The circle of life and death is something everybody has to come face-to-face with, sometimes much sooner than we’d like or had anticipated. For The Dodos’ singer/guitarist Meric Long, both made his direct acquaintance in his adult life soon after each other—first with the death of his father and then with the birth of his first child.

Michael Zahs is a true original: a passionate archivist with an encyclopedic knowledge of old silent movies, magic lanterns, and Iowan lore.

When Julien Rosefeldt’s installation piece Manifesto, made in collaboration with Cate Blanchett, made its US premier in New York at the Park Avenue Armory, it was the kind of immersive, sensory teasing experience that is in the best of art.

Everyone’s favorite jester-come-jazz/folk troubadour, Ryley Walker, returns after 2016’s well-received Golden Sings That Have Been Sung with an equally hazily idiosyncratic collection. The opener, “In Castle Dome,” develops a lethargic psych saunter that dominates the album’s feel and rhythm.

Brian Eno may be well known for his influence on iconic rock artists David Bowie, U2, Coldplay, Devo, and James, and producing some of their most artistic and commercial successes, but he is best known as the Godfather of ambient music for essentially conceiving the genre.

As The Crow Flies found Chris Robinson revisiting his Black Crowes catalog to thrilling effect in Philadelphia.

So here we are. Five years after the slicked back hair and leather clad riffs of AM, Arctic Monkeys are back with a new record, the oddly-titled Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. The project that started out as a solo project for frontman Alex Turner now incorporates the entire band—something equally as perplexing as it is ill-fitting.

Is there a bigger new name in music right now than Cardi B? If so, I must confess myself unable to think of it. It’s been just over a year since a behind-the-scenes clip of her recording as-then-unreleased single “Bodak Yellow” made waves across social media and now, after a string of successful public appearances, performances, and single releases, her debut album is here.

Mountain is a uniquely stunning document, defined by its sublime beauty, cautious reverence, and musical resplendence.