Harry Styles
Harry Styles
Pop, Rock

Harry Styles’ debut is as melancholy and muted as his former band’s love songs were, at times, earnest and enthusiastic.

Paramore
After Laughter
EDM/Electronica/Techno, Pop, Rock

Paramore’s latest album wades through loss, heartbreak and bitterness … without ever really turning a hopeful corner.

Chris Stapleton
From A Room: Volume 1
Country, Folk, Rock

Chris Stapleton’s sophomore album doesn’t focus as much on being bad as it does feeling sad.

Various/Soundtrack
13 Reasons Why (A Netflix Original Series Soundtrack)
Alternative

The soundtrack for this controversial Netflix series about teen suicide may in some ways be more problematic than the show …

Kendrick Lamar
D–N.
Rap/Hip-Hop

Rapper Kendrick Lamar’s fourth effort veers wildly between the spiritual and the carnal, the profound and the profane.

The Chainsmokers
Memories … Do Not Open
EDM/Electronica/Techno, Pop

Is this surging EDM duo’s full-length debut more helpful and hopeful than it is bleak and bitter?

Mastodon
Emperor of Sand
Alternative, Metal, Rock

The latest effort from this Atlanta prog-metal band is a concept album grappling with the hard reality of death.

RaeLynn
WildHorse
Country, Pop

Voice alum RaeLynn’s country debut brims with self-respect, hard-won wisdom and only a few wild moments.

Drake
More Life
R&B, Rap/Hip-Hop

Drake’s self-described “playlist” unloads 22 tracks that meander from melancholy insight to profanity-drenched braggadocio.

Ed Sheeran
Divide
Pop, Rock

British superstar Ed Sheeran’s latest features a lot of sweetness and sentimentality … when he’s not doing shots and hooking …

Ed Sheeran
÷
Pop, Rock

British superstar Ed Sheeran’s latest features a lot of sweetness and sentimentality … when he’s not doing shots and hooking …

Little Big Town
The Breaker
Country, Pop

Little Big Town’s eighth studio effort focuses more what it takes to be whole than it does being broken.

Brantley Gilbert
The Devil Don’t Sleep
Country

Brantley Gilbert’s fourth album preaches the importance of resisting the devil’s wily ways … when this country singer isn’t indulging …

AFI
AFI (The Blood Album)
Alternative, Rock

Two decades and 10 albums haven’t made this angst-ridden, alienation-fixated band any happier.

Starset
Vessels
Alternative, EDM/Electronica/Techno, Metal, Rock

The second album from this sci-fi focused alt-rock band paints a cosmic picture of one man’s badly broken heart.