Enthusiastic, technical, elitism-free music reviews.https://onlygreatmusic.com/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/manuela-ocampo-ocasos-y-albas/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/manuela-ocampo-ocasos-y-albas/The Colombian songwriter's sophomore record was road-tested on stages before it ever saw a studio, and you can hear the difference. Sunsets-and-sunrises poetics, recorded in one sitting, sung like she means every word.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/maya-ongaku-nothing-space-music/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/maya-ongaku-nothing-space-music/A Japanese four-piece turns negative space into the loudest instrument on the record. Acid folk that floats instead of strums. Headphones, low volume, full attention.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nora-stanley-glass/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nora-stanley-glass/The Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist behind other people's records — Cassandra Jenkins, Beth Orton, Fred Frith — steps up front for the first time, poetry-inspired and fully formed. This is what happens when the utility player finally takes the mic.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/overmono-pure-devotion/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/overmono-pure-devotion/The Russell brothers go warmer and more analogue on their XL sophomore record, building songs for the comedown instead of the peak. Less about the drop, more about what's left after it.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/the-mountain-goats-days/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/the-mountain-goats-days/John Darnielle and company dress up mortality in horns and major-key harmonies, name-checking Layne Staley and Charlie Sheen along the way. It's the Mountain Goats doing what the Mountain Goats do — just with better arrangements than ever.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ela-minus-nick-leon-que-les-paso-a-mis-amigos/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ela-minus-nick-leon-que-les-paso-a-mis-amigos/Two of electronic music's sharpest minds process artistic burnout through minimal club music that's as intimate as it is danceable. A short EP that leaves a long mark.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/god-of-war-molly-picture/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/god-of-war-molly-picture/A trio featuring members of They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Hooky layers metallic textures and twisted riffs over melancholy pop songwriting. Ten tracks that reward every repeat listen.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/man-woman-chainsaw-cannonball/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/man-woman-chainsaw-cannonball/Five voices, one runaway train. Cannonball swings from piano ballad to post-punk detonation without ever losing the plot. Debut albums this confident are rare.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/neptunes-core-pivot/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/neptunes-core-pivot/A Chicago band's debut album about growing up, produced with a maximalist-then-minimalist instinct that knows exactly when to cut the clutter. Catchy, cathartic, and genuinely moving.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/roy-montgomery-martha-skye-murphy-nebular/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/roy-montgomery-martha-skye-murphy-nebular/A New Zealand guitar legend and a London vocalist built this record remotely, and you'd never guess it. Five tracks of shimmering, celestial atmosphere that reward getting lost in them.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ceremony-tell-me-your-dream/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ceremony-tell-me-your-dream/Their first album in seven years, co-produced with John Reis (who also plays guitar and sings backup) and featuring Tørsö's Jasmine Watson on bass, finds the longtime hardcore band chasing new-wave synths and dance-punk grooves without losing the songwriting bite. Stereogum made it Album of the Week.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hana-stretton-tiarn/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hana-stretton-tiarn/Released on the tiny Brierfield Flood Press, Stretton's new record wraps eleven folk songs in field recordings of birds, wind, and waves, with voices layered into rounds and unison hums. Bandcamp Daily called it a portrait of ecological grief that never loses its warmth.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hourloupe-last-lost-word/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hourloupe-last-lost-word/The sixth album from the experimental duo of Frank Menchaca and Anar Badalov draws on Alexander von Humboldt's travels and the story of a tribe whose language survived only in the song of one bird. Bandcamp Daily called it the duo's boldest work yet.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/manapool-tower-trance-yggdra/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/manapool-tower-trance-yggdra/The first installment in a planned episodic trance series for the tiny Tabula Rasa Record Company, MANAPOOL's new EP blends Y2K-era trance, jungle, breakbeat, hardcore techno, and video-game soundfonts into what the artist calls 'romantic hardcore.' Bandcamp Daily compared it to a Kingdom Hearts score.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/margaret-glaspy-i-am-both/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/margaret-glaspy-i-am-both/Produced by Joe Henry with just four musicians in the room, Glaspy's fourth album trades the guitar-forward attack of 2023's Echo the Diamond for something quieter and more exposed, turning relationship friction into plainspoken folk-pop. No Depression called it 'a masterpiece of simplicity and directness.'Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/abracadabra-peel-away/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/abracadabra-peel-away/The Oakland duo of Hannah Skelton and Chris Niles blend dubby grooves, angular synths, and Talking Heads-via-Stereolab sensibilities into their most introspective EP yet — six songs about luck, privilege, and self-reflection that never stop being fun.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/patrick-belaga-solar-calf/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/patrick-belaga-solar-calf/The LA cellist and composer behind 2021's 'Blutt' goes self-released and self-directed, fusing American minimalism with the restless wandering feeling of an open-world soundtrack. Gorgeous, strange, and completely his own.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/rachel-chinouriri-one-song-away-from-crying/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/rachel-chinouriri-one-song-away-from-crying/The London singer-songwriter announces album two with a synth-soaked dance track that hides genuine emotional wreckage inside a whispery, club-ready delivery. Instantly infectious, quietly devastating.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sachis-mirror-talking-in-a-different-way/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sachis-mirror-talking-in-a-different-way/A 10-track spell of moody sampled textures, gossamer strings, and looped field recordings, out on the tiny ambient-tape institution Constellation Tatsu. Introspective without ever going cold.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/this-is-lorelei-oh-no-now-my/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/this-is-lorelei-oh-no-now-my/Nate Amos signs to Matador and immediately writes one of the biggest hooks of his career. A pounding, primitive drum part turns a classic chord cycle into something that feels enormous.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/elijah-wolf-track-star/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/elijah-wolf-track-star/A surprise-dropped tenth record about upstate New York dive bars and dead-end expectations, recorded with Felix Walworth of Told Slant and Florist. Warm, unhurried, and quietly devastating.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/helen-dead-shark-ii/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/helen-dead-shark-ii/Grouper's Liz Harris reunites her shoegaze trio Helen for the first time since 2015. 'Dead Shark II' sounds like no time was lost at all — hazy, melodic, and quietly enormous.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/june-mcdoom-without-you/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/june-mcdoom-without-you/The lead single from June McDoom's long-awaited debut album 'Follow the Light' is a spacey, patient meditation on gratitude and commitment. Moves slow, lands hard.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/the-crying-nudes-dj/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/the-crying-nudes-dj/A deliberately mysterious project tied to Dean Blunt's World Music imprint drops a surprise sophomore album that's barely thirteen minutes long and somehow says more than records three times its length.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/venturing-nowhere/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/venturing-nowhere/Jane Remover's rock-band alias venturing trades hyperpop chaos for big hooks and bigger feelings on a three-song EP for deadAir. Retro-futurist heartbreak rock that earns every second.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ezra-williams-blight/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ezra-williams-blight/The Irish songwriter formerly known as Smoothboi pairs warm, nostalgic guitar with pedal steel and a set of lyrics about watching something end. Gentle on the surface, unsettled underneath.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/jack-white-frozen-charlotte/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/jack-white-frozen-charlotte/White puts the guitar back at the absolute center of the mix and lets it do most of the talking. Fuzzy, amp-incinerating, and having more fun than he's had in years.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/liquid-cross-hateful-ep/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/liquid-cross-hateful-ep/A Eugene, Oregon four-piece takes the political heaviness of daily American life and turns it into four tracks of tuneful, buzzing catharsis. Wipers worship with a conscience — and a cause.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/militarie-gun-mannequin-pussy-worlds-always-burning/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/militarie-gun-mannequin-pussy-worlds-always-burning/Ian Shelton and Missy Dabice team up for the second time, and the song that almost didn't make the album turns out to be one of the best things either band has put out this year.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/opus-kink-the-sweet-goodbye/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/opus-kink-the-sweet-goodbye/A Brighton sextet spends its long-awaited debut LP throwing ska, Ethio-jazz brass, Gregorian chant, and sea-shanty call-and-response into the same pot and somehow makes it cohere. Gloriously indulgent.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ian-sweet-shiverstruck/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ian-sweet-shiverstruck/Jilian Medford's fourth IAN SWEET album trades studio experimentation for analog warmth and her most unguarded vocals yet, produced alongside Ben H. Allen. Northern Transmissions called it her 'most confident, whole album to date.'Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/josaleigh-pollett-if-i-let-it-quiet/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/josaleigh-pollett-if-i-let-it-quiet/The Salt Lake City songwriter's fourth album was built across continents with producer Jordan Watko while the two were apart, folding lo-fi charm, distorted electronics, and Boards of Canada-tilted synths around songs about sleeplessness and self-reinvention. KLOF Mag called it 'a treasure trove.'Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nick-hakim-i-can-see/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nick-hakim-i-can-see/Co-produced with Andrew Sarlo and tracked at Sonic Ranch, NYC studios, and home setups, Hakim's new album processes the end of a record deal and a long-term relationship into something Far Out called 'quiet but mighty.' Moses Sumney and June McDoom guest on 'The Reason.'Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/the-black-drumset-friends-in-dark-places/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/the-black-drumset-friends-in-dark-places/Austin solo artist Brian Wiley spent seven years building this seven-track self-released psych odyssey of droning keyboards, mesmerizingly monotone vocals, and existential reassurance. Bandcamp Daily made it an Album of the Day pick and called Wiley a composer who 'welcomes all to join him for the ride.'Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/yard-act-youre-gonna-need-a-little-music/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/yard-act-youre-gonna-need-a-little-music/The Leeds band's third album, produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Wolf Alice) and finished in Los Angeles after being built in their own studio, swings back toward grittier post-punk chaos. NME gave it 8/10 and called it 'the sound of a band in maximum flight.'Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/quicksand-bring-on-the-psychics/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/quicksand-bring-on-the-psychics/Walter Schreifels and company's first album in five years is 29 minutes of chugging riffs and shoegaze haze, produced by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Drain). Stereogum made it Album of the Week; Treble called it the band's heaviest work since Manic Compression.Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/brian-ennals-blockhead-boatshoes/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/brian-ennals-blockhead-boatshoes/The Baltimore rapper and veteran NYC producer's full-length team-up is thirteen tracks of dusty boom-bap and psychedelic detours, out on Phantom Limb. Bandcamp Daily called it a record 'kicking the second half of the year off right.'Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/little-gold-public-dog/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/little-gold-public-dog/Christian DeRoeck has been running Little Gold since 2009, and this Tall Texan Records release — recorded a day or two at a time over two years — is his most confident record yet, folding Dinosaur Jr. fuzz and lo-fi country twang into songs about rooting for the underdog.Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mallory-hawk-chinook/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mallory-hawk-chinook/The Philly songwriter's self-released new record refuses to pick a lane — noisy indie, dance-punk, acoustic rock, and country twang all show up inside ten tracks — and somehow every turn still sounds like the same person talking to you. Stereogum made it Album of the Week.Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/punch-brothers-the-unsung-adventures-of-punch-brothers/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/punch-brothers-the-unsung-adventures-of-punch-brothers/The bluegrass supergroup's seventh album is their first all-instrumental record — no drummer, just mandolin, guitar, bass, banjo, and new member Brittany Haas on fiddle, chasing Bach's moto perpetuo technique at breakneck speed. TheArtsDesk gave it five stars and called it 'breathless.'Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sad13-1331/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sad13-1331/Sadie Dupuis' first Sad13 release since 2020 is a DIY mixtape of thirteen songs, each under two minutes, written while recovering from a shattered elbow — and it might be some of the sharpest, weirdest songwriting of her career.Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/xiu-xiu-eraserhead-xiu-xiu/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/xiu-xiu-eraserhead-xiu-xiu/Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo rebuild the sound world of David Lynch's 1977 film Eraserhead from scratch, trading in industrial hum, bug-wing buzzing, and tactile mechanical noise. Clash called it 'one of the best noise albums in recent years.'Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mesh-no-fun-at-all/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mesh-no-fun-at-all/The Philadelphia quartet's debut full-length arrives on Feel It Records after a five-year gap since their 2021 cassette, eleven tracks of dual-guitar interplay recorded by Ian Norris. The Fire Note gave it four out of five headphones.Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mohamed-bourouissa-lila/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mohamed-bourouissa-lila/The French photographer and visual artist's debut solo album, out on PAN, spends twelve tracks treating relationships as emotional landscapes rather than portraits. A Closer Listen called the title track 'one of Bourouissa's most affecting moments.'Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cinder-well-a-blooming-body/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cinder-well-a-blooming-body/Amelia Baker's fifth album as Cinder Well brings in guest strings, horns, and organ without losing an ounce of her gothic-folk intimacy. Restraint has never sounded so devastating.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mock-media-rat-bastard/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mock-media-rat-bastard/The Vancouver-via-Vernon band's most cohesive record yet sounds like The Cars, DEVO, and Talking Heads arguing in the same room and somehow all winning. Small label, huge hooks.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sam-and-louise-sullivan-love-and-devotion/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sam-and-louise-sullivan-love-and-devotion/Two Philadelphia teachers and ceramicists build a family-band folk record out of coffee-can percussion, exercise-ball thumps, and pure homemade devotion. Jeff Tweedy is a fan for a reason.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/healing-power-of-horses-summer-indoors/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/healing-power-of-horses-summer-indoors/A deliberately mysterious East Anglian duo — already a BBC 6 Music Breaking Artist and Loud & Quiet Track of the Week pick — releases four songs of brittle rhythm and blown-out texture on section1, Partisan's sister label.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/max-subar-anything-could-be/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/max-subar-anything-could-be/A Chicago studio hand who's spent years producing for Case Oats and Sleeper's Bell finally steps out front with an 11-track debut cut at a Wisconsin lake house. Newcity called it a case for hope; Merge Records signed him for it.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nia-archives-emotional-junglist/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nia-archives-emotional-junglist/The jungle revivalist's self-produced follow-up to 'Silence Is Loud' fuses breakbeats with indie-pop songwriting, guest turns from Sampha and Jorja Smith, and a title that doubles as a mission statement. DIY called it a four-star evolution.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/swapmeet-mount-zero/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/swapmeet-mount-zero/Adelaide high school friends turned touring quartet record their debut LP at a beach house and come out sounding like Pavement, Sonic Youth, and Big Thief all at once. The Line of Best Fit gave it 8/10, Paste a B+.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ferries-eye-wander/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ferries-eye-wander/Nobody knows who Ferries are, and it doesn't matter. Ten tracks of cavernous dub space, kraut repetition, and dreamy trebly vocals on World of Echo. The Quietus made it Album of the Week. So do we.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/houndmouth-lordy/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/houndmouth-lordy/Five years away, then this: Houndmouth's fifth album trades polish for pulse. Brad Cook production, MJ Lenderman guitar, a Sam Beam duet. Naked, honest, immediate — and certified.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/maquina-body-transmission/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/maquina-body-transmission/Lisbon trio welds krautrock, industrial, and dance music into one relentless machine on Fuzz Club. Saturated to the redline on purpose. Warehouse techno energy played with drumsticks and grit.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mary-in-the-junkyard-role-model-hermit/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mary-in-the-junkyard-role-model-hermit/London trio's debut swings from feather-soft whisper to feral snarl, with a viola doing things violas shouldn't. Polished without being tamed. One of the year's most assured first albums.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/panda-bear-sonic-boom-a-of-when/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/panda-bear-sonic-boom-a-of-when/Noah Lennox and Peter Kember reunite and refuse to repeat themselves. Harp loops, steel drums, sirens, and Stones-y guitars in a psych-pop kaleidoscope. An endless vat of creativity, per Exclaim — and they're right.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/parts-and-labor-set-of-all-sets/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/parts-and-labor-set-of-all-sets/First album in 15 years, so they made it a 79-minute double with TWO drummers. Brooklyn noise-punk elders return sounding hungrier than bands half their age. Melody buried in beautiful wreckage.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/smirk-speculative-fiction/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/smirk-speculative-fiction/Nick Vicario's L.A. project trades punk excess for melody and comes out swinging anyway. Jangly guitars, dueling leads, real hooks. The most fun punk record of the summer.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/snag-all-the-cages/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/snag-all-the-cages/Milwaukee's DIY screamo lifers sign to Deathwish and lose none of the basement. Recorded live to tape in three days. Pedal steel and horns show up. It rips and it weeps.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tracey-nelson-hercules/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tracey-nelson-hercules/A debut that started life as a CD-R and grew into one of the year's warmest country-rock records. Produced by MJ Lenderman and Colin Miller, with half the Asheville scene pitching in. For the sad guys and gals — Paste's words, and ours.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/violet-cowboy-ramraid-at-the-wiggly-worm/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/violet-cowboy-ramraid-at-the-wiggly-worm/Brighton's Stephen Maskell splices spaghetti-western twang, elastic dub, and classical minimalism into a macabre little travelogue. Kit Records strikes again. Weirdest great record of the month.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/auscultation-iv/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/auscultation-iv/Joel Shanahan turns long Pacific Northwest winters into iridescent, dub-soaked techno. Icy bangers and hushed reverie in equal measure. Isolation has rarely sounded this beautiful.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/baby-rose-yearnalism/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/baby-rose-yearnalism/That rich contralto, wrapped in Hammond organ and gospel harmony. Baby Rose wears her heart on her sleeve for twelve tracks and dares you to look away. A bubble of optimism and emotional complexity.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/brokenchord-lima-echo-crack/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/brokenchord-lima-echo-crack/A Lithuanian one-man band builds a paranoid little spy thriller you can dance to. Krautrock pulse, radio-static texture, hooks smuggled in like microfilm. Scrappy, hypnotic, and impossible to shake.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kelela-new-avatar/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kelela-new-avatar/Kelela drags her liquid-mercury voice through fuzz, grit, and industrial distortion — and finds tenderness on the other side. Too jagged for R&B, too fluid for rock. Utterly her own.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/styrofoam-winos-any-river/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/styrofoam-winos-any-river/Three Nashville songwriters swap instruments and pass the mic, and the whole thing floats by on humble optimism. Talkbox, pedal steel, marimba, and jokes. Downbeat, generous, quietly brilliant.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hadnot-creek-the-end-of-the-road/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hadnot-creek-the-end-of-the-road/Self-released outsider folk from Charlottesville with a full band that plays like a front porch full of lifers. Lap steel, fiddle, barroom piano, and songwriting that earns every weathered line. Nobody's covering this record. That's the whole point.Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/lulu-suicide-fiber-optic-lovers/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/lulu-suicide-fiber-optic-lovers/Fully DIY shoegaze from Poznań, Poland — one person tracking guitars, drums, vocals, and mixing the whole thing themselves. Heavy as Whirr, dreamy as Slowdive, and completely invisible to the music press. Eleven tracks about love and death that glow like cable-light.Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/star-moles-highway-to-hell/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/star-moles-highway-to-hell/Emily Moales has quietly released some forty-odd records since her GarageBand teens. This one — cut live-feeling in a South Philly row house with the Historic New Jersey crew — is the one where holding back becomes her superpower. Yes, it's called Highway to Hell. No, not that one.Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tremolo-fields-red-birds-on-a-branch/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tremolo-fields-red-birds-on-a-branch/A Portland, Maine professor who came up in Iowa City basement shows, produced by Wild Pink's John Ross. Four songs, thirteen minutes, zero press. The richest small thing you'll hear this month.Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/vince-staples-cry-baby/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/vince-staples-cry-baby/One of rap's sharpest writers raps over live rock instrumentation — and instead of a gimmick, it plays like a homecoming. Post-punk bones, West Coast blood, zero wasted bars.Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/vine-staples-cry-baby/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/vine-staples-cry-baby/One of rap's sharpest writers raps over live rock instrumentation — and instead of a gimmick, it plays like a homecoming. Post-punk bones, West Coast blood, zero wasted bars.Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/olivia-rodrigo-you-seem-pretty-sad/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/olivia-rodrigo-you-seem-pretty-sad/The best pure-melody writer of her generation borrows new wave's nervous energy and post-punk's angles, and somehow gets MORE herself. Confidence looks good on heartbreak.Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ibeyi-offering/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ibeyi-offering/The French-Cuban twin duo weave electronic production and global rhythmic traditions into something that feels both ancient and brand new. Harmony-rich vocals, rhythmic depth for days.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/death-cab-i-built-you-a-tower/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/death-cab-i-built-you-a-tower/Recorded in a rapid three-week sprint, this is the leanest, darkest Death Cab in years — synth-streaked, urgent, and emotionally unguarded in a way legacy bands rarely risk.Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cecile-mclorin-salvant-with-every-breath/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cecile-mclorin-salvant-with-every-breath/One of jazz's most acclaimed vocalists doing what she does at the highest level: interpretive mastery, jaw-dropping control, and repertoire curated like a museum exhibit you never want to leave.Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/beth-orton-the-ground-above/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/beth-orton-the-ground-above/Intelligent folk built on piano and strings, with a superb looseness of improvisation held inside immense control. Thirty years in, Orton is somehow still ascending.Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/chanel-beads-your-day-will-come/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/chanel-beads-your-day-will-come/Standard pop songwriting fed through an arcane, intoxicating machine. You'll hum the melodies for days while the undertones quietly rearrange your furniture. Gorgeously unsettling in the best way.Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/navy-blue-sir-render/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/navy-blue-sir-render/Sage Elsesser's densest, most psychologically searching record yet — rap world-building where the world being built is the self. Possibly his best work, and that bar was high.Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tasha-you-are-spring/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tasha-you-are-spring/Expert choral writing, lush instrumentation, and a compositional command that never crowds out spontaneity. The exclamation point in the title is earned.Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/warning-rituals-of-shame/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/warning-rituals-of-shame/Pristine production in doom metal is a radical act — every sorrowful note on this record arrives in full focus, and the macro-scale songwriting turns patience into a heavy instrument.Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sml-spontaneous-music-live/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sml-spontaneous-music-live/Improvised jazz captured direct to a Nagra tape machine at Zebulon in Los Angeles. Hypnotic, human, and gloriously unquantized — the moments of imperfection are the whole point.Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nirosta-steel-my-skyscraper/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/nirosta-steel-my-skyscraper/Velvety disco assembled from four decades of recordings — works forever-in-progress, reworked until time stops mattering. It shouldn't cohere. It glides.Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/loraine-james-detached/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/loraine-james-detached/Intricate electronic production elevated by excellent vocal features, Tirzah among them. When 'Ending Us All' unleashes its writhing percussion and shearing synths, the impact is genuinely monstrous.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kelsey-lu-so-help-me-god/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kelsey-lu-so-help-me-god/Experimental chamber folk that genre-jumps like a parkour athlete and sticks every landing. Chameleonic vocals over ever-shifting sonic landscapes, with collaborators who clearly showed up inspired.Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/gena-the-pleasure-is-yours/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/gena-the-pleasure-is-yours/Karriem Riggins and Liv.e commanding Afro-funk, gospel, and neo-soul like they invented the syllabus. Pocket perfection meets addictive footwork fusion. The pleasure is absolutely ours.Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/august-burns-red-season-of-surrender/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/august-burns-red-season-of-surrender/Melodic, progressive metalcore with djent shading and an 84-caliber commitment to craft. Every breakdown here is engineered like architecture — load-bearing, deliberate, gorgeous. Heavy metal work ethic, rainbow presentation.Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/avalon-emerson-written-into-changes/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/avalon-emerson-written-into-changes/Eighties gothtronica, Bristol pop, and Nineties alt-rock woven into one seamless texture palette. Whimsy powers the swirly production, and the eclecticism spans the globe.Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/elder-through-zero/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/elder-through-zero/Long-form riff odysseys built on a cosmic scale. Elder stack progressive rock, heavy psych, and stoner heft into towering movements that reward every minute you give them.Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kim-petras-detour/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kim-petras-detour/Aughts pop worship colliding with deconstructed club noise and hardstyle techno. High-vis hedonism, maximum commitment, and her best album yet.Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/bill-callahan-my-days-of-58/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/bill-callahan-my-days-of-58/A living room record that builds whole atmospheres from minimal arrangements. Callahan proves again that intimacy, done right, is its own kind of grandeur.Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kevin-morby-little-wide-open/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kevin-morby-little-wide-open/A love letter to his Kansas City heartland, and his most feature-heavy album yet. Morby meditates on time and new beginnings while an ensemble cast lifts every song.Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ratboys-singin-to-an-empty-chair/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ratboys-singin-to-an-empty-chair/Fuzzed-out rock, tender folk, and gloriously indulgent jams, all refined into one cohesive statement. Julia Steiner explores living inside grief rather than transcending it, and the honesty is stunning.Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/aldous-harding-train-on-the-island/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/aldous-harding-train-on-the-island/Harding's strangeness endures, and thank goodness for that. Minimalist arrangements, economical lyrics, and a tightrope walk between control and abandon.Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/jeff-parker-eta-ivtet-happy-today/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/jeff-parker-eta-ivtet-happy-today/A live recording that plays like a statement of joy. Guitar melodies rise through open space while the rhythm section builds something quietly transcendent.Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cola-cost-of-living-adjustment/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cola-cost-of-living-adjustment/Cola's loosest, noisiest record is also their most deliberate. Wage inequality gets the gallows-humor treatment over post-punk that sounds gloriously frayed on purpose. Every squall earns its place.Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/at-the-gates-ghost-of-a-future-dead/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/at-the-gates-ghost-of-a-future-dead/The Gothenburg pioneers return with razor riffs and zero rust. Melodic death metal from the band that helped write the blueprint. It slashes, it soars, it delivers.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kim-gordon-play-me/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/kim-gordon-play-me/Sly humor meets technocratic dread over some of the gnarliest rhythms of the year. Gordon builds songs from beats and attitude, not melodies. It works spectacularly.Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/dry-cleaning-secret-love/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/dry-cleaning-secret-love/Florence Shaw's interior monologues have never been more compelling, and the band's arrangements have never been more intricate. Cryptic, poignant, and quietly devastating. A secret worth sharing.Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/my-new-band-believe-self-titled/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/my-new-band-believe-self-titled/Cameron Picton goes full theatrical visionary on this chamber-folk stunner. Precise vocals, avant-folk arrangements, and a fearless look at fame's dark side. It believes in itself, and so do we.Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/immolation-descent/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/immolation-descent/Dissonant death metal royalty returns with an album that churns like tectonic plates. Cavernous, crushing, and somehow still surprising after decades. This is the sound of veterans who never stopped sharpening the blade.Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/lip-critic-theft-world/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/lip-critic-theft-world/Two drummers, outlandish lyrical premises, and synth-punk energy that could power a city block. Theft World is a full-contact dance party. Stretch first.Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/wendy-eisenberg-self-titled/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/wendy-eisenberg-self-titled/Chamber folk that asks questions and lets the silence answer. Spacious, hopeful, and bittersweet all at once. A record about becoming yourself, produced with room to actually do it.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hellripper-coronach/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/hellripper-coronach/Breakneck riffs, blackened rock 'n' roll swagger, and pure gleeful energy. Coronach is speed metal that grins the entire time it's trying to outrun itself.Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/twilight-sad-its-the-long-goodbye/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/twilight-sad-its-the-long-goodbye/Scottish post-punk masters fold shoegaze, darkwave, and gothic rock into one towering wall of feeling. Emotionally devastating in the best way — the kind of gloom you want to live inside.Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/robyn-sexistential/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/robyn-sexistential/Robyn tackles motherhood and middle age with disarming candor, set to gleaming machine-pop. The title track alone — intimate voice over mechanistic synths — is vintage Body Talk-era magic.Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/grace-ives-girlfriend/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/grace-ives-girlfriend/Economical hooks, personality-forward production, zero wasted motion. Girlfriend is alt-pop that trusts a great idea to stand on its own — and every idea here is great.Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/underscores-u/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/underscores-u/A lean, glossy bid for pop stardom that ditches the proggy concept-album scaffolding and just delivers bangers. Sparkles like a classic late-2000s pop record while keeping the post-genre chaos on a leash — barely.Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/neurosis-an-undying-love/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/neurosis-an-undying-love/The year's highest-rated album so far, and it earns every point. Slow, punishing, texture-obsessed sludge that plays like an artistic rebirth. Heavy music as landscape painting, rendered in rust and ember.Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tinariwen-hoggar/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/tinariwen-hoggar/The legendary Tuareg collective does what nobody else on Earth can: hypnotic guitar cycles, call-and-response vocals, and groove as landscape. Hoggar is a horizon you can listen to.Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/chalk-crystalpunk/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/chalk-crystalpunk/Industrial rock, dance-punk, and industrial techno fused into one sweaty, strobing machine. Club energy welded to rock aggression — a record that wants you moving and slightly scared.Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/slayyyter-worst-girl-in-america/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/slayyyter-worst-girl-in-america/Bloghouse, dance-punk, and electroclash synthesized into a cohesive 'dirtbag Americana' that goes impossibly hard. A major level-up with basslines that punch like it's 2007 in the best way.Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cryptic-shift-overspace-and-supertime/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/cryptic-shift-overspace-and-supertime/Technical death-thrash spliced with avant-garde detours and jazz fusion flourishes, all pointed straight at deep space. One of the year's highest-rated metal records, and it earns it.Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mitski-nothings-about-to-happen-to-me/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mitski-nothings-about-to-happen-to-me/Chamber pop, Americana, slacker rock, and alt-country folded into one seamless indie folk record. Mitski's songwriting precision and emotional control are operating at full strength.Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/friko-something-worth-waiting-for/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/friko-something-worth-waiting-for/Strangled major chords one second, full noise-rock walls the next. Friko's dynamics are a rollercoaster with the safety bar removed, and the chamber-pop melodrama makes every drop hit harder.Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/converge-love-is-not-enough/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/converge-love-is-not-enough/Decades in, Converge still play precision chaos like nobody else. This is metalcore, mathcore, sludge, and hardcore fused by a band that helped write the blueprint.Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mandy-indiana-urgh/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/mandy-indiana-urgh/Album two doubles down on the industrial grit with arrangements that keep escalating past where you think the ceiling is. 'Magazine' alone is worth the price of admission.Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/urne-setting-fire-to-the-sky/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/urne-setting-fire-to-the-sky/Progressive sludge that knows when to crush and when to float. URNE stack atmospheric passages against melodic metalcore shades and make the contrast feel inevitable.Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ana-roxanne-poem-1/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/ana-roxanne-poem-1/Sparse piano, hushed whispers, jazz-brushed drums. Ana Roxanne strips everything to the studs and the result is remarkably devastating — stark music that sticks like a pop hook.Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sideshow-tigray-funk/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/sideshow-tigray-funk/Sixty-three minutes, 32 tracks, one continuous stream of consciousness. Sideshow's mack rap opus is deliberately muddy, defiantly loose, and completely magnetic.Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/alter-bridge-alter-bridge/https://onlygreatmusic.com/reviews/alter-bridge-alter-bridge/Two decades in, Alter Bridge self-title an album and back it up with riffs the size of freight elevators and vocals that clear the rafters. This is veteran confidence pressed to wax.Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT