AllMusic Staff Pick
Donny Hathaway
Everything Is Everything
Already a respected arranger and pianist who'd contributed to dozens of records (by artists ranging from the Impressions to Carla Thomas to Woody Herman), with this debut LP Donny Hathaway revealed yet another facet of his genius.
The 14th solo album from former Smiths vocalist Morrissey cultivates a mood that's largely plodding and uneasy.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Broken Social Scene
Feel Good Lost
Broken Social Scene cast an abstract web of dream pop, shoegaze, and indie rock for their debut album, Feel Good Lost, which was released 25 years ago today.
On his second album as Shabaka, the multi-instrumentalist performs a completely solo outing that includes a return to the saxophone.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Dolly Parton
Hello, I'm Dolly
The charismatic Dolly Parton came on strong with these early session for Monument. At least half the songs are among her classics, while the rest of the material is hardly weak.
Country-rocker Buck Meek's regret-filled fourth LP amplifies emotions with distorted sonics conceived with Big Thief bandmate James Krivchenia.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Original Soundtrack
Stealing Beauty
Just like Bernardo Bertolucci's film is beautiful to watch, the soundtrack is a joy to listen to. The songs, drifting from moody trip hop to gritty blues to charming indie pop, are all painted the same atmospheric color.
Something began stirring in Trump's second term, and beginning in the middle of 2025, politically-minded (or just fed up) musicians slowly began making their rage and frustration known.
Here is a loose timeline of some of the recorded protest music thus far in the President's current term.
Legendary indie pop band Heavenly return with a record that balances vintage punky guitar pop with disco, post-punk, and indie rock with a deft touch.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Fela Kuti
Zombie
Zombie was the most popular and impacting record that Fela Kuti & Africa 70 would record -- it ignited the nation to follow Fela's lead and antagonize the military zombies that had the population by the throat.
Recorded at the same time as 2024's Light Verse, this Iron & Wine album is slightly darker and more introspective, but still sprightly, deeply emotional, and melodic.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Dabrye
Two/Three
The second installment in Tadd Mullinix's Dabrye trilogy for Ghostly is dense and as cold as a Detroit alley on a February morning. It's rather claustrophobic at times, if in a deeply alluring fashion, and it can be tough to get a grip on it all in one shot.
Singer/songwriter Bill Callahan's eighth solo album brings the spontaneity of a concert and the intimacy of a living room to his amiably profound songs.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Kraftwerk
Trans-Europe Express
Although Autobahn was a left-field masterpiece, Trans-Europe Express is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album. Melodic themes are repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats.
Inimitable songwriter Mitski's eighth LP is a character-driven and Zeitgeist-capturing one about a catastrophizing recluse.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Man or Astro-man?
EEVIAC
Man or Astro-Man? started off as surf rock revivalists obsessed with trashy sci-fi B-movies, and they continued to incorporate more electronic elements into their music, including lots of vintage synthesizers.
More clean-cut retro-contemporary adventures from singer, songwriter, and producer Bruno Mars on his first solo album in a decade.
Neil Sedaka, 1939-2026
A Brill Building songwriting force who penned eight U.S. Top Ten pop hits, including "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Laughter in the Rain," "Bad Blood" and "Love Will Keep Us Together," Sedaka also made runs at the charts as a performer in the early '60s and mid-'70s.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Duncan Sheik
Phantom Moon
On his third album, released 25 years ago today, songwriter and singer Duncan Sheik more closely examines the territory he explored on 1998's Humming with two exceptions: The arrangements are even more sparse, & the songs were written in collaboration.
Decamped to India, Gorillaz and a great cast of guests ponder life and loss on one of their best and most emotional offerings.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Life Without Buildings
Any Other City
Through the music and sleeve design, they come across as refugees from Rough Trade's class of 1979. Liliput, the Fall, Delta 5, and even the Slits occasionally come to mind.
Singer/songwriter Mirah returns from a seven-year hiatus with comforting yet clear-eyed messages of strength and hope.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Chuck Berry
One Dozen Berrys
Chuck Berry's second album is ever so slightly more sophisticated than its predecessor. One Dozen Berrys is hooked around a pair of hit singles, "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Rock & Roll Music."
This politically charged EP finds U2 energized and firing on all cylinders with a timely message.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Bat for Lashes
Fur and Gold
How is Bat for Lashes' debut album 20 years old already? Two decades later and it still stands tall as her best, the mystical whirl of Björk/Kate Bush influences and hypnotic songwriting drawing listeners into a shadowy underworld.
On her first album in over a decade, Hilary Duff's highly relatable sixth LP sets unflinching confessionals to sleek, understated pop.
AllMusic Staff Pick
Rick Springfield
Working Class Dog
Forget that Rick Springfield was a soap star for a moment and listen to his music, because he made some of the finest guitar-driven mainstream pop/rock of the early '80s. This is his finest moment, filled with expertly crafted pop songs.
An album hopeful, safe, and deeply rooted in the folk and country traditions Mumford & Sons knows intimately.
AllMusic Staff Pick
King Sunny Ade
Seven Degrees North
As King Sunny Ade embodies good humor and unflagging desire to realize a brighter future for Nigeria and its people, the music from his 23 piece band overflows with a buoyant optimism that is indelibly energetic and celebratory.
