Decades of answering to no label have left GDP free and mostly alone. Cross Off Matthew puts his own vanishing act under the same hard light he aims at the country. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Between a wedding oath and a late-night text, Vedo makes an excellent R&B album about what a man owes the woman he keeps. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

On their latest album, Ishmael Butler writes himself into legend as a one-of-a-kind and puts that legend on the court against the people who would beat it, where his writing turns funny and exact. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Building her beats under songs about rent and a friend in withdrawal, Laila! sings youth's oldest farewell line as someone who fought to grow up, and her comedy and her grief get the same close care. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Alone after City Girls, Yung Miami hands the rest to her elders, a line of paying men, and her own body, and the letters she writes to that body and to JT, into a writer with something to lose. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

On a duo album thick with punchlines, Anderson .Paak and Cordae run the money brag straight into divorce, custody, and a karma bill. And about being gone and the father’s apology for it as one story. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of October 23rd. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through. #NewMusicDrops: shatterthestandards.com/p/ne…

Che Noir opens with a sermon about organized people and then follows her fasting, saving, and self-made routine back to the Black women in Buffalo who drilled it into her. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Michael Kiwanuka opens on Chick Corea telling musicians to trust their own ears, then calls in choirs, string sections, and a band of co-writers to get that private ear out into the room. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Over Pharrell’s horns, strings, and church organ, John Legend prays over the women in the club, then turns the prayer on himself through a divorce and a fire, and the turn makes Muse a grown record. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…