Socks is a durable holiday gift, but one that's immensely more fun and enjoyable than its wry title implies.

Though club-phobic listeners may find it difficult placing Skinner as just the latest dot along a line connecting quintessentially British musicians/humorists/social critics Nöel Coward, the Kinks, Ian Dury, the Jam, the Specials, and Happy Mondays, Original Pirate Material is a rare garage album: that is, one with a shelf life beyond six months.

She makes a stylistic sharp left turn with the more reserved, acoustic-leaning The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, a quasi-country album.

The concerts all have excellent sound. While this box is only essential for hardcore Dylanophiles, it's immeasurably valuable for the way it illuminates a wildly spontaneous period in the songwriter's career.

It's a lovely album to get lost in, offering sounds which might go unnoticed on the first few spins, but will rise up as repeat listens make Manzanita's insular and mysterious dreamworld a more familiar place.

The melodies on Alice are easily the most direct Waits has written since Blue Valentine, but are more elegant than even those found on Foreign Affairs or Black Rider.

Like Aretha Franklin, Linda Jones, and Otis Redding, Staton's voice is the sound of emotion being ripped from the human heart and offered, bleeding and broken, pleading and yearning, to the listener.

It's no surprise that Staples puts as much of herself into the rest of the songs. The selections span over 60 years, and in most cases suit Staples as much as those who first recorded them.

The result is perhaps the best recorded document of Prince & the Revolution in full flight: they sound invincible here.

Combined, the music, essays, artist photos, and complete lyrics in the booklet make The Time for Peace Is Now an essential compilation -- no matter your beliefs or lack thereof -- for any fans of '70s soul.

Parts Daniel Johnston and avant-cabaret show, it demands attention from the opening clatter of a cassette recorder and ensuing dinked-out piano and spoke-sung rhymes of the one-minute "recognized."

By any measure, More Blood, More Tracks is a monumentally important document in the history of popular music and a gem in Dylan's catalog.

Hunt has outdone himself, and it's possible he's just getting started.

Life Somewhere Else makes its beautiful way across 67 minutes, an album content to take its own sweet time to reach its destination, happily exploring the nooks and crannies along the way.

With Glory, Hadreas discovers a rare balance between approachable songwriting and musical ambition that reinvigorates his music.

Butler sings like Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood used to play, like a lion-tamer whose whip grows shorter with each and every lash. He can barely contain himself, and when he lets loose it's both melodic and primal, like Berlin-era Bowie or British Sea Power.

Holy Hell is both a teardown and a rebuild, and while it isn't always an easy listen, there is some hard-won catharsis to be found in its attempt to distill the messiness of grief into four-minute blasts of sonic demolition.

Her songs are still wounded and far away, but the expanded instrumentation gives them a prismatic glow and makes for one of the most fascinating and repeatable sets from an artist who was already in a class by herself.

Paradise Lost sound as inspired and restless as ever. After all of the stylistic evolution, Obsidian seamlessly and dynamically entwines doom, gothic metal, and post-punk in brilliant songwriting and arrangements that showcase the band still standing, in pure angry, desolate form.

In many ways, the demo sounds like a strong rough draft for the album that followed, with a bit less electric guitar punch and a shade more twang, but documenting performances that are essentially just as strong in terms of chops and commitment, while spotting the subtle differences in the arrangements, is where fans will have the most fun.

Ryder-Jones still favors tranquil ballads and laid-back pop songs more than anything else, but the intimate, detailed arrangements and overall sonic scope of Iechyd Da are transformative.

Both Directions at Once is truly a rare thing: an important discovery from the vault that's also a blast to hear.

It's one of the loosest, most varied, and entertaining albums of its time.

Nothing is simply a banger, a vibe, or a mood, however, as Jordan continues to put as much into her verses as she does her hooks. These are fully developed songs, not one of which is reliant upon a groove.

PSYCHODRAMA has all the makings of a generational classic. Packing dense lyricism, poignant introspection, and resonant production into a neatly compiled concept, Dave's debut album is the product of a MC beyond his years, standing firmly among the Godfathers and Made in the Manors as one of the strongest British rap albums of the decade.

If you can appreciate the style of dubstep employed by Burial, it's easy to fall head over heels for Untrue, an album on which there are absolutely no mainstream-crossover concessions, no ego trips, and no willful stylistic variation--an album where the music, a singular style of it, takes center stage with no distractions or sideshows, where there's never the urge to skip to the next track, because they're all part and parcel of the greater whole.

Collectively, boygenius feels heftier and hookier than Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus do on their own, and this collective instinct towards immediacy pays great dividends: it's bracing to hear such introspective singer/songwriters embrace the pleasures of a united front.

Alone & Unreal: The Best of the Clientele is a well-chosen, emotionally powerful selection of songs that works well as an introduction to any poor soul who may have missed out on the group the first time around, but it also works perfectly as a summation of one of the most enriching musical experiences of the guitar pop era.

While longtime fans may want to replace their original LPs with these quality pressings, this set is well worth the investment for anyone interested in guitar players, blues, and British folk.

The word "Akokán" means "from the heart," and the playing here underscores the translation. While the recording was meant as an homage, the innovations in both charts and performance make it simultaneously modern and timeless.

Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023 is essential listening for Ferry fans, illuminating the broad scope of his musical taste, from glitter rock to synth pop to jazz and beyond, revealing through it all that he has remained as indelible as ever.

It's much more daunting to continue making records that forge a new creative path or write songs that explore new territory. Strawberries does both of those things and proves that Robert Forster is no nostalgia act -- he's still creating records as intense, meaningful, and dangerous as anything he's done in the past.

A thrilling glimpse into one of the pianist's most vital periods.

Their studio albums solidified Can's reputation as one of the most important and groundbreaking bands of their time, but Stuttgart 1975 exemplifies how that creative spirit translated to the stage, highlighting yet another side of Can's limitless ability.

Maps is one of woods' most accessible and relatable efforts, containing some of his clearest, most vivid narratives.

This certainly goes a long way to illustrating that Petty & the Heartbreakers always delivered the goods, but it's somewhat at the expense of forward momentum; it's hard not to wish that it was arranged chronologically, to be able to hear the raw energy give way to easy skill, but that's just nitpicking--any way you look at it, this Live Anthology offers an overdose of prime rock & roll.

Shifting from pounding rock to experimental jazz at a feather’s touch, the album’s sonics provide the theatrical soundscape to Sumney’s words, rising and falling in line with his crystalline tones.

The album is not the flawless statement against complacency the band seemed to strive for, but it succeeds at tearing heads off, shooting fascists, and quickly asking questions later with unbelievable fury. For these reasons alone, it easily serves as one of the band's highest marks.

On Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions, the Dream Syndicate aim for mood and atmosphere rather than showing off their chops, and the performances serve the nuances of the songs without pushing them to places they don't want to do.

Despite its lyrical intensity, there is an abundance of passion and joy in Mdou Moctar's music that can't help but spill over with communal energy. This is a band and artist working at their peak, and Funeral for Justice is a career highlight.

G Stands for Go-Betweens is a labor of love, carefully put together by Forster with obvious affection, and essential for any fan of the band, especially those who treasure their tumultuous formative years over their more full-formed, yet still quite tumultuous, later period.

Even for longtime fans, Savage Young Dü is revelatory, charting a young band's progress as it achieved its potential for greatness.

While 50 offers a fitting tribute on the occasion of Neu!'s first recordings reaching the half-century milestone, more than anything it reminds us that there's never a bad time to listen to Neu!

Z is intuitive, intensely creative, classicist-minded, nearly flawless.

In concert, the Replacements sounded like a tighter version of classic Replacements, and the same can be said of the Matt Wallace version of Don't Tell a Soul, which is why Dead Man's Pop is such a blessing: this set helps make this era seem like a grand farewell from the band instead of the beginning of a messy end.

The collection's hand-curated feel is much more personal than the average best-of or streaming play list. The idiosyncratic track list shuffles the pages of the Stripes' songbook, bringing new life to their music in the process. While there are plenty of expected choices here ("Fell in Love with a Girl," "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," "The Hardest Button to Button") that still sound great, the set goes deeper with songs that are just as strong if not quite as well known.

As her most satisfying, artful, and accessible album yet, St. Vincent earns its title.

At this point in their story arc, Bannon, Kurt Ballou, Nate Newton, and Ben Koller really don't have anything to prove, which makes it all the more impressive that they haven't let up on trying to do just that.

This blend of contemporary attitudes and classic sounds is insinuating and addictive, particularly because at nine songs, it's too brief--once it's through, the album practically begs you to start all over again.

If the first album was the supernova, RTJ2 is the RTJ universe forming, proving that Mike and El-P's one-off can be a going, and ever growing, concern.

The record offers something to nearly every audience that could approach it, with a bit of a groove for electronic fans, an obtuse sense of music-making for experimentalists, and a dreamy melodicism sure to endear it to indie-pop fans.

The intricacy of the band's sound remain[s], but with less experimental desperation and considerably better ideas.

There's little doubt to Since I Left You's status as one of the most intimate and emotional dance records that isn't vocal-based.

Robyn continues to make the trends instead of following them, and with Honey, she enters her forties with some of her most emotionally satisfying and musically innovative music.

With Eternity, In Your Arms, Creeper have truly proven themselves masters of the dark arts, as they've managed to create something as genuinely inspired as it is stylistically derivative.

Kiwanuka stands head and shoulders above it as a complex, communicative, poetic, and sometimes even profound collection that wears its heart on its sleeve and its sophistication in its grooves.

The alternates of songs that were on the albums are interesting but not revelatory, but hearing these early versions of songs that appeared on later albums is pretty fascinating.

It feels live, immediate.

Ultimately, on Dreams and Daggers, with its balanced framework of live and studio recordings, happy and sad romantic songs, small group and classical chamber pieces, Salvant remains as bold and as sharp as ever.

On-stage, these same songs straighten themselves out and, in the process, get a touch lighter. On Tonight's the Night, it often appeared as if Young and his crew learned the songs as they recorded them, but on Roxy, the Santa Monica Flyers have the changes under their belts and are really in the mood to have a good time.

Vocally, Ware has somehow found another gear, turning in her most commanding performances while having what sounds like a ball with her background singers.

A copy of Soul'd Out should be in every public library. Stax fanatics will find that it superbly complements the four Complete Stax/Volt Singles boxed sets.

Their commitment to the people they write about and their instincts about crafting music to match make this a stunningly powerful work that may well turn out to be a masterpiece.

Racism and its side effects, from theft of culture and land to willful distortions and ignorance of black achievement, weigh heaviest on Woods' mind, yet her voice maintains a sweetness, unfurling like ribbon over the rhythms.

Completely unrelenting; thoroughly amazing.

This is the Welsh iconoclast at his most elegant, energetic, and innovative.

A mesmerizing 11-song set that pairs bracing hardcore with expansive symphonic and post-metal.

RTJ4 distills the anger and frustration of the people through Run the Jewels' hard-hitting, no-nonsense revolution anthems. Trim with no filler, this fourth set from the outspoken duo provides relevant history lessons that are more useful than a classroom textbook.

La Vita Nuova is a fine complement to the Chris era.

On this stunning debut, Sawayama captures Dua Lipa's future nostalgia and Poppy's metal-meets-pop savvy, rightfully making it her own with more depth, bigger thrills, and a limitless palette.

It's a potent celebration of life amidst chaos and cruel fate, and while it still doesn't sound exactly happy, in its way it is the most optimistic LP Cave has ever made.

Geese at their most chaotic, delivering an assured yet jarring set of no wave-tinged art-rock missives -- "Trinidad," "Cobra," and "Taxes" -- that are as unnerving as they are affecting.

Even setting sequencing, production, and stylistic reference points aside, EELS is simply chock-full of great songs.

I Love You Jennifer B is pop at its most baffling, but its considered arrangement keeps the album not just listenable, but thrilling, even as it dives off of various sonic cliffs into the unknown.

Black Origami is a monumental achievement, yet it still seems like Jlin is just getting started.

It's never really obvious who is playing what here, but it doesn't seem to matter on an album so moving, immersive and mysterious, organic and otherworldly. Sprague and her bandmates hanging out on a porch upstate managed to make a record that delivers simple songs, artful sound exploration, deep emotions, and comfort all at once.

To call Bachelor No. 2 a masterpiece may be overstating the matter somewhat, since an album this intimate and unassuming (but not unconfident) doesn't call attention to itself the way self-styled masterpieces do. However, it isn't hyperbole to call it the finest record Mann has made to date.

Though she may have initially built her reputation on stark and brittle atmospheres, it turns out that her trademark vulnerability is only elevated by these stirring, highly stylized interpretations, making it a risk that pays off in spades.

He has certainly harnessed the zeitgeist.

While Dabice and Mannequin Pussy might be worried that their destructive Dark Phoenix energy is too much to take, I Got Heaven is an album of apocalyptic rock & roll bliss.

As a vocalist, Parks shows even greater versatility, matching modes ranging from breathy siren to tough MC with productions that dish out flickering electronics, atmospheric breaks, blown-out trap, and knocking hip-hop soul. Resilience, joy, and power emanate from all of it.

This remains some of their finest work to date, and whether you missed them back in the day or are updating your library, this set is a must.

It is aesthetically attractive while being emotionally and intellectually resonant; pop music can hope for no more.

Written from the heart and dredged from pop music's boneyard, Shortly After Takeoff feels like the album Christinzio has been working toward his whole career.

Aside from the delicate "Anti-Romantic," the rest of the effort keeps the energy high with its hybrid blend of electronic, hip-hop, and anthemic rock flourish, resulting in a wholly engaging listen that ends all too soon.

Highway Butterfly is remarkable because there isn't a weak song or performance included.

The focus on deeply intuitive, sophisticated improvisation integrated with Luthert's instinctive, tasteful electronics is welcoming, adventurous, and abundantly creative.

Whether it's with the themes of romantic heartbreak and bodily autonomy, or the global boundary-pushing musicality at play on Mélusine, Salvant's work is transcendent.

The lyrics are wryly humorous, the music gritty and steamy. There isn't a dull moment here. Get it.

An indispensable addition not only to the Analog Africa catalog but to the burgeoning cultural conversation around the significance, import, and variety of techniques, innovations, aesthetics, and attitudes in African music-making from the era.

Tight, simple, and effective, Hit Me Hard and Soft does just that: it comes in with a bang, thrilling with fresh production and heavy lyrical content, before easing the listener into the murky emotional depths seen on the cover art.

Nobody Loves You More is some of her finest music yet, and while any of these songs would've been a standout with one of her other projects, it's all the sweeter that they're hers alone.

A Paradise in the Hold is a masterpiece, a work of tremendous sensitivity and creative insight brought to life by a musical visionary capable of advancing and remaking 21st century jazz.

Refreshing honesty and reflective insight might not be as exciting as the immediate pop bangers, but they help elevate Midnight Sun to something more refined and graceful. Short and sweet, this catalog highlight benefits from its length, offering just enough of what Larsson does best to have listeners craving more of this endless bliss.

Miles at the Fillmore - Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 3 is an essential addition to the Davis canon.

There's no heaviness here, no sense of torment. Even when he's singing about a "Swamp of Sadness" and wondering "If the Sun Never Rises Again," it's clear that Simpson has made his way through the darkness, settling into a place where he's utterly comfortable in his skin and scars.

The CD edition is especially nice--a fold-out cardboard package with sharp, true-to-the-era artwork for each disc. It tops the double-vinyl edition, a truncated and smart selection made by the Roots' Captain Kirk Douglas, released months earlier for Record Store Day.

Big Fish Theory cements Staples' status as one of the most talented and forward-thinking voices in rap in the late 2010s.