Self-funded, self-released, self-produced, and self-referential, the Welsh rock band’s seventh album has a big-tent sound with all the requisite wit and panache. It is unquestionably the ultimate Los Campesinos! album.

Sturgill Simpson’s outstanding album under a new stage name expertly balances cosmic and outlaw country and reintroduces himself as the premier Nashville outsider.

On her new album, the Mexico City-based cellist and singer moves from abstraction toward more familiar pop and rock silhouettes. But her lyrics remain committed to the power of opacity.

The experimental metal trio’s four-song, 76-minute album is the peak of their career. It’s dense and invigorating, highlighting the band’s dexterity, creativity, and clarity of purpose.

The Colombian producer’s galaxy-sized rave tracks are unsettling and exhilarating. This 21-minute EP is an essential record for the vanguard of dance music.

With her sixth album, Charli XCX transcends all narratives and delivers a hit. Brat is imperious and cool, nuanced and vulnerable, and one of the best pop albums of the year.

The singer and composer’s wondrous fourth album deepens the sound of her boundless folk-jazz style. Its gestures are bold, romantic, and often unforgettable.

With singular grace and flair, Yaya Bey deepens her connection to homespun funk and R&B while transforming grief, insecurities, and depletion into a full embrace of life.

The long-teased sequel to his cult-classic mixtape is a highlight in the Chicago rapper’s career, bringing the first-wave drill he helped popularize screaming into the future.

In his most directly political album yet, the Tuareg guitarist lets his solos become the sound of his fury when his Tamasheq lyrics aren’t enough.

Jessica Pratt’s fourth album of hypnagogic folk music hones her mysterious song to its finest point.

The Swedish rapper’s latest is the most fully realized project of his career. Its blurry, blot-out-the-world vibe glitches between reality and nightmare.

The new single from I Killed Your Dog hinges on a Strokes-style guitar melody and a sense of deep alienation.

The lead single to Javelin is an elegant break-up song that sounds like a lullaby.

The second single from Guts is hammy, blasé, and brilliant.

On the Asheville songwriter’s re-recorded single, a golf-themed version of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is just one strange detail in a mundane landscape.

The joyous, floor-filling highlight of The Loveliest Time is as transcendent as its subject matter.

The marvelous new single has been a staple of the band’s live sets for a couple of years.

A remarkable archival release captures rare vocal performances that the esteemed nun, composer, and pianist recorded in the late 1970s and early ’80s amid political turmoil in Ethiopia.

On two LPs from the mid 1990s, members of Oval and Mouse on Mars ask what lies beyond music’s borders. Their sonic abstractions are as bewitching as the most tightly composed song.

A new reissue of Lou Reed’s final solo album spotlights a side of the New York icon that few ever got to see: a quiet ambient composer.

In the 1980s, the legendary Bay Area composer self-released her first three albums of roving, curious synthesis. Restored and remixed by master engineer Marta Salogni, they’re collected in a new box set.

Self-released in 1978, this gorgeous set of ancient songs and instrumental abstractions predicted the shape of folk to come.

The new reissue of a landmark album of 1970s funk restores the Los Angeles group’s reputation as multi-cultural pop savants and unstoppable improvisers.