The algorithms want you to listen to songs. And not even whole songs, but bits of songs that get chopped up and tumbled through as one reel jumps to the next. Buck the trend and listen to a whole ...

As 2025 draws to a close, Metacritic has unveiled its annual rankings of the best albums of the year, highlighting a diverse and genre-spanning collection of critically acclaimed releases. From ...

The Acacia Strain – You Are Safe From God Here (Rise) For me, the best death metal feels like a location, a literal spatial world made accessible through music. There’s something about Ego Dissolution ...

The Agnes Varda of deep listening returns with another piece of intimate audio vérité, a two-CD headphone collage made from recordings of her mother's final four months. Here, Rossetto's mom tells ...

Ayyoun is a staff writer who loves all things gaming and tech. His journey into the realm of gaming began with a PlayStation 1 but he chose PC as his platform of choice. With over 6 years of ...

If we needed any more proof that the album isn't dead, 2025 was it. On this episode, Stephen Thompson is joined by Ann Powers and Daoud Tyler-Ameen to run through 12 dazzling albums that stuck with ...

Any objective rap fan of a certain age approaches legacy albums like Nas and DJ Premier’s Light-Years with learned skepticism. For 30-odd years, rap was exclusively a young person’s game, defined by ...

In 2025, bands had a lot to say about the state of the world, from La Dispute’s No One Was Driving the Car, which surveyed late-stage capitalism, and End It, who examined class structure through ...

Before I share my list of favorite albums of 2025, I need to repeat my regular “year-end list” disclaimer. If you already know the drill, feel free to skip ahead. We all know this. Art isn’t a ...

One band absolutely dominated the hardcore conversation this year, and they did it by working way, way harder than anyone else. Affable Boston bruisers Haywire spent 2025 playing sweaty, cathartic, ...

Double Diamond albums were unthinkable when the RIAA launched its gold awards program in 1958. Only one album was certified gold that year (signifying $1 million in manufacturer’s dollar volume; the ...

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Piling on, stripping down, looking back, pushing ahead: Musicians found all sorts of uses for the album form this ...