Jersey producer Sinjin Hawke makes his full-length debut with a beautiful set of nuanced bangers.
Death From Above slay with a hard rock-inspired direction on their latest album, Outrage! Is Now.
Maryland trio Dying Fetus comes through with one of the best brutal death metal albums I've heard since their last album back in 2012.
Little Rock doom outfit Pallbearer returns with more bite and an even greater prog influence on their third album Heartless, their most varied and epic effort yet.
Sampha's debut album was worth the wait.
DAMN. is one of Kendrick's most intriguing releases yet, delivering a series of tracks that are chaotic, layered, and deeply conflicted.
MA stoner rock/doom metal outfit Elder impressively reinvents itself with a more progressive sound on Reflections of a Floating World.
Run the Jewels returns with their most politically charged effort yet.
Rapsody releases her most solid project to date with the smart, classy, and catchy Laila's Wisdom.
2017 keeps the strong singer/songwriter releases coming with Feist's Pleasure.
Code Orange successfully pushes the metalcore envelope on their first album for Roadrunner Records.
Fleet Foxes triumphantly emerge from hiatus with their most progressive effort yet.
Godfather is a grime album with a potency level only a vet such as Wiley could provide.
Loaded with poetic post-punk dirges, Protomartyr's Relatives In Descent is the Detroit band's most dynamic and well-written release yet.
The retrospective Dedicated to Bobby Jameson finds Ariel Pink going back to his old musical stomping grounds and crafting some of his best songs yet.
Brutalism, the debut album by UK five piece IDLES, may not reinvent the punk rock wheel but is loaded with some of the most fiery performances and brutally honest lyrics I've heard in years.
New York rapper and underground fashion icon Princess Nokia expands her 2016 EP into a 16-track monster via Rough Trade Records. One of the most eclectic rappers out right now.
Ibibio Sound Machine's Uyai is the grand and adventurous Afro-Funk album I wanted their self-titled debut to be.
The new King Gizzard album, while not a thorough experiment in microtonal tuning, is a fun and intense psych rock experience.
Thanks to some clearer production, more up-front performances, and a zany new wave influence, GT ULTRA is the most I've ever enjoyed a Guerilla Toss album.
Though Being You Is Great... contains some of Quelle Chris' most obtuse material, it is also the Detroit MC's most ambitious and cohesive album yet.
Doom metal trio Primitive Man returns with one of the most nihilistic albums in the genre. For anyone who enjoys some pain with their pleasure.
New York rapper/producer Uncommon Nasa explores potently nocturnal and political themes on his 4th studio album, Written At Night.
Known Unknowns is NY hip hop artist Billy Woods' punchiest effort since History Will Absolve Me.
Mr. Carter kills his ego and spills the beans on his most intimate album yet.
The Mountain Goats' latest is a gothic-themed concept album, a foray into the world of guitar-less music, and one of the greatest testaments to John Darnielle's chops as a storyteller.
(Thee) Oh Sees is a well-oiled psych rock machine on Orc.
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings' final record is a celebration of everything that made the soul revivalists great since their inception in the early '00s.
Brick Body Kids is Open Mike Eagle at his most low-key, but it's also his most cohesive and emotionally potent work so far.
SZA delivers a strong full-length debut that explores the emotional complexities of being the other woman.
Iglooghost makes his full-length Brainfeeder debut with the impressive and fantastical Neō Wax Bloom.
Tyler, the Creator blossoms as a rapper, producer, and lyricist on Flower Boy, his most beautiful and well-crafted album to date.
Thanks to Thin Black Duke's lavish orchestration and tour-de-force vocal performances from frontman Eugene Robinson, eminent underground rock outfit Oxbow has delivered a comeback album that leaves me lost for words for all the right reasons.
No Shape is Perfume Genius' grandest and most eclectic musical statement to date.
Algiers blow the sophomore slump out of the water with The Underside of Power, a more intense and versatile album than the band's self-titled debut.
Contemporary flamenco artist Rosalía makes her stunning full-length debut.
Australia's Kirin J Callinan delivers one of this year's most colorfully eccentric pop records with Bravado.
Mouth Moods is Neil Cicierega's most masterful mashup of meme music yet.
When Mark Kozelek arrives, baby, he arrives.
The Mississippi quadruple threat is back with an epic double album that puts him at a new level.
Brockhampton offers more of the same with the second installment of their Saturation trilogy, which is fine because the group's sound is still so refreshing and cutting edge.
On Saturation, Brockhampton jells in a way no other group their size has in quite some time. Definitely my frontrunner for hip hop project of the year at the moment.
West Coast boy band Brockhampton round out their Saturation trilogy with their most versatile and melodic album yet.
Father John Misty delivers an ambitious and grand statement on the human condition with Pure Comedy, one of 2017's most necessary albums.