Previous albums have highlighted Crockett’s unique meld of the tragic, the wistful, and the satirical. With his 13th album, $10 Cowboy, he offers his most fully realized set. Occurring as a cross between Hank Williams, a low-key carnival announcer, and the Coen brothers’ Buster Scruggs, Crockett has perfected his craft: $10 Cowboy is a 2024 standout.

This is an invitation to test the limits of what is possible–and to then keep going. Brought to life with the aid of a highly curated lineup of friends — Rachel Eckroth, Josh Freese, Dave Grohl, Mark Guiliana, Cate Le Bon, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Stella Mogzawa and David Ralicke — the album is an unadulterated expression of St. Vincent’s singular vision.

This is a dance record. It’s also a statement about our harrowing future - AI, self-driving cars, Twitter rage, mass media manipulation, and ultimately, the sin of perfectionism. It’s sonically influenced by the work of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Todd Rundgren, Prince, The Residents, and DEVO. And it’s spectacular.

Fashioned as an album that should be taken as a whole, Light Verse is lovingly handmade and self-assured as a secret handshake— equal parts elegy, kaleidoscope, truth, and dare. Featuring Fiona Apple, Tyler Chester, Sebastian Steinberg, David Garza, Griffin Goldsmith, Beth Goodfellow, Kyle Crane, and Paul Cartwright.

This is an emo record, but perhaps only categorically speaking. It contains multitudes: ambient, pop, R&B, punk, and experimental sounds float in and out of one another as the record moves through scenes, experiences, and feelings, all of them rippling with a purity of intention and translation that mark the best artistic works of “psychedelia.”

Long-standing legendary German titans of heavy metal are back with another world class entry in their legendary catalog. Sometimes, straight up riffage with no frills and all thrills is exactly what you need and that is exactly what Accept have delivered with Humanoid— a healthy slab of classic heavy metal that compliments the band’s near 50-year legacy.

It Beckons Us All follows 2022's revered Astral Fortress, with what could be considered an even more refined, challenging & diverse set of timeless metal anthems from the uncompromising trailblazers; from the melodic, to the somber & atmospheric, to the blackened dirges emanating from Darkthrone's highly distinguishable riffing.

With its playful narratives and hooks like anchors, Swift’s 11th studio album is a terrific reminder of her storytelling powers and intense, personal connection she can conjure in song. It combines the intimacy of Folklore and Evermore with the synth-pop gloss of Midnights to create music that's wildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic.

Papercuts is the first singles collection from innovative musical force Linkin Park. The career-spanning 20-track album compiles 18 essential anthems, plus the never-before-released track “Friendly Fire” recorded during the 2017 sessions for their seventh album One More Light and fan-favorite rarity “QWERTY”.

This is a fretful and ferocious record, lyrically much preoccupied with things having ended or appearing about to end, but musically much more blaze of glory than any kind of funeral pyre. Producer Andrew Watt helps the grunge stalwarts with what he did for The Rolling Stones last year: roll years back while avoiding parody.

Orchestras documents two inspired concert-hall engagements arranged by Michael Gibbs. Sweeping orchestration evoking landmark film scores and Gil Evans alike move nimbly within and around the trio’s telepathic rapport, and Frisell’s shimmering trademark tone melds gorgeously with symphonic strings and brass.

No need to fix what isn’t broken. For a decade plus, Cloud Nothings have delivered catchy, energetic songs without getting stale or repetitive. There’s something to be said for their ability to continue delivering hook-filled records with intelligent and heart-rending lyrics; and their latest installment, Final Summer, keeps that streak alive.

Based on the 2018 Broadway musical adaptation of the 2004 film. Features songs from the movie’s stars including Reneé Rapp as Regina George, Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis ‘Imi’ike, Avantika as Karen Shetty, and more. Includes “Not My Fault” by Rapp and rap superstar Megan Thee Stallion.

On Coup de Grace, Connie Sgarbossa’s most private and innermost thoughts are funneled through the lives of fictional characters within a noir-inspired world. Sgarbossa’s hold nothing back attitude combined with the band’s intensely dark blend of sasscore, punk, mathcore and metalcore, makes for profound and devastating listening.

Cometh The Storm is an absolute monster of an album, a ten-ton aural leviathan, a thundering colossus in audio form, the sonic equivalent of an end-times harbinger of death from the second the listener hits 'play' and is walloped into consciousness to the last dying strains of the final track as everything fades to black.

Don’t Forget Me’s 10 brisk, lightly rocking songs evoke the radio-friendly pop-rock of early-2000s Sheryl Crow or Jewel while sometimes looking further back to ’70s soft rock a la Carole King. It’s a breezy, contemplative soundtrack for the open road that captures the freedom of hitting the pavement and the dizziness of moving on.

Lifeless Birth is a vision of what metal can be and do in 2024. It tears down old barriers and keeps those traditional elements that make it stronger while pivoting fluidly between technical intricacy, progressive poise and all-out brutality. Necrot continue their ascent to the forefront of American aural extremity.

Through an inimitable voice that the New York Times touts as, "a smooth, dark alto possessed of qualities you might associate with barrel-aged bourbon or butter-soft leather," acclaimed vocalist and songwriter Lizz Wright sings with a soaring reflection of the cultural fabric of America.

One Deep River offers an unstoppable flow of future Knopfler (Dire Straits) classics, with their customarily learned lyrics and refined guitar textures. They draw on a lifetime of genre-crossing ingredients and influences in blues, folk, rock and beyond, and as usual, reveal their charms with unhurried grace and depth.