On his second album, Trespassing, Adam Lambert dives into glammy disco-pop with often exhilarating results.
Black Eye Galaxy is alternately roaring and tender; it howls with pain and shimmers with tenderness. It's Anders Osborne's masterpiece.
Andreas Staier samples a few of the less familiar published variations on Diabelli's waltz before presenting Beethoven's masterful Diabelli Variations.
The virtuoso Arditti Quartet performs the challenging music of Harrison Birtwistle with apparent ease on this 2012 Aeon release.
Beach House sound more aloof and heartbroken than ever on their icily gorgeous fourth album Bloom.
Brackles strikes the balance between underground and commercial success with an album of classic future garage.
With plenty of diverse genres and thoughtful rhymes, this is another easy to recommend effort from the underground Canadian rapper.
Cherri Bomb's full-length debut proves that the members of this all-girl band can rock just as hard as guys twice their age.
After putting his beloved Def Jux label "on hiatus", the producer/rapper returns with proof positive that he's been focusing on his craft.
Portishead's Geoff Barrow and composer Ben Salisbury deliver an authentically geeky "imaginary soundtrack" to cult comic Judge Dredd, channeling John Carpenter's scores in the process.
Gravenhurst's fourth album is a seamless fusion of folk, shoegaze, and electronics, and possibly Nick Talbot's most intimate set of songs yet.
Vital and exciting, R.A.P. Music finds the Atlanta rapper working exclusively with adventurous hip-hop producer El-P.
Kindness' debut is a downer dance party that synthesizes various forms of dance music past and present into a satisfying new sound.
The first in Light in the Attic Records' reissue series of rare Lee Hazlewood sides, this one covers 1968 to 1971.
On the spare solo instrumental Hambone's Meditations, guitarist and composer Luther Dickinson showcases his skills in a haunting, eerie whole.
Mezzo-soprano Kozená's radiant recording of three very different song cycles showcases her warm, dark amber voice and her sensitive stylistic versatility.
Tenor Mark Padmore (joined by horn player Stephen Bell in the Serenade) delivers thrilling, nuanced performances of song cycles by Britten and Finzi.
The first-ever comprehensive collection of one of the most underrated country singers of the '70s and '80s.
![Album cover for Moonrise Kingdom [Original Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0003612057/front/220/qh4qPeccKP_H8IH7BdQUulWnbEN5fCjifro6xhIBuB4=.jpg)
While Moonrise Kingdom features more classical music than most Wes Anderson soundtracks, it's just as vivid and poignant as his other films' music.
Richard Hawley uses guitars, bass, drums, "rocket sounds," and psychedelia brilliantly on the urgent Standing at the Sky's Edge.
Royal Headache's debut is a short, energetic blast of classic '60s soul filtered through classic '70s punk and given a modern lo-fi anti-sheen.
Produced by Mark Ronson, Out of the Game is a '70s singer/songwriter-style album with a soft rock and disco vibe.
As usual, Saint Etienne's eighth album is both drenched in nostalgia and ready for the dancefloor. This time, though, the nostalgia is personal.
Four years and a dozen producers later, Santigold returns with an album that expands on the best parts of the debut.
With Sun Midnight Sun, Watkins adds quirky indie pop, West Coast folk-rock, and harmony-drenched Americana to her repertoire.
Scissor Sisters follow Night Work's dancefloor triumphs with a set of songs that seem more comfortable when they don't feel like dancing.
Smile is Joakim of Teddybears and Björn of Peter Bjorn and John, and their first record is a nice combination of the two groups' styles.
Elemental Journey is Sonny Landreth's 11th solo album, and it's his first all-instrumental outing, and folks, this isn't a blues album.
The U.K. production duo team with Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan on this cinematic, rainy day soundtrack.
The performances by the Callithumpian Consort, under the direction of Stephen Drury, are exquisite: delicate, unpredictable, evocative, and just plain lovely.
Still Flyin's second album is an '80s-influenced melancholy pop affair that is achingly serious but still fun to listen to.
Raw but accomplished, tuneful yet noisy, the Cribs are more comfortable with their contradictions than ever on In the Belly of the Brazen Bull.
After a decade, Daptone's Sugarman 3 are back with their soulful funk and groove on What the World Needs Now.
The Walkmen close their first decade of being a band with this surprisingly contented-sounding set of songs.
