Editors' Choice for June 2011

Minus Tyondai Braxton, Battles returns as a trio with a set of songs that are challenging, catchy, and surprisingly versatile.

— Heather Phares

Beyoncé's fourth solo studio album is heavy on deeply contrasting ballads, featuring collaborations with the-Dream, Babyface, Frank Ocean, Shea Taylor, and Jeff Bhasker, among others.

— Andy Kellman

Executive produced by Kanye West, Big Sean’s official debut skillfully balances his underground promise with his big-money dreams.

— David Jeffries

Production by Mark Ronson and an album's worth of killer garage rock tunes make this Black Lips' most satisfying album to date.

— Tim Sendra

Craig Taborn's first solo acoustic piano offering is a major study in the improvisational language of the piano itself.

— Thom Jurek

The mysterious band's debut album channels the creepier, trippier side of early-'60s pop.

— Heather Phares

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. capture that bittersweet end-of-summer feeling on It's a Corporate World.

— Gregory Heaney

Dolly Parton's 41st studio album, Better Day, released on her own Dolly Records imprint, is a spirited and hopeful outing that soars with musical sunshine.

— Steve Leggett

Numero Group rescues Father's Children's essential early psychedelic soul recordings from the dustbin of history and busts a myth in the process.

— Thom Jurek

Vancouver hardcore punks do the unthinkable and deliver a highly acclaimed, 78-minute concept album.

— Jason Lymangrover

After eight long years, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings return with her strongest album since Time (The Revelator).

— Thom Jurek

Jill Scott's Warner Bros. debut showcases all of her vocal strengths, her songwriting, and production skills in grand style.

— Thom Jurek

Junior Boys' fourth studio album combines their warmest and lightest sounds with their coldest lyrics.

— Andy Kellman

The former Bauhaus leader’s first collection of new solo material in seven years features the single “I Spit Roses.”

— David Jeffries

The South Park creators collaborate with Avenue Q's co-writer for this crude, rude, but also hilarious show.

— David Jeffries

Featuring Digable Planets' Ishmael Butler, Sub Pop's first rap release is a beguiling, surreal take on hip-hop.

— Jason Lymangrover

An ambitious effort that delivers, the album Tech introduced as his “biggest” and “craziest” is also his best to date.

— David Jeffries

Revelator, the debut from the Tedeschi Trucks Band, contains a boatload of grit, groove, killer songwriting, and musical fireworks.

— Thom Jurek

Teena Marie's third album, written, arranged, and produced by herself, and released only six months after Lady T.

— Andy Kellman

Produced and written with Minnie Riperton's widower, Richard Rudolph, Lady T features the Top Five club hit "Behind the Groove."

— Andy Kellman

The obscure Hawaiian collective These Trails issued a lone sublime, self-titled, blissed-out acid-folk masterpiece in 1973.

— Thom Jurek

Five years after We Have Sound, Tom Vek returns with electronic pop songs that are darker and more polished, but as idiosyncratic as ever.

— Heather Phares

Based around funky breaks, fuzzy guitars, and thick basslines, the band blends psychedelic pop with danceable funk and hooky tunes on their debut album.

— Tim Sendra

A long overdue anthology of Motown's neglected MoWest subsidiary, featuring Thelma Houston, Odyssey, Syreeta, and Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons.

— Andy Kellman