Nas appears on the cover of his 10th LP holding the wedding dress of ex-wife Kelis. But this is no Drake-style sob story. It's just that nowadays, he cuts his rhymes with midlife realism and daring empathy ("Could you imagine writing your deposition/Divorce lawyer telling how this going to be ending," he raps on "Bye Baby"). Nas discourses on parenting ("Daughters") and senseless violence ("Accidental Murderers," with Rick Ross), and shreds any doubts about his MC prowess ("The Don") over crisp, Nineties-tinged beats. Using a leftover Amy Winehouse vocal on "Cherry Wine" was an attention-grabbing move he didn't need: His words alone keep us glued.

Listen to "Daughters": 

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• Photos: Random Notes

“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”

The opener off the Welsh group’s The Big Roar album was an epic one, but the band was worried that track had polarized fans. “The first song is eight minutes long,” Rhydian Dafydd, the Joy Formidable bassist, said. “If you did that in the Seventies people would be, ‘Whatever.’ You do it now, people think, ‘Holy s---!’ Some people think it’s the f---ing greatest track on the entire album, and some people think it’s f---ing boring. It’s that element of needing to challenge people.” The band concluded through the song’s lyrics that love was the “everchanging spectrum of a lie.”