One band absolutely dominated the hardcore conversation this year, and they did it by working way, way harder than anyone else. Affable Boston bruisers Haywire spent 2025 playing sweaty, cathartic, ...

My favorite albums of 2025 weren’t exactly magic tricks, but you had to listen to them closely to keep from getting head-faked. A country music traditionalist was the freshest in his field. A ...

The Korean pop outsider Effie and the Brooklyn indie-rock band Geese top our critics’ lists this year. By Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz Jon Caramanica Musicians know how to make music, and they ...

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Piling on, stripping down, looking back, pushing ahead: Musicians found all sorts of uses for the album form this ...

I joined Paste in 2023 and, in my tenure as editor, this year’s AOTY list is my favorite by far. The publication has been doling out these rankings since 2002, affixing an “Album of the Year” ribbon ...

Earlier this year, my colleague and bud Kelefa Sanneh suggested that music critics, as a lot, have gone soft—becoming submissive, overly agreeable, and, in some cases, nearly servile. He’s right, of ...

Here's the main thing you need to know about our ranked list of the 15 best diamond-selling hard rock and metal albums: They're all damn good. Are you surprised? History is littered with platinum ...

If 1994 was among the greatest years in rock and roll history, then 1995 should undoubtedly take the mantle for rap music. The decade welcomed the emergence and canonizations of alt-metal, ambient, ...

Here are the 51 best rock and metal albums of 2025. We're officially more than halfway through the decade. It's already produced its own crop of new ascending stars and quite a handful of veterans who ...

This post was updated Nov. 19 at 3:35 p.m. Summer Walker is closing a chapter of her career with another confessional album. The R&B singer-songwriter’s third LP, “Finally Over It,” released Nov. 14, ...

Let’s try to keep calm, because, for all of its ambition and grandeur, this new Rosalía album, “Lux,” demands a sharpened mind more than a blown one. It’s an opaquely themed, scrupulously produced ...

Welcome to our weekly music post, where we spotlight our favorite new songs and albums. Hop in the comments and tell us: What new music are you listening to? Spelling’s music is generally lush and ...