For NPR Music's hip-hop and R&B editor, no list could capture an accurate picture of the year, yet there's still value in calling out the albums that felt unignorable.

You can't always know that it's a great year for new music while it's happening, but there was a sense from the very start of 2024 that we were in for a ride.

The artist's radically inventive new album produced with Justin Raisen plays like an apt distillation of what it's like to live right now.

Sonic Youth's co-founder took her cues from a '60s girl-group but forges a new lane. NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich functions as your antidote to the algorithm in eight tracks to know this week.

For the first time, the band members, their crew and their fans tell the story of a landmark moment they didn't realize was happening. Sonic Youth's new album, Live in Brooklyn 2011, is out this week.