In a year saturated with excellent releases — luminous false starts idling in the shadow of this never-ending global tragedy — projects that maximized ferality won me over. Identifying and rejecting ...

YouTube Music has officially launched its Year-in-Review-like 2021 Recap feature. As its branding suggests, that’s designed to bring all of the stats anybody could want for their listening history.

“Too much pain,” Young M.A. offers on her second LP, “could barely notice the beauty in things.” Not only did these albums provide comfort and commiseration, they also taught me new ways to listen, to ...