Items16The creator’s order
  1. 1Rumours (1977)Rumours (1977)Released Feb 4, 1977Fleetwood Mac Play “Go Your Own Way” and “Songbird” back to back. The first gives you a chorus big enough to shout along to, even if the hurt in the verses makes the freedom sound doubtful. Christine McVie follows it with a promise of love at the piano. The album gives each feeling its own singer…0
  2. 2Here, My Dear (1978)Here, My Dear (1978)Released Jan 1, 1978Marvin Gaye The groove in “Is That Enough” keeps moving while Gaye picks through the costs of his divorce. By “Falling in Love Again,” he sounds willing to imagine a different future. Then a brief reprise of “When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You” brings the old question back.…0
  3. 3Blood on the Tracks (1975)Blood on the Tracks (1975)Released Jan 1, 1975Bob Dylan “Idiot Wind” lets the insults fly, then brings the singer into the wreckage alongside the person he’s blaming. Later, “If You See Her, Say Hello” gives him room to miss somebody without trying to win the argument. The closer, “Buckets of Rain,” can sound playful after all that, even as…0
  4. 4Blue (1971)Blue (1971)Released Jan 1, 1971Joni Mitchell The romance in “A Case of You” still feels worth remembering, even as Mitchell puts some distance between herself and the person she’s singing to. It sits between the regret and escape fantasy of “River” and the barroom conversation in “The Last Time I Saw Richard.” Ending on that…0
  5. 5Vulnicura (2015)Vulnicura (2015)Released Jan 1, 2015Björk “Stonemilker” opens with the tentative hope of getting two people to talk honestly. By the time “Black Lake” arrives, the strings hang in the air and the beats come and go like interruptions. “Family” makes the breakup about the shape of a household as well as the loss of a partner. The…0
  6. 6Melodrama (2017)Melodrama (2017)Released Jan 1, 2017Lorde There’s room at this party for the rush of a crush and the feeling of wanting to go home. “The Louvre” makes falling for somebody sound giddy, and the next song, “Liability,” feels like the moment the room clears. The dance beat on “Perfect Places” gets everyone moving again, with the…0
  7. 7Out in the Storm (2017)Out in the Storm (2017)Released Jan 1, 2017Waxahatchee Katie Crutchfield starts with the full-band charge of “Never Been Wrong.” The pace loosens on “Recite Remorse,” and by the acoustic closer, “Fade,” the singer has enough quiet to hear how much of herself went missing. Play this one when a furious first song and a subdued last one both…0
  8. 830 (2021)30 (2021)Released Jan 1, 2021Adele “My Little Love” makes the fallout a conversation between a mother and her child. The album changes gears later with the gently swinging “All Night Parking” interlude, then comes back to a voice and piano for “To Be Loved.” “Love Is a Game” follows with a fuller arrangement and a little…0
  9. 9star-crossed (2021)star-crossed (2021)Released Sep 10, 2021Kacey Musgraves On “camera roll,” a late-night scroll lands Musgraves back in happier years. She lets that temporary doubt sit inside a three-act album that has room for regret, anger, and the decision to leave. Closing with Violeta Parra’s “gracias a la vida” gives her a different language for…0
  10. 10MAGDALENE (2019)MAGDALENE (2019)Released Jan 1, 2019FKA twigs In “thousand eyes,” leaving a relationship means facing the world the two of you shared. “holy terrain” makes room for desire again, with Future answering her in his own verse. Then “cellophane” closes on a voice and piano so exposed that it feels as if the room has emptied.0