The 50 best albums of 2024 offer sublime music as major artists return with new work and brilliant new sounds bubble up from the underground and worldwide.
PopMatters has scoured the musical spectrum for the best examples of protest songs, including anthems of great popularity and obscurity that resonate today.
Detroit’s Motown Records will forever be important as a hit factory and an African American-owned label that achieved massive mainstream success and influence.
The best experimental albums of the year highlight the breadth of human expression and take listeners to heretofore unknown realms in music, pushing boundaries.
The 20 best pop albums of 2023 radiate with unstoppable playlist power, much-needed sweet escapism, self-reflection, self-criticism, and killer melodies.
In 1984, funk rock legend Prince combined music and film into a major extravaganza called Purple Rain, and it went to the top of the charts for 24 weeks in a row.
Jump back a decade and revisit the best albums of 2013, a year that saw the debuts of major female artists Kacey Musgraves, CHVRCHES, Haim, and Savages.
Jump back a decade and visit one of the best years for Americana albums ever, including Jason Isbell, Neko Case, the Devil Makes Three, and the Lone Bellow.
Musicians were more active in 2022 and it resulted in a vast treasure trove of superb work. The best albums of 2022 pushed boundaries and are more varied than ever.
The 13 best pop albums of 2022 radiate with unstoppable playlist power, much-needed sweet escapism, self-reflection, self-criticism, and killer melodies.
In 2022, indie rock was a guitar-led extravaganza with artists drawing from an ever-widening musical well. These are the 25 best indie rock albums of the year.
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