Album cover for Perfect Saviors

Perfect Saviors

Sargent House

A near-perfect distillation of the Detroit art-punk collective's maximalist pop that swaps discord for fist-pumping arena rock.

— James Christopher Monger