At long last, J. Cole releases his highly anticipated The Fall-Off album. On Friday (Feb. 6), the North Carolina rapper blessed fans with his seventh studio album. The latest album from the Dreamville ...

It’s been eight long years since we first heard J. Cole introduce The Fall-Off, and the day has finally come: his “last” studio album has arrived, and a lot has happened in those eight years. Clocking ...

The waiting is the hardest part, when it comes to some recording artists. And if a lot of them come through on their promises, threats or hints of delivering new material in 2026, it will be like a ...

As 2025 draws to a close, Metacritic has unveiled its annual rankings of the best albums of the year, highlighting a diverse and genre-spanning collection of critically acclaimed releases. From ...

The Acacia Strain – You Are Safe From God Here (Rise) For me, the best death metal feels like a location, a literal spatial world made accessible through music. There’s something about Ego Dissolution ...

What were 2025's best rock albums? While we recently shared with you the 51 Best Rock + Metal Albums of 2025 with you and named Three Days Grace's Alienation our Rock Album of the Year, we have not ...

In 2025, bands had a lot to say about the state of the world, from La Dispute’s No One Was Driving the Car, which surveyed late-stage capitalism, and End It, who examined class structure through ...

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 ...

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Piling on, stripping down, looking back, pushing ahead: Musicians found all sorts of uses for the album form this ...

The Korean pop outsider Effie and the Brooklyn indie-rock band Geese top our critics’ lists this year. By Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz Jon Caramanica Musicians know how to make music, and they ...

Magic is real, and we know this because science could never replicate the process that gave us Getting Killed. A bunch of talented Brooklyn teenagers emerge from the pandemic with a promising ...

I joined Paste in 2023 and, in my tenure as editor, this year’s AOTY list is my favorite by far. The publication has been doling out these rankings since 2002, affixing an “Album of the Year” ribbon ...