Joni Mitchell has expertly subverted trendy ideologies, styles, and pitfalls not because she never took the time to learn them but specifically because she paid such close attention to them. Despite ...

I joined Paste in 2023 and, in my tenure as editor, this year’s AOTY list is my favorite by far. The publication has been doling out these rankings since 2002, affixing an “Album of the Year” ribbon ...

The music world refused to stand still in 2025. This wasn’t a year for playing it safe. Across the globe and all over the stylistic map, music kept mutating in the weirdest, wildest ways. The artists ...

Earlier this year, my colleague and bud Kelefa Sanneh suggested that music critics, as a lot, have gone soft—becoming submissive, overly agreeable, and, in some cases, nearly servile. He’s right, of ...

The best albums of 2025 spanned seismic rage rap, intricate guitar music, protest folk, spacey dream pop, and laptop twee. A virtuoso of experimental electronic music re-emerged, a Brooklyn band ...

Two albums placed back-to-back on this list of the 50 greatest country covers epitomize how important album art was and is. What Are the Greatest Country Album Covers of All Time? At No. 20, find ...

If there's one question that professional music lovers hear most often, it's some variation on: "Heard any good albums lately?" We always have, of course, but when it came time to highlight the cream ...

As classic rock finds new ways to expand in the 21st century, the artists whose careers stretch back half a century or more continue to grow, too. As the list below of the Top 20 Rock Albums of 2025 ...

Bobby, Eddie and country music singer/songwriter, Matt Stell sit down to talk about the albums that completely rewired how ...