I can’t tell you why I like some hip-hop albums more than others because I just don’t have the subject matter expertise. I just know there’s some genuine pain that comes through on this album, which puts it at odds with the bravado inherent in hip-hop. Clipse navigates that tension like the masters they are.
Tyler Childers, Snipe Hunter
Remember Sturgill Simpson’s A Soldier’s Guide to the Earth from nearly a decade back? This album might be Tyler Childers’ Soldier’s Guide.
Amanda Shires, Nobody’s Girl
I’m calling it now — Amanda Shires has released the better divorce album of 2025, but Jason Isbell’s fame all but guarantees Foxes in the Snow will occupy the discourse. And I can’t say I liked that album.
Kathleen Edwards, Billionaire
I like Kathleen Edwards, but I don’t buy enough of her albums to consider myself a fan. Billionaire, though, is the most confident work I’ve heard from her. Gena Johnson and Jason Isbell co-produced the album, and they coaxed some beefy performances from Edwards.
Patty Griffin, Crown of Roses
This album is haunting. It’s Patty Griffin spliced with the sonic DNA of Mazzy Star’s She Hangs Brightly.
Ringdown, Lady on the Bike
I just like the idea that a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer (Caroline Shaw) formed a pop duo and made an album that could dug by music composition majors and electronic dance fans.
Julia Fordham, Julia Fordham
I remember music magazines trying to lump Julia Fordham with Edie Brickell, Sinéad O’Connor and Tracy Chapman. She’s more similar to Basia and Swing Out Sister but with a deeper jazz vocabulary.
Davóne Tines and The Truth, Robeson
This theater piece based on the life of Paul Robeson takes a lot musical twists and turns, but it never loses its throughline. It’s essentially a sonic time machine traveling through American music history.
Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, Rectangles and Circumstance
Is this an indie rock album? You could be forgiven for mistaking it as one. Shaw and Sō Percussion give enough of a veneer to make the case, but their modern classical expertise is never far away.
Turnstile, NEVER ENOUGH
I like this album a lot, but when I look up the definition of hardcore, it’s usually next to a picture of Hüsker Dü.
John Zorn, Prolegomena
Not much different from his string quartets, but still thrilling to hear.
Released in 1983, Fuuyuu Kuukan is an album ahead of its time. Yes, it’s got its moments of era-appropriate city pop, but other times, it sounds like it could have been made in 2024.
Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess
The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess was released in September 2023, but it didn’t really take off till 2024. Part of me really wants to include this album in the Favorite Edition 2024 list, but I will abide by the letter of the law and call it one of the best catalog finds of the year.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL -First Code 2000-2003-
The music in this boxed set is thoroughly vetted, and I’ve even come around to THIS ARMOR, which I didn’t actually like at the time of release.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
John Zorn doesn’t usually talk to the press, but he did speak to Rolling Stone years back about how his ensembles have influenced heavy metal and vice versa. Zorn pushes his collaborators to do things they can’t picture themselves doing, and the resulting performances brim with nervous energy that always sounds confident. All that is on display with Simulacrum.
Yellow Magic Orchestra, Naughty Boys
The path from Kraftwerk and Roxy Music to the Human League and Duran Duran runs through Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Princess Goes, Come of Age
Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum has truncated their name, and on this second album, the songwriting has gotten tighter. The band’s debut THANKS FOR COMING felt a bit scattered, but on this outing, they’ve created an album that holds together from start to finish.
SZA, CTRL
Yes, yes, I’m a late-comer to SZA, which all you all have known about for the past seven years. (I gave SOS a shot on the streaming services, but I never gave it a second listen. Maybe I should.) The remarkable thing here is that I bought a used copy of the vinyl record. It’s harder to find recent hit albums like this one as used CDs.
Shannon, Let the Music Play
The title track of this album is a classic, but it cast such a long shadow that the album from which it came gets overlooked. No, the remaining tracks aren’t as strong as “Let the Music Play,” but they aren’t complete filler either.
Xenakis Minor, XM1
There is some ferocious piano playing on this sprawling three-track EP, which clocks in at 41 minutes. (I’m not making the rules here. That’s what they call it.) And it’s prog rock. Actually prog rock on a piano, no guitars. Sit with that for a while.
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