The best albums of 2021 include Jackson Browne, J Balvin, Cheekface, Jame Blake, Tori Amos, Billy Gibbons, IDLES, Paul Weller, Jon Batiste, Rostam, The Killers and Between the Buried and Me. Welcome back to RIFF’s top album countdown! If you’re here just to complain about the order or lack…

IDLES are back with their fourth studio album, Crawler, a grating and explosive collection of rock from the Bristol rockers who have continued to make waves internationally since their 2017 debut. Previous project Ultra Mono, released just 14 months ago, hit No. 1 in the U.K. and charted in the…

“The Metallica Blacklist.” In honor of the 30th anniversary of their self-titled album, mostly referred to as the Black Album, Metallica is doing two things. The band is re-releasing the album with a lot of concert recordings and alternate versions. It’s not their first time doing so; in 2008…

You should be excited about new albums from Tame Impala, Frank Ocean, Grimes, Lorde, AJJ, Yves Tumor, The 1975, The Cure, Tierra Whack and IDLES in 2020, writes Kyle J. Kohner. Now that another phenomenal year and decade in music has passed, it’s time to look forward at what…

Jeff Rosenstock performs at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2018. Photo: Kyle J. Kohner. Would ya look at that? You’ve made it to the finale. If you are just joining us, please, don’t spoil the big reveal and go back to parts one, two, three and four to…

Mitski Kyle Kohner’s top 100 songs countdown reaches the finish line, with his 25 favorites. Catch up with part one, part two and part three here. 25. “4th Dimension” – Kids See Ghosts (Kid Cudi and Kanye West) Opened by an eerily distorted, but well-placed sample of Louis Prima’s “What Will…

Phoebe Bridgers performs at the Fox Theater in Oakland on Nov. 27, 2018. Photo: Chloe Catajan. The end has finally arrived—the end of 2018 that is. That means it’s year-end list time. With great albums comes great songs, and in a year that brought us plenty of great singles,…

Jpegmafia Here we finally are, at my top 10 albums of 2018! If you’re just now joining me, check out part one, part two, part three and part four before diving in. Ready for the grand conclusion? Let’s unearth these incredible albums! 10. Deafheaven – Ordinary Corrupt Human Love After spearheading mainstream…

IDLES perform at The Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles on Oct. 10, 2018. Photos: Kyle J. Kohner. LOS ANGELES — English rioters IDLES gave the Teragram Ballroom a bodacious reminder that post-punk can, and should, embody the timeless aggression of traditional U.K. punk rock in the last date of…

Welcome, to my five-part series counting down what I believe to be the 50 best albums of 2017. I listened to an insane amount of new music during my first year as a staff writer with RIFF, nearly 150 album releases, in fact. With that in mind, when narrowing down all…