AllMusic Staff Pick
D.D Dumbo
Utopia Defeated
Attributed to D.D Dumbo, Utopia Defeated is a darkly-subversive, occasionally radiant art-pop record from Australian musician Oliver Hugh Perry, with ambitious arrangements featuring taut rhythms and manipulated 12-string guitar.
This fully collaborative album from two polar forces of heavy music Melvins and Napalm Death goes places neither band could completely venture on their own.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Live Bullet
Live Bullet, released 50 years ago today, is a rare occasion when a double live album captures an artist at an absolute peak, while summarizing his talents, and that's exactly what this record does.
Squarepusher presents an unexpected orchestral avant-prog effort played entirely by Tom Jenkinson himself.
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.
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.
