Aided by the likes of Mattman & Robin, Rodney Jerkins, and Tove Lo, R&B singer Khalid sounds fully liberated on his pop-oriented fourth album.

AllMusic Staff Pick Cryptopsy None So Vile It's incredibly tight, fast, and complex; the riffs are well-placed and darkly catchy; the guitar solos are completely over the top; and the vocals -- a mix of psychotic low-end growls and tortured screams -- are suitably intense and scary.

Jay Som's first LP in six years is a highly collaborative one that's still highlighted by her skillful blend of dreamy and angsty textures.

AllMusic Staff Pick – "Indiscreet" by Sparks Over the years, Sparks has experimented with everything from hard rock to Euro-disco. But power pop is the primary focus of Indiscreet, which was released 50 years ago this month and went down in history as one of the band's best '70s albums.

Ten songs from outlaw icon Waylon Jennings' archive of unreleased 1970s recordings capture him in strong, subtle form.

AllMusic Staff Pick Dadawah Peace and Love Of all the many albums heralding the arrival of roots, and driving it to ascendency in the Jamaican and international reggae market, few were as uncompromising in vision as Ras Michael's Dadawah -- Peace & Love.

What is in the current batch of new classical albums deemed by our reviewers as worthy of a listen? Start with the vocal ensemble Gesualdo Six (pictured) who put together another outstanding program on the new album Radiant Dawn. Find this and many more in our September classical review roundup.

The third album from Upchuck delivers high-intensity hardcore, but also churning grunge, hard rock swagger, and even a couple of melody-adjacent songs.

AllMusic Staff Pick Static-X Wisconsin Death Trip Riding a recent popular resurgence with years of sold-out touring – albeit with a new singer – Static-X hit an early peak with Wisconsin Death Trip, a debut that was so good it overshadowed everything that followed.

The 12th album from global pop star Taylor Swift reflects on fame and maturity from the perspective of someone who's spent most of her life on-stage.

AllMusic Staff Pick Colorama Some Things Just Take Time Despite collecting unused songs written over a period of a decade, the project's seventh studio LP is unlike any other in the psychedelic pop outfit's catalog. It's a spare, singer/songwriter affair by Welshman Carwyn Ellis.

The relentless second album from Nashville punks Snõõper delivers seriously playful anthems of disconnection and overwhelm.

AllMusic Staff Pick Dwight Twilley Band Twilley Don't Mind Still an obscurity decades after its 1977 release, the Dwight Twilley Band's second album is an essential if under-appreciated part of '70s power pop history.

A newly remastered anniversary edition of Oasis' "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" featuring unplugged versions of five classic tracks.

AllMusic Staff Pick Royal Blood Royal Blood The bludgeoning opener to the self-titled debut, "Out of the Black" is a riff-fueled onslaught that belies their two-piece status; with just a heavily processed bass and a drum set between them, they make some four-piece rock bands look inconsequential.

On their tight, focused 12th set, onetime hardcore punks AFI lean into goth-rock and post-punk hero worship.

AllMusic Staff Pick Green Day Warning Warning, released 25 years ago today, may not be an innovative record, but it's tremendously satisfying; it finds the band at a peak of songcraft, doing it all without a trace of self-consciousness. It's the first great pure pop album of the new millennium.

The Nile Rodgers-approved "discodelic" vocal group Say She She turns up the heat with an even more dancefloor-oriented third album.

AllMusic Staff Pick Radiohead Kid A Befitting an album that’s coolly, self-consciously alienating, Kid A, released 25 years ago today, takes time to unfold; multiple plays are necessary just to discern the music's form, to get a handle on quiet drifting songs with no hooks. radiohead.wastehq.social

The seventh solo album from producer/songwriter Cate Le Bon deepens the specificity of her murky, abstract art rock sound and features guest vocals from John Cale.

AllMusic Staff Pick Anna Calvi Hunter From the title track's breathy opening to the soaring melody of "Away," her gift for elucidating the drama of a bygone era is intact and just as effective. If anything, the lustily provocative nature of her artistry reaches its dizzy apex on Hunter.

Singer/rapper Doja Cat conjures an '80s pop fantasia on her fifth album.

AllMusic Staff Pick Diana Ross Diana Ross Her self-titled debut LP is arguably her finest solo work at Motown and perhaps her best. Everyone who doubted whether Ross could sustain a career outside the Supremes found out immediately that she would be a star.

The legendary drummer spoke with AllMusic before the launch of the upcoming Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening tour, and selected his 5 favorite tracks off Physical Graffiti, celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year.

Another dose of pure pop perfection and guitar rock muscle from Canada's indie pop heroes Sloan.

AllMusic Staff Pick MFSB Love Is the Message This 1973 album is a landmark in the Philly Soul canon. While "T.S.O.P." became a giant hit for the group and is forever associated with the television show Soul Train, "Love Is the Message" would go on to be an enormous underground hit in New York.

Neko Case takes the wheel on an elaborately executed album she wrote, produced, and recorded at her own studio.

AllMusic Staff Pick Edgar Froese Epsilon in Malaysian Pale As lush and entrancing as listeners are led to believe from the exotic foliage on the cover, Epsilon in Malaysian Pale, released 50 years ago this month, is the Froese solo record closest in sound to Tangerine Dream.

Youthful abandon and destiny collide on Swedish pop star Zara Larsson's tight fifth set.

AllMusic Staff Pick Common Factor Dreams of Elsewhere Released by Planet E, the only album by Chicago's Common Factor (Nick Calingaert) is a sublime set of loopy, disco-inspired tech-house (the way it sounded in the late '90s), right at home on the same label as releases by Moodymann & Carl Craig.

Robert Plant's newest band gels in a harmony-rich amalgam of Americana and U.K. Midlands mystique. www.allmusic.com/album/saving...

AllMusic Staff Pick Last Exit Last Exit Recorded live in Paris in 1986, Last Exit are in rare form here. Everybody gets in some good licks, but pay special attention to bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, who play against each other creating a tense, brittle beat.

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy celebrates his belief that "creativity eats darkness" with an ambitious, grand-scale solo project.

AllMusic Staff Pick Kylie Minogue Light Years Sometimes you have to just go with what you know -- go back to basics. And that's just what Minogue did with 2000's Light Years, released 25 years ago today. Dropping her last name from the cover, she re-entered the territory that made her great.

A compilation of B-sides, cover songs, and other miscellanea that traces the maturation of long-running indie rock group Real Estate. realestateband.bsky.social

AllMusic Staff Pick Rush Caress of Steel Caress of Steel, released 50 years ago today, contains two strong and succinct tracks, the raging opener, "Bastille Day," and the more laid-back "Lakeside Park," both of which would become standards for their live show in the '70s.

Boundaryless guitarist William Tyler's collaboration with Four Tet materialized after the two bonded over a familiarity with '80s Americana.

AllMusic Staff Pick Grizzly Bear Yellow House An album that captures the golden hour between summer and autumn perfectly, Grizzly Bear's second album brings their pastoral psych-folk into majestic focus.

The biggest way for a band to announce their greatness is by naming not only an album, but also a song after their own name. Here are some notable songs by that band off of that album (all with the same name).

The fourth LP and Sub Pop debut from nationoflanguage.bsky.social is danceable, eccentric, and immaculate at once in its integration of alienated '70s and '80s influences.

AllMusic Staff Pick George Harrison Extra Texture Despite its stretches of treadmill material, Extra Texture, released 50 years ago today, has worn better as a whole than its neighbors Dark Horse and even much of Living in the Material World, even the lesser tunes reveal a few musical blossoms.

Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant embraces a giddy sonic and stylistic experimentation on her eighth album.

AllMusic Staff Pick The Groovie Ghoulies Appetite for Adrenochrome Songs about killer computers, monsters, blood, and Armageddon predominate, with frontman Kepi's spunky vocals out front and the band whipping up a live wire energy behind him, barely stopping for breath.

Beloved Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan's first set of original material in a decade delivers emotion and a timely message of resilience.

AllMusic Staff Pick Nicole Mitchell Black Unstoppable The intent on Black Earth Ensemble's 4th recording is to play original music that synthesizes not only their complete history as a representative of the Chicago progressive aesthetic, but that offers a new direction in which they were headed.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross justify the official NIN billing on this ominous soundtrack to the techno thriller. nin.com

AllMusic Staff Pick Madonna Music Filled with vocoders, stylish neo-electro beats, dalliances with trip-hop, and, occasionally, eerie synthesized atmospherics, Music, released 25 years ago today, blows by in a kaleidoscopic rush of color, technique, style, and substance.

Brett James, 1968-2025 One of the most successful country songwriters of the 2000s, James became best known for Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel." www.allmusic.com/artist/brett...

Finally available after decades out of print, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks offer soft rock that's rough around the edges and intimately magical by the duo who soon after helped turn Fleetwood Mac into superstars.

AllMusic Staff Pick How to Destroy Angels How to Destroy Angels The NIN side project made its debut in 2010 with this EP. While not necessarily their "best" release – some might argue Welcome Oblivion is their finest vision – this 6-song burst is certainly their most accessible and immediate.