AllMusic Staff Pick Vessel Punish, Honey Incorporating sheets of metal and handmade instruments, Punish, Honey's aggressively stripped, industrial-tinged pieces lurch on uneasy rhythms punctuated by the odd mournful melody. Everything seethes with nervous energy.

Psych-folk-rock band Midlake's lusher, more spontaneous, sometimes cautionary sixth album was produced by Sam Evian.

AllMusic Staff Pick The Garment District Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World A free-spirited project helmed by Elephant 6 affiliate Jennifer Baron, the psych-pop conjurers' first album in eight years was recorded in a home studio during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That Metal Show co-host and stand-up comedian Don Jamieson espouses on the opinion that the Kiss guitarist could have cut it as a comedian in this excerpt from Greg Prato's book, "Talk to Me: Conversations With Ace Frehley."

A deeply personal, psych-grunge homage to singer John Gourley and Portugal. The Man's Alaskan roots. portugal-theman.bsky.social

AllMusic Staff Pick Patti Smith Horses Producer John Cale respected Smith's primitivism, and the loose, improvisatory song structures worked with free verse to create something like a new spoken word/musical art form: Horses, released 50 years ago today, was a hybrid, the sound of a post-Beat poet.

Duo Whitney's first self-produced effort is a glowing return to mellifluous folk- and country-rock that makes room for some experimentation.

AllMusic Staff Pick XTC Mummer XTC's sixth album suffered a bit from growing pains, but in retrospect, it's a crucial stepping stone to the brilliance of their later years with a number of standout tracks, suggesting Andy Partridge was about to enter his creative prime.

John Darnielle and his Mountain Goats collaborators offer their version of a stage musical, complete with vocals from Lin-Manuel Miranda.

AllMusic Staff Pick Joni Mitchell The Hissing of Summer Lawns Joni Mitchell evolved from the smooth jazz-pop of Court and Spark to the radical Hissing of Summer Lawns, released 50 years ago today, an adventurous work that remains among her most difficult records.

A tailored ballad and relevant covers (from Tom Waits to Frank Ocean) highlight this return from Black American music and Civil Rights icon Mavis Staples.

AllMusic Staff Pick Chris Squire Fish Out of Water Yes-like in every possible aspect, Chris Squire's Fish out of Water, released 50 years ago today, is an album that's typical of his band's progressive formula.

Singer/songwriter Hatchie revisits the swooning surrender of first love with a return to her dream pop roots. hihatchie.bsky.social

AllMusic Staff Pick Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges Clube Da Esquina The recent passing of Lô Borges has us revisiting this 1972 album, a collaboration with Milton Nascimento and an MBP landmark.

Maps creates an enchanting soundtrack to a half-remembered dark horror-fantasy film.

AllMusic Staff Pick Millie Jackson Caught Up Millie Jackson's 1974 concept album tells the tale of a sordid love triangle with deep funk grooves and scandalous charisma. Jackson's hilarious and razor-sharp monologue on "The Rap" alone makes Caught Up an essential listen.

A handful of noteworthy classical albums to sample: Alexander Gergelyfi plays a clavichord owned by Mozart himself in a recording that also features baritone Georg Nigl; Vox Clamantis once again sings music by Arvo Pärt (both pictured), this time to mark the composer's 90th birthday.

Swedish composer, singer, and keyboardist Anna von Hausswolff shifts musical focus to embrace dark indie pop without sacrificing her doomy Goth aesthetic.

AllMusic Staff Pick The Skatalites Foundation Ska Although the Skatalites only officially existed for a mere 14 months or so, the bandmembers' impact on Jamaican music extended far beyond that brief period into the rocksteady era and then the reggae era and beyond.

Techno producer Daniel Avery embraces a distortion-doused electronic rock sound with the help of guests like Alison Mosshart and yeule. danielmarkavery.bsky.social

Lô Borges, 1952-2025 A Brazilian singer/songwriter and guitarist who was a founder of the legendary Clube da Esquina collective, Borges recorded a number of genre-defining Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) albums highlighted by his self-titled solo debut and a 1972 double LP with Milton Nascimento.

AllMusic Staff Pick Sam Beam / Jesca Hoop Love Letter for Fire Sam Beam of Iron and Wine has never been averse to collaborating with like-minded artists, & he seems to have found a simpatico musical partner in Jesca Hoop. He and the shape-shifting Hoop co-wrote & recorded a batch of songs together.

Donna Jean Godchaux, 1947-2025 As the only woman officially billed with the Grateful Dead, Donna Jean Godchaux became a fixture at mid-'70s shows and as a topic of discussion in the taper community. www.allmusic.com/artist/donna...

This Super Deluxe edition of the transitional eighth album from The Who includes seven discs of demos, outtakes, and more.

AllMusic Staff Pick Peggy Lee The Best of Miss Peggy Lee Such is the peril of attempting to summarize Lee's career by way of her hits, though for introductory purposes this disc is an excellent one (and her strong musical personality serves well to unify the material anyway).

The legendary Charlatans return with a deeply felt, heavily nostalgic record that blends together sounds from all eras and sounds like no other band. thecharlatans.bsky.social

AllMusic Staff Pick The Band Northern Lights-Southern Cross The first studio album of Band originals since 1971's Cahoot -- in many respects, Northern Lights-Southern Cross, released 50 years ago today, was viewed as a comeback.

The classic hit-filled comeback album from The Cars is presented here with loads of previously unreleased early mixes, demos, and a full live show.

AllMusic Staff Pick OutKast Stankonia Stankonia, released 25 years ago today, was OutKast's second straight masterstroke, an album just as ambitious, just as all-over-the-map, and even hookier than its predecessor.

Instead of the prog and experimental inclinations of much of their 2020s output, here indie giants Guided by Voices return to power pop.

AllMusic Staff Pick Various Artists The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of For anyone who's collected 78-rpm records, enjoyed Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, or expressed interest in the missing old-time and blues records of yesteryear, this compilation will be the Holy Grail.

In preparation for Halloween, revisit AllMusic's personal selection of actually scary albums. You can keep your "Thriller" and your "Monster Mash"... these are the records that actually will send a shiver down your spine.

A burning live date featuring pianist Horace Silver's harmonically adventurous mid-'60s quintet.

AllMusic Staff Pick Duo Ruut Ilmateade Second album from this under-the-radar Estonian duo who play elegant, minimalist folk on a shared instrument while singing intricate harmonies.

Post-rock veterans Tortoise return from a nine-year hiatus with a playful album that balances clockwork precision and jam-session spontaneity.

AllMusic Staff Pick José González In Our Nature Delicate, tender, and yet tense enough to provide some emotional heft, this "mainstream" breakthrough for the Swedish singer/guitarist is a 2000s gem that yielded the minor hit "Teardrop," a cover of the Massive Attack classic.

AllMusic presents an excerpt of Greg Prato's new book Alternative for the Masses: The '90s Alt-Rock Revolution - An Oral History that recalls what the indie music scene was like pre-Nirvana, and the stepping stones that led us to late 1991 – when alt-rock seemingly exploded on a global scale.

A sonically and lyrically rich follow-up to the MOBO nominee's 2023 debut, this draws more from Yazmin Lacey's Caribbean heritage.

AllMusic Staff Pick Willie Colón The Good, the Bad, the Ugly This classic recording is by one of the most creative heads in New York salsa. In 1975 this New Directions release, after Colon got fed up with the two-trombone sound, was the evidence that he could reach beyond his youthful sound.

Jack DeJohnette, 1942-2025 A premier percussionist often considered one of the finest drummers in modern jazz, DeJohnette recorded legendary sessions with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield and countless others.

On their first album of entirely original material since 2006, Evan Dando's fuzzy pop project The Lemonheads takes a strange, different path on almost every track.

AllMusic Staff Pick Massive Attack Blue Lines The first masterpiece of what was only termed trip-hop much later, Blue Lines filtered American hip-hop through the lens of British club culture, a stylish, nocturnal sense of scene that encompassed music from rare groove to dub to dance.

Remembering James Manheim We're sad to announce the passing of longtime classical and Americana music editor James Manheim. Jim began at the All Music Guide in 1999 and contributed over thirty thousand thousand(!) written pieces over the years. www.allmusic.com/artist/james...

Mexico-based Chilean singer/songwriter Mon Laferte, a big band, and special guests use jazz, soul, ranchera and bolero to reclaim the title for feminist manifesto.

AllMusic Staff Pick Buffy Sainte-Marie It's My Way! This is one of the most scathing topical folk albums ever made. Sainte-Marie sings in an emotional, vibrato-laden voice of war, drugs, sex, and most telling, the mistreatment of Native Americans.

This revelatory reissue includes Bruce Springsteen's fabled "Electric Nebraska" sessions with the E Street Band as well as solo home, studio, and live recordings. @brucespringsteen.net

AllMusic Staff Pick Linkin Park Hybrid Theory Released 25 years ago today, Hybrid Theory took the basics of rap-metal fusion, discarded the lug-headed posturing & cartoonish profanity, and expanded its scope to include atmospheric electronics, a pop-savvy attention to hooks, & confessional lyrics.

Produced with Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon, and Andrew Watt, a love of keyboards and the '90s informed Brandi Carlile's tender, pensive eighth solo LP.

AllMusic Staff Pick Guy Clark Old No. 1 If only every country songwriter could release a debut album as auspicious and fine as this one. Poetic, stripped-to-the-truth songs about ramblers, history, the aged and infirm, the drunken, the lost, and the simple dignity of working people.

Dave Ball of Soft Cell, 1959-2025 Alongside Marc Almond, Ball crafted the sound of the stylistic synth pop duo Soft Cell, best known for the iconic '80s dance hit "Tainted Love." www.allmusic.com/artist/soft-...