Amoeba Music

Filled with fierce, infectious post-hardcore tracks, Popular Monster is a fitting title for the latest from Falling In Reverse. Blending rap, metal, emo, and hard rock, these tracks are on fire with raw, rough emotion. They're also total anthems: turn them up loud and headbang your way through your worst (as well as your best) days. Popular Monster is a powerful, intense, world-shaking album. More

This is How Tomorrow Moves is the charming new album from cult fave British indie artist beabadoobee. Singer-songwriter Beatrice Laus writes pumped-up, pastel lo-fi indie pop with some serious hooks. Lead single "Take a Bite" has enough rock 'n' roll edge and swooning pop bliss to call to mind the '90s glory days of iconic female alt-rock artists while sounding like a breath of fresh air. As beabadoobee, Laus sings of self-acceptance and growing into your self, with an impassioned, vital sound that moves effortlessly from introspective ballads to driving, punk-inflected rockers. More

On Live Vol 1 , young bluegrass star Billy Strings already sounds like a legend. A compilation of live performances at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, Austin's Moody Center, Paris' La Cigale, and other locales, the album is a dizzying record of his electrifying concert appearances. The mood transforms from song to song, with outlaw tales, melancholy ballads, and rollicking stompers. This is bluegrass on fire, with fiery guitar, strings that sound like Orpheus himself got out his fiddle, and captivating storytelling. Impressive and unforgettable. More

Hot off his appearance on Beyonce's Cowboy Carter comes Shaboozey with his top-notch new album, Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Goin g. Shaboozey fuses classic country sounds with indie Americana, adds in a dash of hip-hop, and occasionally even some pop. In Shaboozey's hands, this modern melange feels natural, affecting, and utterly satisfying. This is an album with a capital "A," the type of front-to-back listening experience that creates a mood and tells a story that'll stick with you. "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" is a down-and-out anthem that's irresistible and infectious. "Anabelle" will break your heart and "My Fault" (featuring Noah Cyrus) will break it into even smaller pieces. You've got to hear this album: you'll be glad you did. More

Death Lens delivers scorching modern punk on Cold World . The songs tackle the topics of social injustice and global turmoil, and how we react to the seemingly nonstop flow of bad behavior and bad news. Listening to Cold World is an exhilarating experience that speeds by and will leave you aching for more. Grounded and gritty, the album moves from fierce and uncompromising to alienated and abrasive. This is the real deal. More

Jessica Pratt is back with the intriguing, almost otherworldly Here in the Pitch . The songs sound like they've been piped in from some reality adjacent to our own: an alternative existence with all its multifold possibilities, a door leading to a place where the past yet lives. Part of that's due to the gauzy textures, the intimate lyrics, and the melange of genres from a bygone era. Pratt's compositions blend '60s pop, bossa nova, psychedelia and the slightly off-kilter, cinematic stylings of icons like Scott Walker and Judy Garland. It all works splendidly. A transportive, utterly beautiful album that's unlike anything else out there. More

French heavy proggers Slift are back with their third masterpiece, Ilion . Opening the album with the epic, sprawling 11-minute title track, this is an album that has a story to tell, and with no track under 8 minutes, Slift allow these songs to slowly unfurl and breathe. Fans of Melvins, Tool, Mars Volta and Baroness will not want to miss one. More

Mannequin Pussy returns with I Got Heaven , a musical showcase of moods, with all of them hitting equally hard in different ways, often within the same song. Singer and guitarist Marisa Dabice bares her soul on the indie-folk track "I Don't Know You," increasing the volume, distortion, and emotion as the song goes on. Conversely, "Ok? Ok! Ok? Ok!" is a chaotic hardcore banger, replete with a tambourine during the breakdown. Brooding and shoegazey one moment, and bludgeoning you over the head in the next, I Got Heaven happily throws the rulebook out the window and does things the Mannequin Pussy way. More

Branching out from his roots in Title Fight, Ned Russin has elevated Glitterer from a one-man side project to a fully formed band on Rationale . Russin and company pluck moments of shiny synth from the '80s, fuse them together with '90s fist-pumping alternative rock and 00's shoegaze and pop and you're getting a sense of what to expect from Rationale . More

Themes of life, love, faith are explored on Weird Faith , the latest album from Madi Diaz. Coming off of a stint as a touring guitarist with Harry Styles, Diaz's unique style of introspective indie folk with a pop sheen uses minimal bells and whistles, her voice being the star of the show. The album also features "Don't Do Me Good," a duet with country star Kacey Musgraves. More

Philadelphia punk legends and road warriors The Menzingers' seventh album, Some of it Was True , stands as their most urgent and energetic effort to date. Capturing their distinctive live energy within the confines of the studio, the sound is rich, raw, and complementary to the group's increasingly prismatic songwriting approach. The Menzingers seem to be kickstarting a new era in their already illustrious career by tapping into the energy that brought the band to life in the very beginning. More

Sarah Jarosz seventh studio album, Polaroid Lovers , delivers her viscerally potent and resplendent brand of folk-rock, while exploring the ephemeral moments that indelibly shape our lives. The alchemy of Jarosz's finely wrought lyricism, gorgeous vocal work, and virtuosic yet unfettered musicality creates an album-long meditation on love and longing. More

No exaggeration: Sierra Ferrell's Trail of Flowers is a masterpiece. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter writes captivating, fresh songs inspired by classic country, bluegrass, and folk. These are ramblin', rootsy tracks that chronicle the excitement and disappointment of life on the road, gently make fun of Ferrell's ability to drive a suitor mad, and take a tongue-in-cheek look at romantic despair at a dive bar. All of which is to say that — woo boy — Ferrell has a voice, both in terms of her dulcet tones and her ability to weave a tale. An eclectic, electrifying indie country album that's likely to top many end-of-the-year "best of" lists. More

Waxahatchee's Tigers Blood finds Katie Crutchfield grappling with addiction issues and lost relationships and coming out on top. Sober since 2018, Crutchfield's songwriting is vulnerable yet bold, gritty yet graceful. Her lilting voice and easy-going Americana melodies bring sunlight to even the darkest corners, as Crutchfield moves from singing of tension and disappointment to belonging and welcome stability. Tigers Blood is summer day music: moving and magical, a moment to rest and survey the beauty in the world around you after the long metaphorical winter. More

Immediate Family are back with their sizzling second album, Skin in the Game . These legendary backing musicians have worked with an incredible list of who's who in modern music — including Keith Richards, Stevie Nicks, David Crosby, and Joni Mitchell, to name just a few — and now they take center stage. Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Steve Postell, Russ Kunkel, and Leland Sklar deliver scorching, gritty rock 'n' roll meets barroom blues with a dash of classic R&B thrown in. This is down-and-dirty, electrifying rock 'n' roll at its finest. More

Taking its name from the infamous Georgia recording studio, Capricorn is a big step in the evolution of Atlanta bluesman Eddie 9V. Whether it’s the N’awlins funk of lead single “Yella Alligator” or the simmering ‘70s soul of “Are We Through” or “How Long,” Eddie 9V spreads his wings and flies across the genres and decades on Capricorn . More