Where the slightly showier Pushin' Against a Stone covered a wider variety of styles, The Order of Time tends to flow more smoothly and gives the feeling that you've stumbled on a 45-minute section of ongoing music that has no beginning and no end.

Previously, her cleverness was her strong suit, but on Golden Hour, she benefits from being direct, especially since this frankness anchors an album that sounds sweetly blissful, turning this record the best kind of comfort: it soothes but is also a source of sustenance.

A triumph, Chris reaffirms just how masterfully she engages minds, hearts, and bodies.

Tigers Blood is the rarest of things: an album that feels familiar upon its surface and idiosyncratic in its details.

The set is essential to any fan, and these records are near-perfect documents of the roots of indie rock and D.I.Y. culture that started growing in the unheard music and handmade expressions of the early '90s.

A cathartic yet poised album, one that weighs a ton and levitates.

If you like your pop a little left of center and found the Postal Service to be too cute and syrupy, your fix is here.

It's a wounded if proud and defiant response that draws from vintage high-tech R&B and art pop -- the 1982-1987 era with greatest frequency -- with all sharp edges melted off.

All Aftab's earlier recordings are captivating. That said, Night Reign is a powerful, sensuous, and commanding illustration of the artist's mature vision. It reveals just how receptive, and even vulnerable she is to the spirits of creative inquiry, possibility, and revelation.

Some portions sound raw enough to have been generated on the spot, prioritizing feeling over "proper" songs. Certain tracks offer little more than riffing and moodscapes, yet all 19 are shaped into a concise flowing whole with subtle twists and turns.

More than anything else, We Are Not Your Kind feels locked-in on a personal level -- that aforementioned sense of melancholy resides uncomfortably close to the surface throughout -- and that human touch resonates, even as the band unleashes volley after volley of tribal rhythms, scorching riffage, and fathomless decibels.

Stripped of all her carnivalesque accouterments, Fiona Apple remains as rich and compelling as she ever was, perhaps even more so.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is a perfectly organized record, not a note out of place, not a second wasted.

A difficult, but defining statement, made at the height of their powers.

An album that, for all of its flaws, is still easily one of the best rock records of 2002.

Perhaps she's too subtle to be a stadium-filling superstar, but the superb 12 Stories showcases a unique artist who stands firmly, proudly on her own merits.

Truly a band for the times, Squid feels like a wild jumble of thoughts come to life, effusing anger, confusion, humor, detachment, and even joyfulness in their pursuit of true creative freedom.

Many of their B-sides are just as good as their album tracks, so it's terrific to see them collected onto a single disc. But a number of factors make it somewhat disappointing, not the least of which is that Complete B-Sides is available only as a U.K. import, due to U.S. licensing problems.

This self-titled album is a fitting tribute to Toure’s and Diabate’s genius and friendship, and is a beautiful farewell.

The pair find comfort within each other, yet they cannot shake the yearning for other people and places, a complex set of emotions that were quite universal during 2020 and 2021 and are richly conveyed on this soulful, searching album.

Though not as hardcore as D-2 or youthfully raucous as Agust D, D-Day is the most emotionally mature offering from Suga's alter ego to date, carrying him another step forward in his evolution.

All Hell stands as one of their most consistent albums while simultaneously being bolder and more unrestrained than usual.

Sale el Sol never once sounds disparate or overworked -- it's sunny and easy, its natural buoyancy disguising Shakira's range and skill -- but listen closely and it becomes apparent that nobody makes better pop records in the new millennium than she does.

The opening trilogy of "Disintegrate," "Dancing with the Europeans," and the title track alone are some of the most thrilling moments in Suede's discography, especially since their 2013 reunion on Bloodsports.

Clark has more than earned the freedom she gives herself to express so many different sides to her music, and it's a thrill to hear her stretch out on these ferocious, heartbroken, and ultimately life-affirming songs.

It's a lavish, well-considered and executed set that makes for quite the splurge for a Beatles fan with a nice phonograph set.

A lean, furious, cold-blooded album that is vividly to-the-point.

Even if you already have all the EPs, you'll want to get this disc. It is reasonable priced, housed in the usual attractive package, and hearing all the songs back to back reinforces what an amazing group Belle & Sebastian were and are.

It's the kind of thing that requires a commitment from the listener, but Saigon and the people around him are talented enough to pull it off, even to make it enjoyable, which makes The Greatest Story Never Told one definitely worth hearing.

Despite--or perhaps because of--its brevity (just over 30 minutes), El Mal Querer is arresting in its tension, passion, and creative ingenuity.

When all is said and done, they remain fantastic songwriters, able to convey a variety of emotions without relying on the trappings of punk. The corners may have been sanded off, but it has only revealed new and interesting textures underneath.

Gregory Porter's sophomore effort confirms the talent that was so apparent on his debut.

Not only is it nice for long-time fans of his work, it gives those looking for someone making these kinds of desperately beautiful, painfully human songs a new artist to discover and love.

Despite its arcane references and philosophical nature, Blómi remains approachable and is often quite moving. That Sundfør continues to make such consistently challenging music and be justly rewarded for it is its own small miracle, and with Blómi she reaches yet another career high.

Riderless Horse does indeed present her in a new way, though the remarkable talent that was on display in her previous work is still here, as powerful and moving as ever.

Sprawling and intimate, breezy and affecting, Women in Music Pt. III is a low-key triumph.

It's obvious that Superunknown was consciously styled as a masterwork, and it fulfills every ambition.

Close to the Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984 collects four discs of the alternately thrilling, grim, silly, and just plain bizarre stuff.

There's a Dream I've Been Saving is a prime cultural artifact documenting a high point in an independent era in pop recording, production, and D.I.Y. aesthetics. It deserves a Grammy for content and design.

It adds up to another pitch perfect album by the band, certainly one of their best and most devastatingly pretty works. In a career full of brilliance, that's saying ever so much.

It could be argued that Live at the Fillmore, 1997 is the definitive live portrait of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: not only do they sound mighty, this freewheeling eclecticism rooted in 1960s rock and pop is the best showcase of the band's aesthetic.

Musgraves has a sense of humor, too, and all of these traits add up to make Same Trailer Different Park more than a collection of songs just aiming for the country charts.

It's the work of a master musician/producer paying wonderful tribute to Scott-Heron for sure, but it's also a fully realized McCraven album, chock-full of his instrumental, arrangement, and production prowess. If you didn't know better, you'd swear this was a collaborative date.

That's a lot of repetition but whether it's taken in either its single-disc or double-disc deluxe editions, The Sound of the Smiths is the best of these posthumous overviews.

Freed of commercial expectations and paired with an empathetic band, Wynonna will sing anything she damn well pleases and she's wound up with a monster of an album.

None of these are precisely new tricks for Swift but her writing from the explicit vantage of other characters, as on the epic story-song "the last great american dynasty," is. Combined, the moodier, contemplative tone and the emphasis on songs that can't be parsed as autobiography make folklore feel not like a momentary diversion inspired by isolation but rather the first chapter of Swift's mature second act.

Joe Strummer 002 is worth its weight simply for containing remastered versions of all three Mescaleros albums, but the copious liner notes, ephemera, and bonus disc of demos and rarities make it essential.

Most of LongGone feels deeply organic, with Redman and his bandmates feeding off each other and working to build something cohesive and bigger than their individual contributions.

The fine track list, together with the rarity value, should make this a high priority on the purchase list of Neil Young fans or, indeed, rock fans.

Anyone who enjoyed The Dirty South as it appeared in 2004 will find The Complete Dirty South rewarding, and those who haven't heard it owe it to themselves to hear it in uncompromised form.

Yours, Mine & Ours is a truly grand record, another in the string of classic releases by Joe Pernice.... The kind of record fans of intelligent pop music played with real emotion should purchase. Immediately.

Chutes Too Narrow's breezy subtlety is less accessible than the Shins' debut, but that doesn't mean the album lacks great songs.

Michael Gira is a man unafraid to follow his muse wherever it may take him, and To Be Kind is another example of his singular vision writ large without compromise.

Taken together, Valentine represents both a bold musical step and a signal that Jordan is ready to move on in more ways than one, at the same time that it leaves some of her distinctiveness behind.

American Band is an op-ed column with guitars, and it presents a message well worth hearing, both as politics and as music.

Come All Ye: The First Ten Years is essential listening. For fans, all of this is necessary, for the curious, start with the studio offerings (there are two fine offerings entitled Five Classic Albums, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) or the double-disc Gold from 2008.

Ultimately, War Music doesn't sound especially innovative, particularly stacked up against their 1998 masterpiece The Shape of Punk to Come. But it speaks to a world still wrestling with problems that have divided society for centuries, and Refused aren't rehashing old arguments so much as they're launching one more campaign in a war they cannot bear to surrender.

A remarkable album with more gateways than a knowing mixtape, Essex Honey shows that Hynes is as ingenious as a would-be DJ, A&R, and talent connector as he is as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer.

At its most chaotic, Hypermagic Mountain could tear open a wormhole into Comets on Fire's Blue Cathedral.

This sequel may have little to do with the original, but if the title helps to point out this is the Shaolin poet's best work since 1995's Pt. 1, then so be it.

An album that's not only satisfying, but one of the band's strongest works to date.

At just 30 years old and with seven albums to her credit, Marling's songwriting has been honed to a level of literate maturity that few artists achieve in their careers.

With this flawless effort, she manages to achieve both. Future Nostalgia could have just as well been titled "Future Classic."

At its core, these demos are the sound of Dylan becoming Bob Dylan, and it's an evolution that's spellbinding.

Newsom can make her audience work almost as hard as she does, but the rewards are worth it: Dazzling, profound and affecting, Divers' explorations of time only grow richer the more time listeners spend with them.

Meeting titanic expectations, this linear journey of the heart is Adele's most cohesive statement to date, pairing her inimitable voice with a dozen engrossing vignettes, reminding us that all we can do is keep trying.

Stephin Merritt's most ambitious as well as fully realized work to date, a three-disc epic of classically chiseled pop songs that explore both the promise and pitfalls of modern romance through the jaundiced eye of an irredeemable misanthrope.

The best tracks on this album stand up well against the likes of the Move and the Creation, or at the very least, the Green Pajamas and the Apples in Stereo.

Agreeable yet melancholic and peppered with moments of cinematic Lynch-ian weirdness, it's the purest and most satisfying distillation of Lord Huron's pastoral folk-pop to date, and the perfect soundtrack for a road trip to nowhere.

Longtime fans need not fear that Shomo has gone too mainstream, as evidenced by ragers like "Dominate," "Phantom Pain," and "Hell of It," which pack enough of a punch to keep the mosh pits bruised and bloody. Combining those catchy flourishes with the band's trademark heaviness creates a great balance, and Below winds up being one of Beartooth's most enjoyable and immediate releases to date.

Perhaps it'd be better to sample this ten-disc travelog in pieces--perhaps that's the only way to listen to a box as large as this--but each individual installment provides its own peculiar, satisfying pleasures and, when combined, all the discs paint a deep, detailed portrait of a rocker unlike any other.

Loud City Song is Holter's most polished work to date, and another example of how she upholds and redefines what it means to be an avant-garde singer/songwriter.

A well-balanced marriage of all of Phonte's musical inclinations.

Bad as Me is an aural portrait of all the places he's traveled as a recording artist, which is, in and of itself, illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable.

Radiohead is recognizably the same band that made that pioneering piece of electronica-rock but they're older and wiser on A Moon Shaped Pool, deciding not to push at the borders of their sound but rather settle into the territory they've marked as their own. This may not result in a radical shift in sound but rather a welcome change in tone: for the first time Radiohead feels comfortable in their own skin.

Lives Outgrown reveals Gibbons' music is only getting richer as the years pass.

Masseduction delivers sketches of chaos with stunning clarity. It's the work of an always savvy artist at her wittiest and saddest.

Accelerando is a triumph in creativity and expert musicianship, and further underscores Iyer's status as a genuine jazz innovator.

Formula of Love surpasses expectations, infusing the group's love-centric lyricism with newfound confidence and creative flair. This is one of Twice's most assertive and varied releases to date -- and with a more concise track listing, perhaps their best.

While alternating between regretful slower tracks, midtempo drawls, and livelier, foot-tapping fare, the album never moves off dirt roads and adjacent orchards, and proves to be her most carefree-sounding effort to date. That's despite doggedly self-examining lyrics that keep Saint Cloud squarely in the realm of prior releases from an artist who continues to ward off complacency.

'Dancing Choose's' title is pointed enough that the song almost doesn't need to prove that dancing on your troubles is powerfully therapeutic as thoroughly as it does, but that's just another example of this album's rare balance between craft and passion.

A greater amount of collaboration notwithstanding, Ten Fold couldn't feel more personal, from the in-the-moment experiential songwriting to sampled and recorded appearances from her father, Juice Crew associate Grand Daddy I.U.

Much more than a victory lap, brat and it's completely different but also still brat enriches the Brat listening experience and the understanding of Charli xcx's artistry.

As on Grey Area, there are no dry spells or dips in quality, just a master class in modern songwriting with heaps of poise and a beating, soulful heart.

Proof is a shining example of how to do it well, drawing listeners in with the familiar and enriching the experience with a special, personal touch.

Chaotic, poignant, pretentious, fascinating, and thoroughly entertaining despite or because of it all.

Her previous album was a breakout success for good reason, but My Light, My Destroyer succeeds in all the right ways, pushing Jenkins' songcraft ever forward and expanding her already impressive catalog.

Even more so than woods' other albums, GOLLIWOG is a challenging work dealing with grim yet truthful subject matter, but it's fascinating and enjoyable due to the rapper's brilliant writing and focused delivery, as well as innovative production from his collaborators.

At times, Return to Cookie Mountain threatens to become more impressive than likeable -- a complaint that could also arguably be leveled against Desperate Youth as well -- but fortunately, TV on the Radio reconnects with, and builds on, the intimacy and purity that made Young Liars so striking.

It's the razor-sharp precision of his words that allows for effective interlocking with the rest of the band, so much so that they seem to move through each song as a combined force of nature, matching tight yet crunchy instruments to the poignancy of every syllable.

The band is at the top of their game and the songs all sound great, but more importantly, the messages they're expressing have never been more relevant.

Can't Lose My (Soul) is a shining addition to the Caldwells' legacy and fits beside gospel-soul comps like Overdose of the Holy Ghost, Divine Disco, and Divine Funk.

Tyler's music has always been a patchwork of ever-increasing palettes, and CMIYGL is his most complex to date. Recurring tricks are masterfully melded into new templates.

There are no frills here but there is a distinct, compelling voice evident in Barnett's songs and music alike.

In short, RTJ3 is near perfect in its execution. They're so good at this that it seems almost unfair in its effortlessness.

Significantly less danceable than some of the artist's other albums, the album simultaneously feels more introverted and more expansive.

A daring balance of vulnerability and creative might, Anything Can't Happen is a striking debut.

Most longtime fans will be astonished by von Hausswolff's masterful developmental achievement, as well as the emotional and spiritual power, poetics, and musicality of Iconoclasts. For newcomers, this album presents a near perfect, accessible entry into her recordings.