The year may have gotten off to a slow start, but these are the albums that we just can’t stop listening to.
Mandy Moore boldly goes where no teen-pop starlet has gone before: the vinyl bins at the back of her local record shop.
No album, movie, or book should ever have to live up to the expectations attached to the label “biggest selling of all time.”
The house of Jaxx is a carnival labyrinth of smoke, mirrors, and liquid insanity.
Compromise may have shrunk the band’s fanbase at the time, but it left behind a thought-provoking, near-perfect pop album.
Kill Hannah’s major label debut is a worthy addition to the melody-driven, heavy rock releases which largely shape the genre today.
It’s Weezer’s Pinkerton all over again.
Volcano dabbles in pseudo-edgy rock but it’s primarily a disc of gentle melodies and flowing, meandering imagery.
There’s a handful of notable remixes and b-sides missing from the album.
I Say I Say I Say is Erasure’s gayest, most unabashedly precious album.
The band’s debut album is filled with succinct, pretty songs about timeless lovelorn truths.
Madonna’s Like a Prayer found the singer coming of age with a collection of deeply felt pop confections.
In response to the over-bloated rock of the late-‘70s, The B-52’s introduced a lighter, party-rock vibe to American New Wave.
As modern as Comfort Woman is, it’s essentially an old-fashioned soul record.
Danish R&B chanteuse Maria Jensen draws on the unlikeliest influences for her debut album.
Blondie turned more than a few punk purist heads with Parallel Lines.
South’s brand of fuzzy space-rock, though certainly not singular, creates an empyreal atmosphere that pulls you in like the sea.
This is clearly the voice of someone who will never stop searching.
Let’s get down to the nitty grit-tay.
Each song was a unique arrangement that reflected a then-new pop-cult personality and voice.
Depeche Mode’s Violator seamlessly marries dance, goth-rock, and synth-pop with good ol’ fashioned funk and rock n’ roll.