XXXTentacion: Bad Vibes Forever His purported final posthumous album is more of monument to XXXTentacion’s brand rather than his artistry.
Camila Cabello: Romance The pop singer’s second album some memorable moments, but Cabello evokes a vision love so universalized that it blurs it out of focus.
Hurt Valley: Glacial Pace Singer-songwriter Ben Collins joins the Woodsist camp with a light, loose collection of songs built for placid and rudderless afternoons.
Harry Styles: Fine Line Harry Styles hides himself inside of a mystic pop-rock record that keeps us away from who he is as a songwriter and fledgling rock star.
Sean McCann: Puck This collage work by the Los Angeles composer weaves together stray chamber compositions, ambient recordings, voices, and more, yielding a mesmerizing sound both dense and diaphanous.
Jme: Grime MC The London grime star has made the strongest record of his career, chock full of nimble, intricate raps that seamlessly integrate the nerdiest of signifiers.
Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial This Compton chameleon borrows flows from anyone and everyone but gets away with it thanks to his sturdy songwriting.
Junius Paul: Ism The Chicago bassist’s solo debut—featuring guests including Makaya McCraven, Isaiah Spencer, and Tomeka Reid—ranges widely, from free jazz to post-bop to meditative tone poems.
Sofie Birch: Island Alchemy The Copenhagen composer’s second album this year, and her first for Oakland’s Constellation Tatsu, offers a dynamic take on ambient music, one meant for active listening.
Shed: Oderbruch The techno artist discovers a softer, warmer side in an album named for his childhood home.
Mary J. Blige: HERstory Vol. 1 In the ’90s, Blige prophesied a future in which hip-hop would be baked directly into pop music. The hits on this collection show her just getting started.
Akasha System: Echo Earth Gentle but full of motion, the Portland, Oregon producer’s seemingly uncomplicated music brings the language of left-field ’90s dance to the great outdoors.
Kelsey Lu: Blood Transfusion The Los Angeles singer-songwriter’s music gets a beat-oriented makeover in a collection of remixes from Skrillex, Omar S, Lafawndah, and other club producers.
Georgia Maq: Pleaser The lead singer for the barn-burning punk act Camp Cope shifts into synth-pop and romantic love for her solo debut.
YNW Melly: Melly vs. Melvin The incarcerated rapper, awaiting trial for murder, releases an album of second-rate material and third-rate Young Thug-isms.
Andrés: Andrés IV Eight years after his last album and seven since the crowd-pleasing “New for U,” the Detroit house and hip-hop staple shows off his encyclopedic knowledge of soul, disco, and Latin music.
Julien Chang: Jules The Baltimore music student’s soft-focus popcraft plays like a lost link between the hazed-out aesthetic of chillwave and the smooth precision of sophisti-pop.
Beat Happening: We Are Beat Happening An essential new vinyl box set collects all of the trailblazing Olympia band’s records. It is a monument to the spartan trio’s music and their seismic influence on the indie rock that followed in their wake.
To Magnetize Money and Catch a Roving Eye O’Rourke’s latest drone project, running to over four hours, is darker and more dreamlike than his Steamroom series, and one of his most meditative releases yet.
My Chemical Romance: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we revisit My Chemical Romance’s second album, an operatic pop-rock behemoth that became an icon for outcasts.
Karenn: Grapefruit Regret Blawan and Pariah’s hardware-centric techno duo returns with its debut album, trading some of the distortion of early releases for a funkier, slipperier sound that still bangs.
Roc Marciano: Marcielago The gritty and elusive Hempstead MC caps off a decade of profound influence with more photographic narratives, gnarled slang, and evocative soul samples.
20 Years of Fabric The iconic London nightclub celebrates two decades with 20 tracks that survey the house, techno, and bass-music styles synonymous with the venue, with mixed results.
Burial: Tunes 2011 to 2019 A 149-minute anthology maps the UK producer’s expanding multiverse, gathering nearly every solo tune he released on Hyperdub in a fertile, eight-year run of EPs full of surprises (and vinyl crackle).
Labyrinth The producer and visual artist builds an uncanny, disturbing world on his debut LP that recalls his collaborations with Björk, Arca, and FKA twigs.