AllMusic Staff Pick
Laufey
Bewitched

Laufey’s contemporary, confessional brand of jazz is easy to fall right into. In a rich, smooth alto, she weaves poetic turns of phrase with honest musings about love, heartbreak, and growing up. “From The Start” is a sweet, bossa nova-esque number about an unrequited crush, and in “California and Me”, she collaborates with the Philharmonic Orchestra in a sweeping lament that would hardly sound out of place in a Disney princess film.

- Hannah Schwartz

AllMusic Staff Pick:
DAT Politics
Wow Twist

Filled with skipping beats, old-school synths, and digitally tweaked vocals, the French group’s fourth album doesn’t just go pop – it explodes with songs so immediate, so weird, and so bright that they’re virtually fluorescent. Though DAT Politics took themselves less seriously than many of the other electronic innovators of the mid-2000s on Wow Twist, the album is day-glo proof that forward-thinking music doesn’t have to be somber.

- Heather Phares

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Pere Ubu
Datapanik in the Year Zero [Box]

Cleveland, OH’s music scene of the 1970s is often lauded as the breeding ground for proto-punk, but rather than trying to rev up rock & roll gone stale, Pere Ubu were self-sufficient outliers, making sounds that were new and novel but existed in a world of their own. This box set collects Pere Ubu’s recordings from the formative period of 1975 to 1982, along with a disc of material by friends and fellow travelers, and it still sounds bold and ahead of its time in 2024.

- Mark Deming

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Suzanne Vega
Solitude Standing

Behind its poignant hit “Luka” and the marvelous a cappella “Tom’s Diner,” Suzanne Vega’s second album became a surprise breakout for a literate folk-pop artist during the height of late-‘80s excess.

- Timothy Monger

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Brian Eno
Another Green World

Brian Eno’s third album was where he arguably invented ambient pop, turning away from the oddball glam rock songs of his first two (very good) solo outings in favor of calm, pictorial instrumentals and only the occasional vocal tune. Another Green World is more of a playful sound environment than a traditional album, and was especially groundbreaking upon its arrival in 1975.

- Fred Thomas

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Dr. Dooom
First Come, First Served

One of the better albums in the Kool Keith catalog, First Come, First Served (released 25 years ago today) is further evidence that the volatile MC works best with an alter ego – in this case Dr. Dooom, a serial killer with a fondness for cannibalism, pet rats, and Flintstones vitamins.

- Steve Huey

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Rick Wakeman
Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Journey to the Centre of the Earth, released 50 years ago today, is one of progressive rock’s crowning achievements. With the help of the London Symphony Orchestra and the English Chamber Choir, Rick Wakeman turns this classic Jules Verne tale into an exciting and suspenseful instrumental narrative. The story is told by David Hemmings in between the use of Wakeman’s keyboards, and when coupled with the prestigious sound of the orchestra, creates the album’s fairy tale-like climate.

- Mike DeGagne

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Garbage
Bleed Like Me

After the relatively experimental Beautiful Garbage, Shirley Manson and the guys got back to basics on this guitar-heavy fourth set, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this April. Born out of high tensions within the band, that seething energy and aggression is palpable on ragers like “Bad Boyfriend” (with Dave Grohl on drums) and “Why Do You Love Me,” while shimmering moments like “Run Baby Run” and “It’s All Over…” expand the band’s emotional scope.

- Neil Z. Yeung

AllMusic Staff Pick
Sparks
Kimono My House

Arguably one of Sparks’ best albums, 1974’s Kimono My House (released 50 years ago today) finds the brothers Mael (Ron wrote most the songs and played keyboards, while Russell was the singing frontman) ingeniously playing their guitar- and keyboard-heavy pop mix on 12 consistently fine tracks.

- Stephen Cook

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Richard & Linda Thompson
Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

In Linda Thompson, Richard found a superb collaborator and a world-class vocalist; Linda possessed a voice as clear and rich as Sandy Denny’s, but with a strength that could easily support Richard’s often weighty material, and she proved capable of tackling anything presented to her And while Richard had already made clear that he was a songwriter to be reckoned with, on I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, released 50 years ago today, he went from strength to strength.

- Mark Deming

AllMusic Staff Pick
Bears in Trees
And Everybody Else Smiled Back

On this album, Bears in Trees sound more polished and expansive than in their earlier ventures, but they maintain the unique flavor of an indie “dirtbag boyband” drawing from a wide variety of inspirations. Singers Callum Litchfield and Iain Gillespie’s differing voices complement each other well, touching on themes of mental health and love earnestly and with a sense of humor. The album smoothly blends styles ranging from sentimental strings to defiant electric guitar to bright ukulele into a heartwarmingly honest production.

- Hannah Schwartz

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Nervous Gender
Music from Hell

Recently reissued by Dark Entries, Nervous Gender’s 1981 debut is a sick, depraved, and wickedly humorous lo-fi mess which greatly influenced both the synth-punk and queercore scenes.

- Paul Simpson

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Ben Folds Five
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

The follow-up to the popular Whatever and Ever Amen, Ben Folds Five’s third LP, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Mesner (released 25 years ago today), continues the eclectic and clever songwriting that has become the group’s trademark. Like other piano-based rock composers such as Randy Newman and Todd Rundgren, principal songwriter and de facto leader Ben Folds combines an off-beat world view with equally off-kilter musical arrangements to create a thoroughly original sound.

- Steve Kurutz

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Sweet
Sweet Fanny Adams

Although they were often dismissed as a fluffy singles group in their day, Sweet crafted a handful of strong albums in the mid-‘70s that sported some surprisingly muscular hard rock. Released 50 years ago today, Sweet Fanny Adams’ heavy metal masterpiece is the title track, a seedy portrait of juvenile delinquency whose brutal lyrics anticipate the grim imagery of punk rock. The song’s vivid lyrics are effectively brought to life by a blinding succession of speed metal guitar riffs that are fleshed out by the kind of spacy synthesizer work that later graced “Fox on the Run.”

- Donald A. Guarisco

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Frankie Reyes
Originalitos

Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker’s first all-original album as Frankie Reyes is a tranquil delight of cocktail minimalism played solo on an Oberheim synthesizer.

- Timothy Monger