***ROCK***
BRAIDS – Flourish // Perish
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CAUSA SUI – Euporie Tide
7: Danish jammers pierce psychonautical wall, discover grunge, the Allmans, other boats for rockist reveries.—JJ
CROCODILES – Crimes of Passion
7: Pond-hopping garage gang rediscover rowdy rock’n’roll spirit, get glammy over lushly loud paisley punk.—CM
DIANA – DIANA
8: High-art synthsperiments meet sax-y soft-rock notions on Austra and Destroyer affiliates’ wildly inventive debut LP.—CM
DIARRHEA PLANET – I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
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DINOSAUR BONES – Shaky Dream
7: If the Strokes and Interpol co-habitated, then zigged toward big songs instead of zagging away from them.—JM
DISAPPEARS – Era
7: Seven deadly post-punk whims indulged via angular shredding, enigmatic grooves, vampiric murmurs, screwed loops.—CM
THE DODOS – Carrier
7: SF duo’s gorgeous-but-oft-inscrutable streak continues on a straighter path, with less Animal Collectivism.—JM
EROS AND THE ESCHATON – Home Address for Civil War
6: Adorbz couple can’t decide between MBV’s dark shadows or Yo La Tengo’s pop side. —JM
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY & DAVID WING – Prince Avalanche
5: Guitar swells occasionally summon the expansive images they’re meant to soundtrack.—KH
FLAAMINGO – Flaamingos
5: L.A. post-punkers’ brooding vocals and dark synths lead to numbing stupor, not sensitive reflection.—JY
FRANZ FERDINAND – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
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JOHN FRUSCIANTE – Outsides EP
7: Ex-Chili shuts up and plays Zappa-style guitar on the best cut, tries musique concrète and EDM elsewhere.—KG
GAUNTLET HAIR – Stills
6: Still enwombed in echo, Denver duo’s increasingly articulated spasms uncoil into distinct, welcome tummy-kicks.—KH
GHOST WAVE – Ages
6: Kiwi answer to the Strokes almost overdoses on self-conscious cool. Insistent, rapturous guitars save the day.—JY
GRANT HART – The Argument
7: Hüsker Düde retells ‘Paradise Lost’ on 20 groovy psych rockers, flipping his wig with a faux-Brit accent.—KG
HEBRONIX – Unreal
4: Yuck frontman’s directionless guitar twinkle remakes Red House Painters as a jam band.—CW
HIS ELECTRO BLUE VOICE – Ruthless Sperm
8: ’90s industrial returns from Italy, where it apparently heard Dinosaur Jr. and Trail of Dead.—JM
JOAN OF ARC – Testimonium Songs
6: Art-rockers fly straighter, but songs still one to 14 minutes long and written for experimental theater.—JM
KING KRULE – 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
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DAVID LYNCH – The Big Dream
4: Hollyweirdo sets synths/guitars on autopilot, drawls year’s most unconvincing blues. No meditation epics.—RG
KRIGET – Dystopico
7: Swedish “rock” trio makes euphoric house from krautrock kreepshow, industrial confetti, honking Daft Jazz.—CW
MEDICINE – To the Happy Few
6: After 10 years of quiet, shoegaze emeriti’s layered squall is more bracingly sweet than hypnotic/narcotic.—KH
MINKS – Tides End
7: NYC circa now band worships synth-y England circa ’82, frolics in Magnetic Fields. Pouty in a charming way.—JM
NATIVE – Orthodox
5: Fugazi tantrums for an age of post-Hella popcorn-drumming and shimmery guitars — with less melody than either.—CW
SARAH NEUFELD – Hero Brother
6: Candy palaces that dissolve in the air and other post-minimalist solo gimcracks by Arcade Fire violinist.—JJ
NO AGE – An Object
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O’BROTHER – Disillusion
6: A-Muse-ing vocals meet grungy riffs to dramatic effect.—KG
THE POLYPHONIC SPREE – Yes, It’s True
5: More vapid kiddie-psychedelia, charming but grating; Flaming Lips minus the darkness (or nudity).—RH
POND – Hobo Rocket
7: Tame Impala buds’ fifth opus touts psychedelic chaos; gleefully fuses prog, glam, funk, Beach Boys, you name it.—JY
PORCELAIN RAFT – Permanent Signal
7: Stylish Italian guy’s second album of blissed-out synth-rock goes stronger on actual songs.—JM
PORCHES. – Slowdance in the Cosmos
7: Catchy, quirky, synth-heavy, lo-fi singer-songwriter fare that sometimes uses black-metal blasts.—KG
PURE BATHING CULTURE – Moon Tides
5: Willowy Portland synth-poppers aspire to be dreamy like the Cocteaus, comes closer to insomnia relief.—JY
SALVIA PLATH – The Bardo Story
6: Lo-fi Beach Boys riffs from B-more stoner formerly known as RUN DMT. Was ‘Guided by Doses’ taken?—PS
TY SEGALL – Sleeper
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SMITH WESTERNS – Soft Will
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SPEEDY ORTIZ – Major Arcana
8: Bay State noise-popper gnashes guitar gristle and spits sour notes just like a ’90s-loving loner should.—CM
SUPERCHUNK – I Hate Music
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SUPERHUMANOIDS – Exhibitionists
6: Arch, hazy Angelenos bathe in vintage synths and inexplicable accents, missing as often as they hit. —JM
TWIN PEAKS – Sunken
5: Scrappy tunes blurt, “we got something to say”; reverb-smear disguised as lo-fi mutters, “we got something to hide.”—KH
WASHED OUT – Paracosm
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WEEKEND – Jinx
8: Recovering Brooklyn-via-Bay Area shoegazers sharpen their songwriting chops, trigger cold sweats with feverish gloom pop.—DB
WHITE HILLS – So You Are…So You’ll Be
7: Brooklyn space-metal veterans unfurl seventh and finest set of wooly interstellar mantras.—DB
***HIP-HOP***
A$AP FERG – Trap Lord
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BIG SEAN – Hall of Fame
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EARL SWEATSHIRT – Doris
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KEVIN GATES – Stranger Than Fiction
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FREDDIE GIBBS – ESGN
Gangsta comfort food from an MC growing more uncompromising or unambitious, depending on your tough-guy tolerance.—BS
HIEROGYLPHICS – The Kitchen
7: Fizzy funk backs up the original bugged-out West Coast weirdo collective. Moments invoke, “Black Hippy who?”—BS
JAY Z – Magna Carta Holy Grail
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JOEY BADA$$ – Summer Knights
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KA – The Night’s Gambit
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NO MALICE – Hear Ye Him
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RUN THE JEWELS – Run the Jewels
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TECH N9NE – Something Else
7: KC cult rapper collabs with the Doors, System of a Down, lyrically Kendrick and other youngsters’ lunches.—BS
***DANCE and ELECTRONIC***
ABOUT GROUP – Between the Walls
7: This Heat and Hot Chip moonlighters make prog-pop pastiche. File under: Gastr del Soulseek.—PS
ARAABMUZIK – The Remixes Vol. 1
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BLONDES – Swisher
8: NYC tech-house futurists find transcendence in tribal beats, rave bass, subtle synth, and odd FX.—CM
ERIC COPELAND – Joke in the Hole
8: Up all night to get weird, Black Dicer minces pling-plong funk, broken go-go, hiccuping boogie nights.—CW
DJ RASHAD – I Don’t Give a Fuck EP
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FUCK BUTTONS – Slow Focus
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IKONIKA – Aerotropois
7: Less U.K. funky than “Funky Little Beat,” Sara Abdel-Hamid’s Hyperdub LP renders ’80s freestyle in buzzing neon.—PS
LARRY GUS – Years Not Living
8: Dusty fingers dig up disco-not-disco bass lines, create drum circle bustle by way of broken breakbeats.—BS
MODERAT – II
7: Dreamily emo and dauntingly muscled, Apparat and Modeselektor’s bass music evokes Burial on the Charles Atlas plan.—PS
MR. CHOP – Illuminate
7: Electro, techno-funk, vocoder-funk, and motorik prog-rock are but borders to cross in Coz Littler’s fertile mind.—MR
?-ZIQ – Somerset Avenue Tracks (1992-1995)
8: Still futuristic now, these unreleased, decades-old gems absolve IDM of all sins.—PS
NOBODY – Vivid Green
6: The Low End Theory alum goes trap-rave but leaves space for the psychedelic fusion of albums past.—MR
PRETTY LIGHTS – A Color Map of the Sun
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RAS G & THE AFRIKAN SPACE PROGRAM – Back on the Planet
8: Uneasy electronica somewhere between Sun Ra and Sa Ra, with nods to Bambaataa.—BS
SHIGETO – No Better Time Than Now
6: Tastefully designed laptop beat-suite flickers with chiming instruments and keyboard ambience.—MR
ULTRAÍSTA – Ultraísta Remixes
6: A mixed bag featuring the usual subjects (Four Tet, Zero 7), but Herbert does his best mix in forever.—PS
***POP and R&B***
ALUNAGEORGE – Body Music
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CIARA – Ciara
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EBONY BONES – Behold, a Pale Horse
6: British Baduizt jams soul, punk, pop, and strange into kitchen sink, clogs it with chunky funk.—CM
ILLANGELO – History Of Man
8: The Weeknd producer mixes instrumental forays such as “One Dreamy Hum” into a futurist R&B hallucination.—MR
MYRON & E – Broadway
6: Sessions with Finnish deep-funk vets the Soul Investigators nearly undone by antiseptic production.—MR
PET SHOP BOYS – Electric
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RUDIMENTAL – Home
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ROBIN THICKE – Blurred Lines
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***METAL and PUNK***
ALL PIGS MUST DIE – Nothing Violates This Nature
7: Faster, shorter doesn’t equal a heavier round two, still a blackened hardcore victory.—CW
PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS – Walk Through Exits Only
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CENTURIES – Taedium Vitae
7: Blackened hardcore punks flaunt an emo underbelly and a singer whose throat shreds harder than the guitars.—JF
COFFINS – The Fleshland
Grumbly, rumbly, and unimaginative. Death metal before coffee.—KG
DEAD IN THE DIRT – The Blind Hole
8: Atlanta vegan grind corps won’t starve, thanks to protein-packed feedback of these 22 noise etudes.—KG
DESTRUCTION UNIT – Deep Trip
7: The Men took out the trash; DestroUnit’s shrill feedback, DRI tempos, cucumber cool vocals still forget.—CW
GOGOL BORDELLO – Pura Vida Conspiracy
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LAZY – Obsession
5: A belligerent and proudly generic Kansas City thrashfest with jabbering boy-girl vocals evokes forgotten ’70s punkers.—JY
LETLIVE – The Blackest Beautiful
6: Polemical post-emo tantrum that’s a bit too chaotic for coherence, save the soulful “Pheromone Cvlt.”—KG
NEWSTED – Heavy Metal Music
5: Ex-Metallica/Voivod/Echobrain dood plays tunes as generic as the LP title, growls “by the teeth of my skin.”—KG
OATHBREAKER – Eros|Anteros
8: Venomous hardcore and grim atmospherics meet via Belgians whose bleeding black hearts love hate, hate love.—JF
PILLBUSTER – Pillbuster
4: Virginia Beach metal dudes resurrect angsty ’90s alternative hard rock for aging jocks with tribal tattoos.—JF
POP. 1280 – Imps of Perversion
7: Second time out, slime-rockers do dead Devo, dead Bambaaataa, dead Pere Ubu.—CW
PSYCHIC TEENS – Come
Jean-pissing Philly H#TEfuck pigpunk rewritten as shoegaze blur, bat release, one syllable shrug.—CW
TRUE WIDOW – Circumambulation
8: Sun-scorched, ears-wide-open metal gone wrong in a good way. Freak folk off and die.—BS
WATAIN – The Wild Hunt
7: Talk about growth. Finally, there’s a Joy Division-y ballad to dramatize with sheep blood and fire.—KG
***COUNTRY, FOLK and AMERICANA***
THE CIVIL WARS – The Civil Wars
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DAUGHN GIBSON – Me Moan
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VALERIE JUNE – Pushin’ Against a Stone’
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MODERN HUT – Generic Treasure
7: Melancholic slacker-folk songs with moments of unintentional sweetness aimed at world-weary youth.—JF
SCOTT & CHARLENE’S WEDDING – Any Port in a Storm
6: NYC cosplay and flowers from Aussie transplant on charming, jangly Gotham honeymoon.—JJ
EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROES – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
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TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND – Made Up Mind
Big voice, bigger slide guitar, Delaney & Bonnie spirit fuels Allman offshoots’ brawny roots-rock.—RG
KT TUNSTALL – Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon
6: Howe Gelb settings as gorgeously stylized and restrained as the singer’s proud yearning.—KH
***INTERNATIONAL, AVANT, and JAZZ***
JULIANNA BARWICK – Nepenthe
8: Oceanic choral clouds roll in cathartic Koyaanisqatsian time lapse. Occasional strings. MP3s won’t cut it.—JJ
BIG BLOOD – Radio Valkyrie +1905 + 1917+
7: Husband-and-wife CD-Rists make collage suites, ghost songs, a strong case for Portlandia East.—JJ
BITCHIN BAJAS – Bitchitronics
7: Locked in a woozy Mellotron mind-meld, sparkle-eyed organ droners sound forever (La Monte) young.—PS
KEN CAMDEN – Space Mirror
6: Looping pulsations, arpeggios, and other solo-guitar repetition from silver-surfing Implodes member.—RG
DAWN OF MIDI – Dysnomia
8: Stellar through-composed jazz-funk-Afro-minimalism by acoustic piano trio at a loss for words but little else.—RG
ETRAN FINATAWA – The Desert Sessions
7: Arid, intimate, lively African blues, buoyed by handclaps and the occasional laughing-fit oasis.—RH
JULIA HOLTER – Loud City Song
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M. GEDDES GENGRAS – Collected Works
7: Sun Araw’s synth master taps Terry Riley’s new-age dream on aptly dubbed ‘Vol. 1: The Moog Years.’—CM
CLIFF MARTINEZ – Only God Forgives: Orginal Motion Picture Soundtrack
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R. STEVIE MOORE – Personal Appeal
8: Joyful ’70s/’80s field recordings of genius weirdo writing the DIY psych/pop/fuzz/buzz/bleep playbook.—JJ
PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND – That’s It!
8: No preservatives added to corn-free N’awlins originals played with wit, depth, panache.—RG
CHRISTIAN WALLUMRØD – Outstairs
8: In hushed chamber jazz and Norwegian folk melodies, the rustling of trees decoded: “Winter is coming.”—PS
ZOLA JESUS – Versions
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JOHN ZORN – Dreamachines
8: ’90s downtown regulars animate dense light shows with dexterously flickering vibraphone and warm egghead swing.—JJ
