Sharon Van Etten, “Are We There” (Jagjaguwar) Lydia Loveless, “Somewhere Else” (Bloodshot)ĩ. Lucinda Williams, “Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone” (Highway 20)ħ. Le Butcherettes, “Cry Is for the Flies” (Ipecac Recordings)ģ. Run the Jewels, “Run the Jewels 2" (Mass Appeal)Ģ. What we said: “The singer and his Space Shifters succeeded in fusing an untouchable legacy with a passion for experimentation.” - Lorraine Ali, Oct. Jesse Winchester “A Reasonable Amount of Trouble” (Appleseed) Over the Rhine, “Blood Oranges in the Snow” (Great Speckled Dog)ġ0. Rosanne Cash “The River and the Road” (Blue Note)Ĩ.
Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin “Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy” (Yep Roc)ħ. John Fullbright “Songs” (Blue Dirt/Thirty Tigers)ĥ. Leonard Cohen, “Popular Problems” (Columbia)ģ. Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters, “Lullaby and … the Ceaseless Roar” (Nonesuch)Ģ. What we said: " ‘Aquarius’ heralds an essential new voice, one that coheres 100 current ideas about women, sex, sadness and musical restlessness in one excellent album.” - August Brown, Oct. Jessie Ware, “Tough Love” (Cherrytree/Interscope) Jhene Aiko, “Souled Out” (Artium/Def Jam)ġ0. Prince “Art Official Age” (NPG/Warner Bros.).Ĩ. Blige, “The London Sessions” (Capitol/Matriarch).ħ. Sam Smith, “In the Lonely Hour” (Capitol/Method).Ħ. Azealia Banks, “Broke With Expensive Taste” (Azealia Banks/ Prospect Park).ĥ. Cole, “2014 Forest Hills Drive” (Roc Nation/Columbia).Ĥ. Even at her most raw, like her hot-blooded pursuit of a coupled-off partner on ‘Two Weeks,’ she wasn’t asking permission as much as giving a command.” - August Brown, Aug. What we said: “The world offers in her art is so much more sensual and bewitching than the one most of us live in. Partynextdoor, “Two” (OVO Sound /Warner)ġ0. Against Me!, “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” (Total Treble)Ĥ. What we said: “With its juicy melodies, enigmatic lyrics and imaginative arrangements, “They Want My Soul” is Spoon’s strongest album yet, something rarely (if ever) said about a band’s eighth record.” - Mikael Wood, Aug. Sturgill Simpson, “Metamodern Sounds in Country” (High Top Mountain Records) Sharon Van Etten, “Are We There” (Jagjaguwar)ġ0. War on Drugs, “Lost in the Dream” (Secretly Canadian)Ĩ. Neneh Cherry, “Blank Project” (Smalltown Supersound)Ħ. Ought, “More Than Any Other Day” (Constellation)Ĥ. Spoon, “They Want My Soul” (Loma Vista)ģ. What we said: “Rife with the kind of sublimely loose grooves achievable only through instrumental precision, ‘Black Messiah’ is as vital as it is sublime.” - Randall Roberts, Dec. Run the Jewels, “Run the Jewels 2" (Mass Appeal) Temples, “Sun Structures” (Fat Possum Records)Ĩ. Isaiah Rashad, “Cilvia Demo” (Top Dawg Entertainment)Ħ.