U
The former electro-pop enfant terrible swings big on her latest album, compressing all her split personalities and eclectic tastes into a high-gloss, high-stakes gamble to remake pop on her own terms.
Girlfriend
The reigning champ of indie pop returns with a razor-sharp, refreshingly self-serious album that plays like a travelogue from disarray to recovery.
TIGRAY FUNK
The Tigray-born, DMV-raised rapper’s latest album is a dazed survey of personal highs and lows, his stream-of-consciousness flow riding roughshod over his producers’ strangest beats.
Still Right Here
The Maryland rapper taps some of SoundCloud’s coolest producers for a full-length solo debut of atmospheric, cybernetic avant-trap. His punch-ins fill more pockets than a tactical vest.
Blame the Clown
The New Orleans punk duo channels American country and folk music for a raw, righteous, and impressively original sound. Their second record is Southern garage rock at its best.
As of Now
The Charlotte rapper’s latest album is the height of his ability. The vignettes of heartbreak and hustling come with absurdist wit and an outstanding selection of beats.
Singin’ to an Empty Chair
Bringing their country-tinted indie rock to boundless new landscapes, the Chicago band returns with their most emotionally affecting and compositionally advanced songs to date.
URGH
The noise-rock band’s second album is a breakthrough: insidiously catchy, incomprehensibly groovy, and fueled by righteous fury.
Xavier
The New York rapper’s debut is a cult rap record with big ambition. Cool, chaotic, and hyper-curious, Xav blows up his sound without losing his style.
Peanut
The New York musician’s latest album, his first with vocals, is a gently psychedelic tour of his mind, pairing surrealistic lyrics with watery pop-ambient soundscaping.
Marty Supreme (Original Soundtrack)
The electronic composer meets the larger-than-life film on its level, building the palette he’s honed over the years into a totalizing prism of sound.
I Tried to Tell You
Embellishing DMV drill with retro R&B, Southern-style storytelling, and striking moments of vulnerability, the DC rapper’s album is simultaneously regional and singular.
Tranquilizer
Drawing on a cache of commercial sample CDs, Daniel Lopatin assembles an impossibly dense and transportive electronic album that takes impermanence as its inspiration.
Out the Blue
On their breakout album, the Baton Rouge rappers wear the championship belt for best duo out of the city, churning out big trash-talking tunes with fat-ass basslines made to set the clubs off.
LUX
The Spanish singer’s fourth record is a heartfelt offering of avant-garde classical pop that roars through genre, romance, and religion.
Rhythm Immortal
The Brussels-based producer fled the strictures of techno and drum’n’bass in search of a freer sound. On his astonishing debut LP under a new alias, he seems to rewrite the laws of physics.
The BPM
Brittney Parks’ tense and virtuosic new album documents a life in motion, blending breakups and rebounds, dancefloor euphoria and everyday anxiety.
Goodness
The London singer embraces the darkness on her quiet and ominous full-length debut—it’s one of the most breathtakingly beautiful albums of the year.
Through the Wall
The Toronto singer returns with a sleek, perfectly executed club record for the late-night crew. Her restrained vocals and velvet hooks are top class.
Getting Killed
The recent metamorphosis of the New York band, led by singer-songwriter Cameron Winter, has produced one of the best, strangest, and most compelling rock records of the year.
Sysivalo
On a posthumous album from the pioneering Finnish electronic artist, Mika Vainio’s enduring interest in capturing the vastness of sound is distilled into pieces that feel both atmospheric and tactile.
Blurrr
The UK singer-songwriter’s sixth album is spectral and breathtaking. It’s a mood record of immense solitude, beauty, and free expression—with a crucial assist from the cellist Oliver Coates.
Bleeds
Karly Hartzman leads her North Carolina band in another triumph. The careful songwriting and coiled performances wrestle with the many fiascos of life and love.
Trying Not to Have a Thought
Philly’s emo-revival heroes are back to show us how it’s done. The band’s first new album in 14 years threads their finger-tapped riffs with familiar camaraderie and new social consciousness.
A Danger to Ourselves
The Colombian musician trades her typically fantastical subject matter for an album steeped in the immediacy of desire. The theme may be universal, but her sounds are as thrillingly out there as ever.
Burnover
The Vermont singer’s pretty great second album has got wit, romance, and sublime songwriting. It’s an unassuming collection of tunes that belongs in the heartland slacker rock canon.
RA.1000
Terre Thaemlitz’s new Resident Advisor mix, echoing a performance in Brooklyn this month, interrogates Israeli genocide, American complicity, and dance music’s ability to seed change.
Live Laugh Love
Earl is on another level. The way he deploys his skill, humor, and encyclopedic knowledge of hip-hop has made him one of the most effortlessly deep and cool rappers alive.
The Passionate Ones
Marcus Brown’s remarkable new album beefs up his airy, omnivorous R&B, searching for a sound tough enough to sustain the daily grind and big enough to keep the dream alive.
It’s a Beautiful Place
Nate Amos and Rachel Brown’s latest knotty LP is super chill and totally destabilizing. To call it their “guitar record” would be an injustice to the range and the humor they find in it.
