The Edit

8.4

Must Listen

Reset

Crosswinds

Conceived across the Atlantic between Manchester and Kingston, Ontario, Crosswinds deliver a debut that channels Steely Dan sophistication through a Neil Young heart — eclectic, immaculate, and utterly their own.

Joe Morrison · Progressive Pop · 2019

8.4

Must Listen

Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt

Curtis Harding

A concept album about a pilot lost in space that bridges Marvin Gaye era soul with sci-fi imagination — and finds real emotion in the cosmos.

Bishop Taylor · Soul/Space Opera · 2025

8.6

Must Listen

My Light, My Destroyer

Cassandra Jenkins

A third album of cosmic intimacy — Cassandra Jenkins makes the personal feel astronomical and the astronomical feel like home.

Bishop Taylor · Indie Folk/Americana · 2024

8.1

Must Listen

Emmaar

Tinariwen

Exiled from their Saharan homeland by conflict, Tinariwen carried the desert with them to California and made their most accessible and urgent record.

Bishop Taylor · Desert Blues · 2014

9.2

Must Listen

Luminescent Creatures

Ichiko Aoba

A Japanese singer-songwriter builds an underwater cathedral of sound where silence is as important as any note played.

Bishop Taylor · Chamber Folk · 2025

9.1

Must Listen

Lady in Satin

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday's ravaged voice found its deepest truth on an album that transforms technical decline into the rawest form of emotional expression.

Bishop Taylor · Vocal Jazz · 1958

8.3

Must Listen

Come as You Are

Kenyon Dixon & Terrace Martin

A warm, generational R&B-jazz statement from Crenshaw that envisions the future of soul music as a family affair.

Ash Young · Progressive R&B/Jazz · 2025

9.0

Must Listen

Carrie & Lowell

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens stripped away every concealment and made the most nakedly emotional album of the decade about the mother who abandoned him.

Bishop Taylor · Indie Folk · 2015

8.5

Must Listen

hooke's law

KeiyaA

A feverish, volatile sophomore album that folds club music into a story of grief — dense, devastating, and utterly singular.

Ash Young · Experimental R&B · 2025

9.0

Must Listen

Alligator Bites Never Heal

Doechii

Nineteen tracks of fearless genre-hopping from Tampa's most exciting rapper — the Grammy for Best Rap Album was just the confirmation.

Ash Young · Hip-Hop · 2024

7.4

i,i

Bon Iver

Justin Vernon reaches for communion and community on Bon Iver's most generous and least focused album.

Bishop Taylor · Experimental Folk · 2019

7.4

Brothers

The Black Keys

The Akron duo polished their blues-rock sound to a gleaming sheen with mixed but mostly satisfying results.

Joe Morrison · Blues Rock · 2010

8.6

Must Listen

Baduizm

Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu announced herself as the high priestess of neo-soul with a debut that made consciousness sound effortlessly cool.

Ash Young · Neo-Soul · 1997

8.2

Must Listen

The Moon & Antarctica

Modest Mouse

Isaac Brock stared into the void and the void wrote him a sprawling, brilliant, uneven masterpiece.

Joe Morrison · Indie Rock · 2000

7.8

The Creek Drank the Cradle

Iron & Wine

Sam Beam recorded his debut in a home studio and created a world so intimate you can hear the dust settling on the microphone.

Bishop Taylor · Folk · 2002

8.4

Must Listen

Cosmogramma

Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus smashed jazz, electronic music, and hip-hop into a particle accelerator and the resulting explosion changed beat music forever.

Ash Young · Electronic/Jazz · 2010

8.5

Must Listen

Slanted and Enchanted

Pavement

The lo-fi benchmark that proved you could be brilliant and sound like you did not care at the same time.

Joe Morrison · Lo-Fi · 1992

7.7

James Blake

James Blake

James Blake built cathedrals of silence and proved that the space between sounds can be as powerful as the sounds themselves.

Ash Young · Post-Dubstep · 2011

8.3

Must Listen

Either/Or

Elliott Smith

Elliott Smith whispered his way through twelve songs of devastating beauty and proved that the quietest music can carry the heaviest emotional weight.

Bishop Taylor · Indie Folk · 1997

9.1

Must Listen

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco

The album a major label rejected and a sister label released became the defining American rock record of the new century.

Joe Morrison · Alt-Country · 2002

7.9

Ctrl

SZA

SZA turned insecurity into an art form on a debut that is messy, honest, and completely irresistible.

Ash Young · R&B · 2017

7.6

Lost in the Dream

The War on Drugs

Adam Granduciel channels Springsteen through a haze of reverb and anxiety on a beautiful but overlong third album.

Joe Morrison · Indie Rock · 2014

9.2

Must Listen

The Low End Theory

A Tribe Called Quest

Q-Tip and Phife Dawg stripped hip-hop down to bass, drums, and jazz samples and accidentally created the genre's most influential production blueprint.

Ash Young · Jazz Rap · 1991

9.4

Must Listen

In Rainbows

Radiohead

Radiohead remembered they were a rock band and made their warmest, most human record.

Joe Morrison · Art Rock · 2007

8.9

Must Listen

Mezzanine

Massive Attack

Massive Attack turned paranoia and dread into the most cinematic electronic album of the nineties.

Ash Young · Trip-Hop · 1998

9.4

Must Listen

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus composed a ballet for the demons in his head and the result is the most emotionally violent jazz album ever recorded.

Bishop Taylor · Avant-Garde Jazz · 1963

8.7

Must Listen

Currents

Tame Impala

Kevin Parker traded his guitar pedals for synthesizers and made the most ambitious breakup album of the decade.

Joe Morrison · Psychedelic Pop · 2015

9.0

Must Listen

Untrue

Burial

The most evocative electronic album of the century sounds like 3AM in a city that is beautiful and broken in equal measure.

Ash Young · Dubstep · 2007

9.2

Must Listen

Head Hunters

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock plugged in, turned on, and created the album that made jazz funky and funk jazzy.

Bishop Taylor · Jazz-Funk · 1973

8.3

Must Listen

Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes

Sun-drenched harmonies and pastoral beauty that made folk music feel urgent again.

Joe Morrison · Indie Folk · 2008

9.4

Must Listen

Donuts

J Dilla

Made on a hospital bed in the final days of his life, J Dilla's last album is a defiant, joyous masterwork that redefined what beats could be.

Ash Young · Instrumental Hip-Hop · 2006

8.6

Must Listen

For Emma, Forever Ago

Bon Iver

A cabin in Wisconsin, a broken heart, and a falsetto that turned isolation into art.

Joe Morrison · Indie Folk · 2007

8.7

Must Listen

Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club

Ry Cooder travelled to Havana and found a group of forgotten musicians who proved that age only deepens the soul of music.

Bishop Taylor · Son Cubano · 1997

8.1

Must Listen

Malibu

Anderson .Paak

Anderson .Paak proved he could sing, rap, drum, and produce with equal facility on a sun-soaked debut that refuses to sit still.

Ash Young · Hip-Hop/Soul · 2016

7.8

High Violet

The National

A gorgeous, brooding record that occasionally struggles under the weight of its own elegance.

Joe Morrison · Indie Rock · 2010

7.6

Come Away with Me

Norah Jones

A warm, gentle debut that won eight Grammys by reminding millions of listeners that sometimes the quietest voice in the room is the most compelling.

Bishop Taylor · Jazz Pop · 2002

8.3

Must Listen

A Seat at the Table

Solange

Solange crafted a meditation on Black womanhood so precise and so warm it redefines what a protest album can sound like.

Ash Young · R&B · 2016

8.9

Must Listen

Funeral

Arcade Fire

A communal howl against death and suburban emptiness that turned indie rock into a stadium affair.

Joe Morrison · Indie Rock · 2004

8.5

Must Listen

The River

Ali Farka Touré

Ali Farka Touré proved that the blues did not begin in the Mississippi Delta — it began on the banks of the Niger.

Bishop Taylor · Desert Blues · 1990

9.1

Must Listen

Voodoo

D'Angelo

D'Angelo, Questlove, and Pino Palladino created the most organic-sounding album of the digital age by playing so far behind the beat it redefined groove itself.

Ash Young · Neo-Soul · 2000

9.7

Must Listen

Loveless

My Bloody Valentine

The album that nearly bankrupted a label and redefined what a guitar could sound like.

Joe Morrison · Shoegaze · 1991

8.7

Must Listen

Music Has the Right to Children

Boards of Canada

The most beautiful electronic album ever made sounds like childhood memories dissolving in warm static.

Ash Young · IDM · 1998

8.9

Must Listen

Zombie

Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti declared war on the Nigerian military with two tracks of incendiary Afrobeat so powerful they provoked an actual military assault.

Bishop Taylor · Afrobeat · 1977

9.2

Must Listen

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Neutral Milk Hotel

A haunted, horn-drenched fever dream that became the unlikely sacred text of indie music.

Joe Morrison · Indie Folk · 1998

8.5

Must Listen

Mm..Food

MF DOOM

The masked villain turned food into the most elaborate extended metaphor in hip-hop, served over beats chopped from the strangest corners of the crate.

Ash Young · Abstract Hip-Hop · 2004

9.6

Must Listen

What's Going On

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye defied Motown, abandoned the hit-single formula, and created the most compassionate protest album in American music.

Bishop Taylor · Soul · 1971

9.6

Must Listen

The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths

The record where Morrissey and Marr achieved a perfect, furious symbiosis that has never been equalled.

Joe Morrison · Indie Rock · 1986

9.0

Must Listen

Aquemini

OutKast

André 3000 and Big Boi fused Southern bounce, psychedelia, and live instrumentation into hip-hop's most adventurous double act.

Ash Young · Southern Hip-Hop · 1998

9.0

Must Listen

Grace

Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley's only completed album is a vessel of almost impossible beauty, carrying a voice that seemed to channel something beyond human experience.

Bishop Taylor · Alternative Rock · 1994

9.3

Must Listen

Doolittle

Pixies

Fifteen tracks of controlled chaos that taught a generation how to be quiet and then very, very loud.

Joe Morrison · Alternative Rock · 1989

9.3

Must Listen

Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin

Richard D. James built cathedrals out of synthesizers in his bedroom and accidentally invented the future of electronic music.

Ash Young · Ambient Techno · 1992

8.8

Must Listen

I Put a Spell on You

Nina Simone

Nina Simone channelled rage, tenderness, and classical training into an album that refuses to be contained by any single genre.

Bishop Taylor · Jazz/Soul · 1965

8.8

Must Listen

Definitely Maybe

Oasis

Before the feuds and the excess, there was this: a debut so confident it practically dared you not to believe.

Joe Morrison · Britpop · 1994

9.5

Must Listen

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West

Kanye retreated to Hawaii, gathered the best producers on earth, and built a monument to excess that doubles as a confession.

Ash Young · Hip-Hop · 2010

8.7

Must Listen

Two Star & the Dream Police

Mk.gee

A breakout debut that rewrites the guitar album for the streaming age — all texture, all feel, all dream.

Joe Morrison · Alternative R&B/Art Pop · 2024

9.1

Must Listen

Waltz for Debby

Bill Evans

The most beautiful piano trio recording ever made captures three musicians in a state of near-telepathic communion.

Bishop Taylor · Jazz · 1962

9.0

Must Listen

Is This It

The Strokes

Five guys from New York made rock music sound dangerous again with nothing but cheap amps and perfect songs.

Joe Morrison · Garage Rock Revival · 2001

8.8

Must Listen

IGOR

Tyler, the Creator

Tyler ditched the shock tactics and made a heartbreak album so bold it redefined what a rap record could be.

Ash Young · Neo-Soul/Synth Pop · 2019

9.7

Must Listen

Blue

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell opened a vein and let the music bleed out in the most confessional album ever recorded.

Bishop Taylor · Singer-Songwriter · 1971

8.4

Must Listen

AM

Arctic Monkeys

Sheffield lads ditch the anoraks for leather jackets and make their most seductive record.

Joe Morrison · Indie Rock · 2013

9.2

Must Listen

Discovery

Daft Punk

Two robots from Paris proved that dance music could be joyful, nostalgic, and emotionally devastating all at once.

Ash Young · French House · 2001

9.3

Must Listen

Pink Moon

Nick Drake

Twenty-eight minutes of devastating beauty, recorded alone in the middle of the night by a ghost who happened to still be alive.

Bishop Taylor · Folk · 1972

7.8

What's Wrong With New York?

The Dare

A debut that runs on nightclub fumes and shameless hedonism — part throwaway, part essential, entirely New York.

Joe Morrison · Synth-Pop/Electro-Punk · 2024

9.5

Must Listen

Nevermind

Nirvana

The record that detonated the mainstream and rewired a generation overnight.

Joe Morrison · Grunge · 1991

9.6

Must Listen

Blonde

Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean dismantled every expectation and built something so intimate it feels like reading someone else's diary.

Ash Young · R&B/Art Pop · 2016

9.8

Must Listen

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

John Coltrane's devotional masterpiece is less an album than a prayer — four movements of music that aspire to the condition of the divine.

Bishop Taylor · Spiritual Jazz · 1965

9.8

Must Listen

OK Computer

Radiohead

The album that turned a guitar band into prophets of the digital age.

Joe Morrison · Alternative Rock · 1997

9.1

Must Listen

Getting Killed

Geese

Brooklyn's most fearless band delivers an album that sounds like five records happening at once — and somehow all of them are brilliant.

Joe Morrison · Art Rock · 2025

9.9

Must Listen

To Pimp a Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

The most important hip-hop album of the century fuses jazz, funk, and spoken word into a searing state-of-the-nation address.

Ash Young · Hip-Hop/Jazz Rap · 2015

9.9

Must Listen

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

The most important jazz album ever recorded remains, sixty-seven years later, the purest expression of beauty in American music.

Bishop Taylor · Modal Jazz · 1959