Dylan's follow-up to last year's album of standards "Shadows in the Night", "Fallen Angels" is more of the same - though good same, plus lighter and more optimistic in mood. If you liked the former, you'll like the latter, plain and simple.
Loretta Lynn's "Full Circle" may have been more than a decade coming, but it was worth the wait. Though the album lacks the forward version of her previous classic "Van Lear Rose," it makes up for it in deeply heartbreaking originals and covers including "Always On My MInd" and "I'll Never Get Married." Plus the album has a refreshed version of her own classic "Fist City," and how can you go wrong with that?
Spoon's slipstream breakthrough "Gimme Fiction" is quite arguably the band's masterpiece, a 2000's take on Elvis Costello agitation, Rolling Stones riffing and Pavement noise spasms, without losing sight of knockout pop hooks and full-on strut and groove. "I Turn My Camera On" is the best-known single and for good reason, and you'll be blown away by "The Delicate Place" and "Was It You?" Buy buy buy!
LCD Soundsystem's album may be more than a decade old now but it's relevance has not diminished one iota. The album sounds better now than it did upon its release - a superior combination of stark dance rock and electro with a strong dose of postpunk mixed in. If "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House," "Losing My Edge," and "Beat Connection," don't get you moving your feet, nothing will.
Carole King's "Tapestry" remains a pop classic after nearly 50 years. Her songcraft and ability to write simple, heart-piercing lyrics, one after another, was and is astonishing. You know the songs, hear them again.
The cruel truth about Amy Winehouse's breakthrough masterpiece "Back to Black" is her terribly premature death renders its songs a darker and deeply sadder resonance. While she may have not been as strong, her album certainly remains so and even better than it did a decade ago. Worth every penny.
Adele's "25" is a step up in maturity and risk from her landmark classic "21". If first single "Hello" isn't one heck of an album opener, I don't know what is.
Beach House's "Bloom" was an unexpected top 10 hit in 2012. What's more remarkable are the songs: "Myth," "Lazoli," and "Other People" are instantly accessible and, yes, pop. But it's also adventurous, particularly on one of their finest moments, "Wild." Like their previous album "Teen Dream," it's an album that takes time to sink in though gets better with every listen.
Beach House's "Teen Dream" is a beautiful, ambitious album with Victoria Legrand's haunting Stevie Nicks-meets-Patti Smith vocals and John Scalley's post-Goth sonics, smartly locating the points where The Cure, My Bloody Valentine and Mazzy Star intersect into something powerful and tuneful. An underrated but surefire 2010's cult classic.
For a band as notoriously avant-garde as The Velvet Underground, their final album with Lou Reed leading the band is shockingly accessible. Plus its two best-known songs, "Sweet Jane" and "Rock 'n Roll," are classics that still stand the test of time, both perfect gems instantly memorable from the first time you hear them.