AllMusic Staff Pick Madonna Confessions on a Dance Floor Sure, it was a smash at the time, but if you haven't listened to this modern classic in a while – it is two decades old, after all – it still holds up after all these years. A hypnotic megamix that plays like a dream club set.

Cold Beat leader Hannah Lew's captivating solo debut reflects on loss and renewal with aching synth-pop and daring experiments.

AllMusic Staff Pick Guided by Voices Isolation Drills The high-gloss production of 1999's Do the Collapse made it clear that GBV topkick Robert Pollard wanted his band to compete in rock's big leagues, and Isolation Drills (released 25 years ago today) only confirms that notion

Post-rock duo El Ten Eleven add strings and piano to their music for the first time, adding a cinematic element to their sound.

Afrika Bambaataa, 1957-2026 Visionary DJ who helped define hip-hop in the late-1970s, scored classic hit with 1982's oft-sampled "Planet Rock."

AllMusic Staff Pick Natalie Cole Natalie From a soul standpoint, Cole's second album, Natalie (released 50 years ago today), is among her strongest releases. Those who like Cole as a robust, big-voiced soul shouter weren't disappointed by the singer's Aretha Franklin-influenced offerings.

A striking document from Kronos Quartet celebrating the life, Civil Rights work, and times of Mahalia Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr.

AllMusic Staff Pick Bill Monroe Bean Blossom The album was recorded in 1973 at the seventh annual Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN, and features, alongside Monroe, most of the greats of early bluegrass, still kicking in the 1970s.

The great pop tunesmith Joe Pernice trades snark for sincerity on this subtly artful solo project.

AllMusic Staff Pick The Roots Do You Want More?!!!??! Because the Roots were pioneering a new style during the early '90s, the band drew its own blueprints for its major-label debut. It's not surprising then, that it sounds more like a document of old-school hip-hop than contemporary rap.

Guitarist, songwriter, and now author Mike McCready talked to AllMusic about his new graphic novel "Farewell to Seasons" which imagines an alternate history to the Seattle music scene.

A back-to-basics restart for influential drone metal duo Sunn O))), marking their first full-length for Sub Pop.

AllMusic Staff Pick Stan Kenton New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm Stan Kenton's 1952 Orchestra was a very interesting transitional band, still performing some of the complex works of the prior Innovations orchestra but also starting to emphasize swing.

A collection of live tracks that take the intimate sound of Bon Iver's records and fit them to the size of theater, stadium, and festival stages. boniverwi.bsky.social

AllMusic Staff Pick Bruce Cockburn In the Falling Dark With every album he released during the first half of the '70s, Bruce Cockburn continued to evolve and show signs of greatness, and with his seventh, In the Falling Dark (released 50 years ago today), he makes good on these promises.

With his Noisemakers and guests, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bruce Hornsby makes a tapestry in songs about time, relationships, and places.

AllMusic Staff Pick Uncle Tupelo Anodyne Arguably the Big Bang of the alt-country movement, Jay Farrar's full ownership of his Uncle Tupelo project underwent what must've felt like a hostile takeover as the pre-Wilco Jeff Tweedy gained more control over the songwriting on this album.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Arlo Parks seeks refuge in club culture on her nightlife-informed third album.

AllMusic Staff Pick Black Rebel Motorcycle Club B.R.M.C. This self-produced major-label debut (released 25 years ago today) boldly plunders a reverb-and-white noise course previously trampled underfoot by long-gone British bands of the late '80s and early '90s.

Aided by hitmaker Greg Kurstin, Grammy-winning bassist, singer, and songwriter Thundercat refines his stylistic synthesis without tamping down his madcap whimsy.

AllMusic Staff Pick Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds No More Shall We Part No More Shall We Part, released 25 years ago today, leaves listeners in awe, full of complex emotions, and pondering the notion that they've been in the presence of great redemptive art.

Sturgill Simpson reinforces his alter ego's ethos with a wild groove-based dance record full of mischief and protest.

AllMusic Staff Pick Rush 2112 2112, released 50 years ago today, proved to be Rush's much sought-after commercial breakthrough & remains one of their most popular albums. Instead of choosing between prog & heavy rock, both styles are merged together to create an interesting & original approach.

We're back with classical music reviews! We've brought on a couple of new writers, and among their first pieces is an evaluation of Hans Zender's orchestration and elaboration of Schubert's Winterreise, sung by tenor Allan Clayton (pictured) with the Aurora Orchestra.

Older and wiser, American singer/songwriter Charlie Puth matures on this heartfelt combination of soft rock and R&B nostalgia.

AllMusic Staff Pick Led Zeppelin Presence Created at a time of intense turmoil for Led Zeppelin, Presence, released 50 years ago today, is a strange, misshapen beast of a record that pulls upon its own tension.

On his first solo album, Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea plays trumpet and bass with an all-star jazz band to realize a 35-year-old dream.

AllMusic Staff Pick AMM Generative Themes The title of this disc, Generative Themes, could be taken as a capsule description of the nature of AMM's music: creating a sound and following it to see where it takes one, generating new sounds along the way, choosing which of these to follow.

Jon Dee Graham, 1959-2026 From playing with the Skunks and the True Believers to collaborating with John Doe and Calvin Russell, singer/songwriter Jon Dee Graham was an Austin fixture in demand beyond the city limits.

Swedish-Argentine singer/songwriter José González confronts the ills of society with a powerful and effective protest album.

AllMusic Staff Pick Madness One Step Beyond... It's the sheer exuberance of it all that first smacks listeners straight across the head, that and the pure mayhem that careens wildly from the opening shout to the closing note.

Produced with Momma's Aron Kobayashi-Ritch, Snail Mail's third LP surprises with almost shoegaze-like atmospheres and a more existential outlook.

AllMusic Staff Pick New Order Technique Tastes and sounds were changing quickly in the late '80s, which prompted New Order's most startling transformation yet -- from moody dance-rockers to, well, moody acid-house mavens.

Swedish pop icon Robyn returns with lean, vibrant songs that build on Body Talk's bright sounds and complicated emotions.

AllMusic Staff Pick Pete Yorn Musicforthemorningafter Musicforthemorningafter, released 25 years ago today, arrived when modern rock was looking for an outlet to escape alternative metal's popularity, but the album's popularity wasn't a calculated thing.

A period of professional and personal upheaval, including a move from Melbourne to L.A., inform indie rocker Courtney Barnett's restless and uncertain fourth LP.

AllMusic Staff Pick Santana Amigos By the release of Amigos, released 50 years ago today, only Carlos Santana and David Brown remained from the band that conquered Woodstock, and only Carlos had been in the band continuously since.

Dash Crofts, 1940-2026 One half of yacht rock pioneers Seals and Crofts who scored light, freewheeling hits such as "Summer Breeze."

Composer/producer Colleen transforms the battle between fear and freedom into dark, propulsive pieces that mark a sea change in her music.

AllMusic Staff Pick Thin Lizzy Jailbreak Unlike the leap between Night Life and Fighting, there is not a great distance between Jailbreak (released 50 years ago today) and its predecessor. If anything, the album was more of a culmination of everything that came before.

British artist known for his groundbreaking electronic production James Blake retreats into his singer/songwriter side for this set of emotionally raw songs.

AllMusic Staff Pick The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America As the Hold Steady ramp up to celebrate this album this summer, it's the perfect time to revisit Boys and Girls in America. Part Cheap Trick, part Thin Lizzy, and all channeled through Craig Finn's sneering sad sack beat poet delivery.

Violent Femmes frontman Gordon Gano spoke with AllMusic about the band's ongoing anniversary shows, the surprising ways fans interpret his lyrics, and why some of the group's darkest songs receive the biggest reactions live. @vfemmes.bsky.social

The triumphant tenth album from K-pop megastars BTS cements their legacy on an impeccably produced set that drips with personality.

AllMusic Staff Pick Judas Priest Sad Wings of Destiny Judas Priest's sophomore effort, Sad Wings of Destiny (released 50 years ago today), simultaneously took heavy metal to new depths of darkness and new heights of technical precision.

Synth pop veterans Ladytron's first album as a trio puts the focus on their lasting love of house, disco, and other forms of dance music.

AllMusic Staff Pick Mastodon Leviathan Leviathan may not be an out and out concept album, but it's awfully close. Filtered through Melville's spyglass, the watery tales and creatures of Leviathan are even more paranoid and intense than the more terrestrial Remission.

Continuing the dystopian story of the Indigo Child/Antimai, the genre-bending American prog crew The Dear Hunter injects jazz-fusion and funk into the mix.

AllMusic Staff Pick George Winston Winter into Spring In a sense, this second seasonal album follows an opposite direction from Autumn, its hard, isolated notes and stop-and-start style gradually giving way from the stasis of winter to the growth and movement of spring.

Tedeschi Trucks Band tightens up their songwriting and production without sacrificing an iota of their roots appeal.