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

Black Country, New Road remain one of the most intriguing indie bands of the 2020s, and their flair for reinvention makes every release a thrill.

With The Crux, Keery doesn't just prove he more than owns his space in the pop world as Djo, he's found a home.

In an unexpected way, this is also June's most overtly pop record; despite its genre-hopping nature, her melodies are insistent and memorable with strong hooks and relatively short runtimes. Although the tempos wane during the album's second half, its quality persists.

Though less immediate and accessible than his earlier work, Time Indefinite is another career highlight that pushes Tyler boldly into the future.

If you fell in love with Sunflower Bean's early indie-pop and marveled at their turn towards alt-rock cool, Mortal Primetime is the best of both worlds; an assured album of rock and roll magic, dusted with emotive pop pathos.

Here's to Thackray seeing a payoff beyond this brilliant and enriching work of art.

The second chapter in their collaborative work is such a natural progression that it feels simultaneously like a continuation of a single moment and light years ahead of where they started.

Toledo is young enough that it's premature to call The Scholars a masterpiece, though it's unquestionably his finest work to date and one of the best albums of 2025.

A resounding return, The World Is Still Here and So Are We suggests the planet is that much better with Mclusky back on it

Sleep Token's music, at the core, is absolutely gorgeous escapism executed by a highly-proficient, imaginative outfit. They've leveled-up to the mainstream majors on Even in Arcadia, a heart-rending beauty that is wholly unexpected.

Throughout Animaru, Semones and her band play with dynamics, dramatic pauses, chord voicings, harmonics, and a steady stream of surprises -- the closer is a waltz -- resulting in a memorable debut that's much more likely to delight than challenge.

Capturing the inspiring spark in bygone visions of what the future could be is one of Stereolab's greatest strengths, and the brilliant ways they do this on Instant Holograms on Metal Film don't just live up to their legacy -- they push it forward.

It's definitely a milestone and a career highlight, as well as a release that anyone who likes real live, breathing and bleeding rock & roll should be glad exists.

With membership that includes guitarists, string players, multiple percussionists, instrumentalist-vocalists, a woodwindist, and a brass specialist. their sophomore album, caroline 2, is at least as intoxicating as previous releases. Paradoxically exciting and narcotic at the same time.

More is classic Pulp, aged to near perfection.

Bookended by the rousing title track and radiant "Magic Man," it's a success from start to finish, offering a deft blend of surprise and satisfaction.

Echo delivers on the promise of Happy, surpassing that debut with improved production, more daring choices, and impossible-to-resist choruses.

It's a throwback vibe, evoking the flannel-laden days of '90s underground pop guitar groups like Dinosaur Jr., Sloan, and Teenage Fanclub; unabashed touchstones for Anderson whose work on Raspberry Moon believably lives up to the comparisons.

Tracks II: The Lost Albums never sounds like a box full of also-ran material – in fact, several of these LPs are decidedly superior to most of his work of the 2000s and 2010s – and makes the case that Bruce Springsteen is a more eclectic and ambitious artist than he sometimes lets on.

Do It Afraid is another impelling triumph from a thriving musical dynamo.

On Virgin, she is transcendentally witchy, harmonizing with herself both literally and spiritually, a pop star in the throes of creative rebirth.

. isn't just a good album, it's a decisively great one, full stop.

While the group's sound is timeless, their lyrics are often distinctly modern.

These recordings are not just charming, but along with the other studio out-takes, portray a young artist who’s excited about an opportunity to realize his songs to their highest potential, and motivated to do some homework in preparation. Famously, Drake’s music was gloriously, beautifully sad, but The Making of Five Leaves Left helps show that the experience of creating it was a thing of great joy.

The songs bleed together in a way that invites the record to be listened to from front to back, with Open Mike Eagle's existential metaphors and semi-abstract flows melting into an interconnected statement best experienced in its totality.

With this album, Neale manages to translate existential torment into strange and beautiful sounds, yet again progressing with the chimerical vision of rock & roll that's uniquely her own.

Without diminishing her legacy as the mainstream bounce ambassador to the world, this gospel turn ends up being the most meaningful and powerful album of her career to date.