As the 1970s turned its midpoint corner, some of the biggest artists of the decade reached their stride. At the same time, emerging acts found new ways to reflect similar musical values with their ...

Every new year brings the same question for music fans: what’s next? After a year that brought about some amazing albums, it reminded listeners that great art still rises to the top, even within an ...

As 2025 draws to a close, Metacritic has unveiled its annual rankings of the best albums of the year, highlighting a diverse and genre-spanning collection of critically acclaimed releases. From ...

In a year that had no rap songs in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40 for the first time since 1990, rap thrived in so many other ways. This list of the 25 best rap albums of 2025 includes grand ...

It’s easy to pinpoint when trends in music begin: People rally around a specific band or album, a new scene forms around a shared sensibility, or a particular sound permeates the zeitgeist. It’s more ...

The top country albums of 2025 are so different from each other that it seems like the only thing they have in common is that they fall under the same umbrella genre. But there is one thing these ...

If 2024 was the year of the situationship album (and, yes, there are still plenty that dropped thereafter), then 2025 was the year we danced through the fire. The hypnotic, high-tempo momentum of this ...

If we needed any more proof that the album isn't dead, 2025 was it. On this episode, Stephen Thompson is joined by Ann Powers and Daoud Tyler-Ameen to run through 12 dazzling albums that stuck with ...

In 2025, bands had a lot to say about the state of the world, from La Dispute’s No One Was Driving the Car, which surveyed late-stage capitalism, and End It, who examined class structure through ...

Have you noticed that guitars are back? I’m being a little facetious, but rock and even punk has has been steadily climbing its way back to the mainstream and we felt that more this year than we have ...

Rosalía made an album invoking the saints, Lily Allen took us on a tragicomic trip through her domestic hell, Lady Gaga found the sweet spot between artpop and arena-ready funk, and Bad Bunny was just ...