SPIN's 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)

These performances never surrender to the anxiety of influence: All those comparisons are mere reference points for a loose aesthetic that values sustained chordal vamps above all else.

By crafting more fully realized tunes, penning lyrics with a specificity that's at once personal and universal, and pumping up the BPMs with an enthusiasm you can feel, these unlikely stars have morphed from a studio project into an actual band.

Now, less shy about their place in the world and shot through with adult resignation, the band's anthems play as a sort of mortality blues. But with I Hate Music, Superchunk prove that we were weren't wrong to believe.

Bright, busy, and unapologetically direct, Heartthrob nonetheless makes everything Tegan and Sara did before seem perversely obscure.

Sadly, because many of Pony's songs have all the clarity of roadside attractions glimpsed from the Interstate, you often come away remembering only these goony sonic details.

This guy has written 40-plus albums of material, so it's saying something that Benji is one of his more challenging listens.

Vernon’s voice — delicately layered and yearning — gives standouts “Skinny Love” and “Flume” their stunningly direct emotional impact, but his sturdy folk chords, earthy melodies, and plainspoken, pastoral lyrics prevent the album from descending into self-pity.