I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair highlights how Owens can write songs detailing life's harshest miseries and somehow twist them until the main takeaways are hope and gratitude. It's a rare feat, and Owens accomplishes it on many of these songs, making the album not just a collection of some of his strongest work but a humbling reminder to remember to be thankful for what we have while we have it.

Distant Call: Collected Demos [2000-2006] is a heartfelt farewell from an act whose inspired -- and inspiring -- music will always leave fans wanting more.

Even compared to the brilliance of Elverum's albums in the late 2010s and early 2020s, Night Palace holds a special place in his discography. This document of the peace he found while reassembling his life and his music offers a deeply rewarding experience for fans who have loved his sound at any stage of his career.

In the end the album is strangely uplifting and yes, cleansing, as he washes out the sadness, pain, and suffering he's been through and ends up on his feet, bruised but still ready to carry on. By the end of the record, listeners are liable to feel the same way. There are no barriers or guardrails here, it's an unblinking gaze into the abyss, and victory over that bleakness, that can be shared by anyone brave enough to tag along.

Ecce Homo registers as strong, wildly creative, focused, and vulnerable. It may be his solo masterpiece.

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.

With Shawn, Mendes has crafted an album of sustained confessional intimacy, one that continually invites you to listen closely.

Pursuing their independence has led to some of their most widely appealing songs, and Sniff More Gritty is the musically inventive, emotionally direct, razor-sharp album Du Blonde has always had in them.

Mahashmashana, despite its weighty poeticism and nostalgic sonic grandeur, feels rooted in the here and now. Tillman is still a keen and sardonic observer of the human condition, but here he directs the proceedings with a gravitas that finally feels earned.

GNX is a pillar of reflective realness, a flag planted in the lineage of Black musical visionaries, a silhouette of the West Coast in the high beams of fame -- and Kendrick's most speaker-knocking set to date.

[The] Last Will and Testament is among Opeth's most adventurous and sophisticated outings. Like a cross between Watershed and In Cauda Venenum, it's heavier and more adventurous than either while bringing the band's past, present, and future under a single creative umbrella.

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.

This handsomely packaged box offers stellar sound across four discs. The sound on the final two suffers a bit as Carter's playing is sometimes difficult, though not impossible to hear: It's a minor, fleeting irritation.

While White Denim's stylistic touchstones are certainly at play on 12, the album feels less like a band working through their influences and more like one coming fully realized into their own.

If made by a group other than them, might have topped year end list made by serious music publications. As it is, the record will likely exist as a lost treasure to be excavated years down the road to be loved and emulated. Saint Etienne have more than their share of great albums over the years, chalk this up as one of the best and proof that the band have become more than just a brilliant pop act.

Debí Tirar Más Fotos is a Puerto Rican triumph, as verdant as its foliage and as vital as its cause. Hollering “Yo soy de P fucking R” from the rooftops, Bad Bunny roots himself in his homeland, yet again proving himself one of his generation’s most potent voices.

Think of Mist is another affecting and impressive release from an artist who should have more eyes on her creations.

Force Majeure is a small-scale triumph that's built on musicians sweating it out in small rooms, cranking the amps until the begin to crackle, and plugging directly into the still beating heart of rock & roll.

With its widescreen romantic grandeur and orchestral sweep, it feels like the culmination of both his personal and artistic ambitions. If misty moor-walking weren't just for the lovelorn, this would be its soundtrack.

FKA twigs has guided listeners through a remarkably honest song cycle. The complexities are where her music thrives, and EUSEXUA abounds with them.

Matt Berry has been releasing albums for a long time -- some of them inevitably better than others. Heard Noises ranks right near the top, and if the sun hits it just right and one squints a little, it might be sitting merrily atop the very summit.

It's when the band is in full swing that Oldham sounds tuned-in and excited (even giddy) to be crafting the kind of classic country record that he's enjoyed so much himself. The depth of the production helps deliver this feeling, elevating the sound of The Purple Bird to a place where all of its carefully placed details and rusty joy can be clearly heard, and even more markedly felt.

Honey from a Winter Stone is arguably the most forward-thinking, emotionally vulnerable, and moving album in Akinmusire's catalog. It offers an intimate musical language that transcends genres while being at home in them all.

This is special, timeless music that speaks equally to the heart and the brain and it positions Horsegirl as the keepers of the indie rock flame.

McRae delivers on the promise of Think Later, levelling up with this set of addictive pop gems and heartfelt confessionals.

List of Demands is both archival and of the present -- engrossing and energizing, to be blasted from every boombox.

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.

This is a life-affirming triumph of an album that dares to be uplifting during difficult times.