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Taylor Swift  The Tortured Poets Department

Taylor Swift has once again alchemised pain and criticism into art The Arts Desk

Claire Rousay  Sentiment

Sentiment is a place to jump right into her sonic world, with a proper pop pace: 10 songs in 37 minutes. The indie-rock tunes mix with orchestral interludes, synth drones, field recordings, found sounds from nature or the city streets, all full of raw emotion. Rolling Stone

Taylor Swift  The Tortured Poets Department

The album sustains a vibe that’s melancholic without sacrificing hooks, but its minimalism undercuts the singer’s strengths Slant Magazine

Taylor Swift  The Tortured Poets Department

Taylor Swift advances the Midnights synth-based and diaristic formula, embracing increasingly sophisticated and minimalistic sonics on The Tortured Poets Department PopMatters

Still House Plants  If I don't make it, I love u

Here, the trio integrate skeletal post-rock with soul and jazz, deconstructed by a presiding impulse to blur lines between terms or genres, allowing it all to collapse and collide. It’s harmony clashing with disharmony, the musicality of concrete sound The Quietus

Still House Plants  If I don't make it, I love u

The glowering strength of If I don't make it, I love u is in its commitment to both sides of the coin, an album both experimental and laid fully bare — The result is one of the best rock records of the year Exclaim

Still House Plants  If I don't make it, I love u

Powered by Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach’s astonishing singing, the British trio explore Dilla-time funkiness and math-rock detail The Guardian

Still House Plants  If I don't make it, I love u

If I don't make it, I love u is magnificent, the peak of their recorded output to date, the sound of a band solidifying and pushing forward into something genuinely their own. A truly brilliant piece of work The Skinny

Still House Plants  If I don't make it, I love u

In their seemingly telepathic interplay, the London post-rock trio eschews typical song forms in favor of a kind of collective flickering; their music tracks the process of its creation Pitchfork

Claire Rousay  Sentiment

Channeling her field recordings and sound collages into richly melodic slowcore overlaid with Auto-Tune, the Texas musician opens up a new expressive frontier in her work Pitchfork

Pearl Jam  Dark Matter

Retreating from the experimentation of Gigaton, Pearl Jam delivers a comforting blend of agitated fist-pumpers, roiling ballads, and yearning mid-tempo anthems Pitchfork

Taylor Swift  The Tortured Poets Department

In standard and extended editions, Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album races to fill the gap between her intimate songwriting and her increasingly outsized persona. It’s unruly, unedited, and even a little tortured Pitchfork

Lucy Rose  This Ain't The Way You Go Out

Written in the wake of a traumatic time, this blissfully light, uplifting listen is also fearsomely defiant musicOMH

Taylor Swift  The Tortured Poets Department

The star of her generation’s 11th album has much to enjoy, yet she could benefit from some new lenses through which to view the world musicOMH

A Certain Ratio  It All Comes Down To This

Delicate tension, bass-driven grooves and danceable beats all feature on the thirteenth album from Manchester post-punk survivors musicOMH