Pop critic Ann Powers shares a handful the albums on NPR Music's list of the best of the year, including the one album that nearly the entire team agreed on. What were your favorite albums this year?

Have you noticed that guitars are back? I’m being a little facetious, but rock and even punk has has been steadily climbing its way back to the mainstream and we felt that more this year than we have ...

In a year that had no rap songs in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40 for the first time since 1990, rap thrived in so many other ways. This list of the 25 best rap albums of 2025 includes grand ...

I don’t envy anybody who decided to put out an album within the 12 months succeeding Brat Summer, Manning Fireworks Fall, and “Not Like Us” — especially considering that 2025, broadly speaking, did ...