Sheer Mag
Playing Favorites
Playing Favorites proves that joy can show up defiantly, wearing a sleeveless denim vest, and sometimes, a rollicking good time is the glue holding our hearts together
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Justin Timberlake
Everything I Thought It Was
An album that’s everything you thought it was but has nothing to say
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Tierra Whack
World Wide Whack
Stretches Whack’s stylistic range, reintroducing an artist who seems more deeply in tune with her emotions
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Mannequin Pussy
I Got Heaven
The record’s disparate strands mostly hold together, a formidable document of their fire and fury—and one that’s needed more than ever
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Bolis Pupul
Letter to Yu
These songs never reach catharsis or resolution to their grand queries, but nonetheless find moments of joy in the process of seeking answers
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Khruangbin
A LA SALA
It’s hard to be so stylized yet retain Khruangbin’s kind of staying power. You could kill the reverb and A LA SALA would still prevail
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Vampire Weekend
Only God Was Above Us
All in all, Only God is a classic Vampire Weekend record, for those seeking exactly that
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Maggie Rogers
Don't Forget Me
With Don’t Forget Me, Rogers sounds fully confident abandoning the glossiness of her earliest work—she doesn’t need studio flourishes to bolster her transcendent songwriting
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Mount Kimbie
The Sunset Violent
Mount Kimbie are letting their songs smolder into life’s discontent. That uncomfortable tension is The Sunset Violent’s beauty
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Pearl Jam
Dark Matter
Is Dark Matter that different from immediate predecessors Backspacer, Lightning Bolt, and Gigaton? Not really. But is it somehow Pearl Jammier, in an ineffable sense? Yep—in fact, it’s something special
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A Certain Ratio
It All Comes Down To This
Nearly a half-century into their run, A Certain Ratio have plenty to teach but remain eager to learn—and, above all, to keep the party going
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Beyoncé
Cowboy Carter
As both a treatise and a sonic testament, ‘COWBOY CARTER’ is its own triumph; unmoored in form, space and time, it’s the work of a preternatural talent painstakingly poring over every word, stratified vocal, sample and stylistic flourish
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