For all of the imagery that dominated the religiosity of David Bowie  --  the fashion, the characters, the hairstyles --  what matters most are the songs. Here are 25 killer deep-cut Bowie originals, album by album.
Magnetic Ghost's Pixels is absolutely masterful stuff from a sound-sculptor sitting at the intersection of post-rock, post-classical, and strains of ambient music.
Brooklyn post-punk trio, the Wants deal in 21st-century dread but do so in a most danceable way on Container.
Sama Dams whip up the emotionally-charged "Not Gonna Lie" that goes the distance between art rock and garage rock.
Let them entertain you... here are ten songs of Queen at their hard-rocking and overblown best.
Number five on the list is practically synonymous with Great Artistic Statements. But was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band really the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper"? A splendid time is guaranteed for all as Counterbalance figures it out.
On Disco Volador, the Orielles offer a thrift shop of sounds and gratify those who like their indie rock danceable.
The Velvet Underground & Nico's self-titled debut album started as all hype thanks to Andy Warhol, but it somehow managed to become one of the most influential records of all time. Has this record outlasted its 15 minutes of fame? Peel slowly and see.
Stirring visuals for "Dissolve" capture the essence of Zooni's slowly unfurling gem.
Dutch post-punk, pop trio the Homesick blend a host of influences, from Scott Walker to Meredith Monk, in with their kaleidoscopic sound on their second album, The Big Exercise.
Algiers are what would result if Verso Books turned into an art rock band. This is a very good thing.
Lyricist Aaron Weiss of post-punk Christian band mewithoutyou used the F-word in a song and it got banned from radio and the album got pulled from record stores. Meanwhile, his fans ponder his parodying of cultural mores.
Montreal's Little Scream offers up reflections on class and poverty disguised as sweet low-key pop songs on her real grower of an album, Speed Queen.
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead's X: The Godless Void and Other Stories, just like many of its predecessors, must be digested in one sitting to grasp its magnificent inventiveness and ideas.
Making a New World tackles some heavy ideas via Field Music's commonly charming, luminous, and multifaceted aesthetic.
Richard Dawson's 2020 is a coruscating state-of-the-nation piece as Britain faces up to its muddled identity at the end of a tumultuous decade.
Nearly 30 years have gone into the making of Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson's seventh album as No-Man, Love You to Bits. Bowness speaks with PopMatters about returning to the duo's electronic early days, and how Love You to Bits may be the Terminator: Dark Fate of No-Man albums.
Wave's status as Patti Smith's most unapologetically pop album reveals the most authentically "punk" gesture of her career: rejecting the idea that her genre capabilities begin and end with that four-letter word.
Art-rocker Kapil Seshasayee takes on a sexist Bollywood trope with musical skill and visual pathos in "The Item Girl".
The anguish a parent feels for losing their child is harrowing and Ghosteen masterfully captures Nick Cave's grief and spiraling rumination on mortality.
Florence Welch participated in a deep discussion and gave a short performance as part of the 2019 New Yorker Festival.
The Velvet Underground's 1969 self-titled release, known as the "Grey Album", blazes boldly 50 years later, and retains the same sonic relevance as a Laura Nyro or Nick Drake record: artworks utterly of their moment, that sound like they could have been made yesterday.
With Giants of All Sizes, Elbow conclude the 2010s with another addition to their streak of brilliant records.
Boston art rockers, Bent Knee turn a corner with perhaps their most accomplished album yet in You Know What They Mean.
Jazz, art-rock, punk, and synthpop are just a few of the styles Alexander Noice and his exceptionally talented band explore on an album where the energy level never flags.
In 1969, the deeply strange musician known as Captain Beefheart released an album that is still ahead of its time a half-century later. PopMatters spoke with musicians and writers about this landmark work of art and why it continues to fascinate.
The Flaming Lips' King's Mouth couples spacey cinematic passages with driving rhythms to create a sombre and thoughtful musical whole.
Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry discusses his latest album, Quiet River of Dust Vol. 2, and the ties that a musical life creates.
If/When is stunning, proving yet again why the Tea Club should be celebrated by admirers of any—if not all—of their sundry genre classifications.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's third solo album ANIMA offers relatively peppy music to accompany his unsurprisingly bleak lyrical worldview, but it all works rather wonderfully.
Amidst a tour opening for Beck and Cage the Elephant, Spoon will release a greatest hits collection in August that's a wonderful overview of their music.
Pere Ubu's The Long Goodbye is an amazing achievement that accomplishes its mission of encapsulating a 45-year career with wit and aplomb.
The Tea Club's latest single finds the quintet evoking classic folk rock artists in the midst of maintaining their knack for evocative songwriting and arrangements.
Jambinai's ONDA finds cross-cultural influences from traditional Korean music, post-rock, and atmospheric metal, but their ethos is certainly more complex than a fusion or hybrid project.
Damon Albarn's "third official band" is bittersweet, endearing, and profoundly moving during an intimate, politically-charged gig in the German capital.
The National's eighth album is not as easy to locate or to live with, as its title suggests, but it contains passages of sublime beauty and grace.
Olden Yolk's second album, Living Theatre, is phenomenally impressive and powerful, while it explores small moments with great concision and ambition.
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