Ken Tucker

Mitski claims new ground on her sixth album, spreading herself across different kinds of pop music with each new song. The result is more varied than anything she's created thus far.

No woman in the history of country has cried as eloquently as Smith has. The album title, The Cry from the Heart, is the answer she's given over the years when asked to define country music.

Young has long been a nature writer, composing pastorals about the environment. Barn finds him composing lyrical hymns to the earth and sky, or raging against destruction on the horizon.

From 18-year-old Olivia Rodrigo to 83-year-old Peter Stampfel, critic Ken Tucker says the music he most enjoyed in 2021 was recorded by artists who were either very young or quite old.

Adele is a rare thing right now: an artist whose appeal cuts across genres and generations. Her new album about divorce features thrilling, exhilarating songs about being absolutely miserable.

Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers are singer-songwriters who each had a solo career before getting together. Their debut album showcases a new sound that neither of them had ever achieved individually.

A new 5-disc reissue of the 1970 and 1971 albums Sunflower and Surf's Up reveals the Beach Boys at a crossroads, having moved beyond surf-music pop hits, and shooting for more mainstream success.

Pere Ubu leader David Thomas remixed two of his favorite Ubu albums, 1998's Pennsylvania and 2002's St. Arkansas, saying that the remixes are so substantial, they amount to being two new albums.

Best known for her roles in films like Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider, Black, who died in 2013, also recorded music in the 1970s. A new album highlights some of her strongest work.

Critic Ken Tucker compiled his list of 2021 summer songs while traveling on vacation. His picks are "Brutal," by Olivia Rodrigo; "Transparent Soul," by Willow; and "Be Sweet," by Japanese Breakfast.

Six years before his death in 2016, Prince recorded — but did not release — Welcome 2 America. Who knows why Prince opted to hide it away in 2010; this album's sound is very much of-the-moment.

The Murlocs are a side project of sorts to King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, where Ambrose Kenny-Smith and guitarist Cook Craig join other musicians to amalgamate all different styles of pop.

It's a quandary many musicians face: Create material that explores new territory or give variations of the same? Tom Jones, Jackson Browne and John Mayer each answer that question in new releases.

Chrissie Hynde sings Bob Dylan and Shannon McNally performs songs associated with country singer Waylon Jennings. They both use the structures the men built to create their own rich emotional spaces.

Russell cut her new album in a scant four days, pouring a lifetime of experiences into it. Outside Child is the confession of a woman who's faced hellish experiences and emerged with uncommon grace.

For her second solo album, Kennedy's array of diverse songs — from thumping electronica to full-throated crooning — shows us she won't be pinned down

Blanton describes many of the songs on her new album as "anti-fascist anthems." Critic Ken Tucker says Love & Rage doesn't sound like typical protest music — which makes it all the more effective.

King made some recordings in the 1970s, but then quit the music business to raise her children. Now in her late 70s, she's released her first full-length solo album: Living in the Last Days.

Baker supplies nearly all of the guitars, drums, synthesizers, banjo, and mandolin on her new album. It's a confessional and frequently beautiful record about mental distress and addiction.

The country singer spent more than a decade in Nashville before her first record broke through in 2020. Now she's adding five new songs in an expanded version of that album called, Living The Dream.