With new songs, videos, and albums often dropping in the middle of the night, the music landscape of is constantly mutating. Established artists like Drake continue to seek ways to surprise the mainstream, while smaller, emerging acts have turned to apps like YouNow and live. The range of options can be overwhelming. The ways we interact with music may be transforming, but a solid recommendation remains as valuable as ever. And if you need more to stream, check out The Best Albums of Release date: February 24 Record label: Three Quarter Why it's great: In the year of the playlist, when artists like Drake and Chris Brown appear to be stacking their projects with songs to juice their streaming stats, it's refreshing to see an artist over-indulge on brevity.

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Our critics Jon Pareles and Jon Caramanica share their picks for the best pop albums of the year, and Giovanni Russonello selects the best jazz albums. The hefty programmed beats, emphatic electronic hooks and gargantuan choruses of current pop are the framework that Annie Clark, a. Vincent, chose for songs about pleasure, fame, lust and drugs — and their extreme, even deathly consequences. The songs ended up cryptic and emphatic, tragicomic and bold: taking things to the limit in taut three-minute packages. Residente, the rapper from Calle 13 , tested his DNA and followed the results worldwide to collaborate with musicians in, among other places, China, Burkina Faso, Bosnia, France and South Ossetia, as well as his native Puerto Rico, letting each locale suggest lyrics. The tracks undulate slowly and diaphanously, while instruments and ensembles materialize out of nowhere and vanish just as mysteriously.
Jon Caramanica
For additional information about bands formed, reformed, disbanded, or on hiatus, for deaths of musicians, and for links to musical awards, see in music. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikimedia list article. New Noise Magazine. January 9, Retrieved January 29, Retrieved February 9, Retrieved February 18,
The year has proven itself to be a transitional one for music. While big names like Drake, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar dominated once again, many of the he best albums of have come from breakout artists or mid-tier acts. This has been a year defined by new voices, new sounds, and statement records.