These are the recent records (most minted in this calendar year, some not quite) that I most whole-heartedly recommend to the musical adventurer. I’m starting to hate lists, but it’s a habit, and when one is dealing with annual ones, one must stay on top of them. If you peer back at my last list-post, you’ll probably see little change, so as a bonus, I am throwing in some additional offerings that I don’t quite so strongly recommend, but that may delight you and eventually grow on me. As for purchasing them, I assume you know how to use the Internet, but in a few case where the source (sometimes the artist himself) needs a boost, I may direct you. As much as it’s possible for me to deduce it, they are in order of, um, power.

1. Beyoncé: Lemonade
2. Saul Williams: Martyr Loser King
3. Tyler Keith and The Apostles: Do It for Johnny
4. The Paranoid Style: Rolling Disclosure
5. Anderson Paak: Malibu
6. J. D. Allen: Americana
7. Anna Hogberg: Anna Hogberg Attack
8. Meet Your Death: Meet Your Death
9. Car Seat Headrest: Teens of Denial
10. Blood Orange: Freetown Sound
11. Rihanna: Anti
12. Chance the Rapper: Coloring Book
13. Elizabeth Cook: Exodus of Venus
14. Joe McPhee and Paal Nilssen-Love: Candy
15. Various Artists: Music of Morocco–Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959
16. Bombino: Azel
17. Pylon: Live
18. The Drive-By Truckers: American Band
19. Nots: Cosmetic
20. M. I. A: Aim
21. Wussy: Forever Sounds
22. Parquet Courts: Human Performance
23. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down: A Man Alive
24. Pedrito Martinez: Habana Dreams
25. Jemeel Moondoc and Hilliard Greene: Cosmic Nickolodeon
26. Various Artists: Desconstrucao–A Portrait of Sao Paulo’s Music Scene
27. Kel Assouf: Tikonen
28. Yoni & Geti: Testarossa
29. Aesop Rock: The Impossible Kid
30. Mexrissey: No Manchester

THE BEST OF THE REST

[If the record’s bolded, it almost made or was previously in the Top 25; if it’s preceded by an asterisk (*), it barely made this list.]

Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman: Lice 2 (EP)

Angry Angles

*Bajakian, Aram: Music Inspired by the Film The Color of Pomegranates

Beatles: Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Booker, James: Bayou Maharajah (DVD)

Bowie, David: Blackstar

*Bradley, Charles: Changes

*Braxton, Anthony: 3 Compositions [EEMHM] 2011

Cavanaugh: Time and Materials (EP)

Childbirth: Women’s Rights

Dalek: Asphalt for Eden

De La Soul: …and the anonymous nobody

DeJohnette, Jack: In Movement

Del McCoury Band: Del and Woody

Dylan, Bob: Fallen Angels

Fulks, Robbie: Upland Stories

*Garbage: Strange Little Birds

Konono N1 Meets Batida

Kool and Kass: Barter 7

Iyer, Vijay, and Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm in Each Stroke

Lamar, Kendrick: Untitled Unmastered

Lewis, Linda Gail: Heartache Highway

Lynn, Loretta: Full Circle

*Natural Child: Okey-Dokey

Neville, Aaron: Apache

Open Mike Eagle: Hella Personal Film Festival

Perfecto: You Can’t Run from the Rhythm

*Professor Longhair: Live in Chicago

Pusha T: Darkness Before Dawn

Reed, Blind Alfred: Appalachian Visionary

Rollins, Sonny: Holding Down the Stage–Road Shows, Volume Four

Smith, Dr. Lonnie: Evolution

*Stetson, Colin: Sorrow–A Reimagining of Gorecki’s Third Symphony

Threadgill, Henry (conductor): Old Locks and Irregular Verbs

Toussaint, Allen: American Tunes

Various Artists: Soul Sok Sega–Sega Sounds from Mauritius

Veloso, Caetano, and Gilberto Gil: Dois Amigos, Um Seculo de Musica–Multishow Live

White Lung: Paradise

Wills, Bob, and The Texas Playboys: Let’s Play, Boys–Rediscovered Songs from Bob Wills’ Personal Transcriptions

*Young Philadelphians (with Marc Ribot): Live in Tokyo

*Young Thug: Jeffrey

Ze, Tom: Vira Lata na Via Lactea