FLOOD

Our roundup of the anniversary releases, box sets, and other collections that stood out last year.

The debut collaboration between the Buffalo emcee and the German trap producer is a darkly clouded, overstuffed release that eats like a huge holiday meal after a maudlin family funeral.

In collecting 57 solo and duo efforts into one (not really) cohesive whole, a multi-hued portrait of the Mars Volta/At the Drive-In cofounder as an enigmatic genius emerges.

With contributions from Iggy Pop, Cat Power, Lydia Lunch, Peaches, Shirley Manson, and more, the covers collection aims to benefit its subject as she recovers from long COVID.

With friends of the Moldy Peaches co-founder reverently recreating his solo hits, this new compilation occasionally makes us more interested in what some of his peers have been up to.

The broadly poetic tales of ordinary madness on the Genesis co-founder’s first LP of new original material in over two decades are often spare and daringly melodic.

Remembering the Pogues frontman upon his passing at the age of 65.

The multimedia installation artist discusses his work for the new group show Smoke and Mirrors: Magical Thinking in Contemporary Art taking place at Florida’s Boca Raton Museum of Art through May 12.

With a crisper mix and an expanded tracklist, these live recordings that were once overwrought and overly complex become more bearable—and occasionally effortlessly beautiful.

Q4’s moody sister to the annual April celebration of all-things-physical-music-media arrives on November 24.

The anime giant discusses his new exhibit at NYC’s NowHere where he shares the design work for which he’s renowned and other, more personal and experimental projects.

Packaging together the first six LPs released by the organist-fronted ensemble, this box set reminds us that their funky take on space jazz is otherworldly—for its time, as well as for the present day.

The highlight of this re-release is the inclusion of the former Roxy Music vocalist’s sleekly tasteful lost album Horoscope and a collection of raw, rare session sketches.

On his third album, the jazz-pop songwriter slows his lush, quirky sonic environment’s roll as he expands his lyrical focus to paint a more complex portrait of his social identity.

Mark Mothersbaugh gives us an oral history of his iconic new wave band, from their early-’70s origins on Kent State’s campus to their ongoing tour and various physical career retrospectives spanning vinyl box sets and documentaries landing 50 years later.

The lyrical vision and subtly memorable melodies on the Brockhampton founder’s latest solo LP feel more organic than those of his guitar-strewn hip-hop predecessors.

The music is more vivacious than its making-the-sausage backstory, and at least twice as solid than the last two “last” Beatles songs released in 1995.

This reissue of Prince’s early foray into new jack swing and various R&B trends of 1991 is bolstered by over 30 newly unveiled Vault tracks and a blistering 1992 concert film.

Eric Burton and Adrian Quesada talk reaching a new level of synchronicity on their long-anticipated sophomore album, Chronicles of a Diamond.

The synthpop icons exhibit their rarely witnessed sense of humor on these anxious new takes on old material emphasizing darker, simmering tones.