The album is clearly the product of the artist's singular vision rather than anything created with commercial expectations, and while certain listeners might find it indulgent or amateur-sounding, give it a chance and it might prove to be a rewarding, amusing listen.

While it's true that some of their pseudo-"prog" power is lost without Madsen's riffs, Mew's delivery is no less effective. Their ever-morphing vision has simply moved beyond terrestrial bonds and ascended into the expanse of the galaxy.

Doris & the Daggers is settled in an appealing way. Kannberg eases into a collection of classicist guitar pop that recalls vintage '80s college rock from New Zealand and Australia, but also bears some resemblance to the sharp, knowing pop of Kelley Stoltz, who functioned as a part-time collaborator on the record.

The sound isn't a throwback to their first (or second) great era so much as it reflects the best qualities of their more mature work, and if it's not quite what some folks may have hoped for, it's a pleasing and well-crafted set that reminds listeners this band is still vital and productive.

It's elegant, regal even, yet so immersed in its icy solitude that the listener is often left looking for cracks in the facade instead of common ground.

Like its predecessor, Bootleg, Vol. 2: From Memphis to Hollywood is essential for Cash collectors and hardcore fans, adding even more depth and weight to his enormous stature in American popular music.

Gallagher isn't as potent a personality as he was a quarter-century earlier, but his middle-aged control has its charms, too. He sounds relaxed on Why Me? Why Not., maybe for the first time ever.

Rival Sons are a power trio plus singer in the traditional style, who might have made this album after listening to the first Led Zeppelin LP over and over for a day or two... Anyone who likes [60's hard rock] should ... check them out.

The Kronos Quartet, So Percussion, and the six players in Dance Patterns deliver topnotch performances, and Nonesuch's sound is immaculate.

Sharks have built up a reputation as one of the U.K.'s most vibrant young live acts, but the disappointingly flat No Gods suggests that something must have gone missing on their way to the studio.

It's an album that never feels overstuffed, even at its most wandering.

It integrates them in a 21st century musical language that is holistic and accessible while remaining fully exploratory.

n. Out of View is an impressive debut but, more than that, it's the sound of shoegaze and early-'90s guitar pop at its best.

Top of the Pops is a thorough and lovingly compiled set, and it's only fitting that a band as incredibly geeky about music and pop culture as Art Brut is should get the deluxe treatment.

Whenever they seem affected it's when they try to be a little bit too pure in their bluegrass ("Hermitage Hostep"), but when they incorporate bits of rock & roll and gospel, or when they cut loose ("People Been Talking"), or lay back ("Just Like You"), they're a compelling, muscled Americana outfit, given just the right showcase here by Benson.

While this might not be the album that will make believers out of their haters, Trivium have put out an album that, with its impressive blend of melody and scorching riffs, feels capable of luring more than a few post-grunge and hard rock fans over to the heavier side of the dial.

Forty years on, Los Lobos are still one of America's best, bravest, and most satisfying bands, and their skills and their their instincts remain razor-sharp, regardless of their stage volume.

If E Volo Love was his breakout, Piano Ombre should be the record that will truly resonate with fans.

It all makes for a complex, often beautiful debut album that affords Kelly even more expression and possibilities than what he's done before.

Refreshing in its conciseness and brightness, Shaken Up Versions embraces change even as it unites the different eras of the Dreijers' music.

Darkness has been a frequent companion on She Keeps Bees' earlier releases, but most of Eight Houses seems to take it a step further, verging between sad and threatening, yet ultimately powerful.

Gallows are certainly not getting any happier, but they've got torment down to a science.

Not all bands have to reinvent the wheel; they just need to roll it with some passion and dedication. Fist City do that and more on Everything Is a Mess.

Ropewalk finds the View further maturing into a tight, sophisticated outfit, capable of balancing the punk energy of their early work with a more nuanced sense of song craftsmanship.

After such a long journey, the original lineup have finally made an album together and it's every bit as triumphant and evocative for fans as it is for the quartet who have finally fulfilled a vision they had at the turn of the millennium.

Sequence and flow, moods and styles, all form a coherent whole--albeit one that might have used a tad more judicious editing. But it's hard to fault a band for trying new things, especially when what they deliver is an album with far more hits than misses.

The mellifluous vocals and washes of texture wind up balancing each other a little bit too well: it's an alluring sound that seems attractive in the moment by disappears in the slipstream.

His music is remarkably creative and avoids sounding like a cheap novelty, or the audio equivalent of an ill-conceived Halloween costume.

Stage is more Operation: Mindcrime-era Queensrÿche than it is Muse, and for all its opining on nanotechnology and interstellar travel, it still feels rooted in heavy metal tradition.

Waiting a Lifetime is the end result of a lot of hard work, experimentation, and craft, yet it still sounds alive and full of emotion.

Ranging from lo-fi rock epics to strummed acoustic numbers that blend lonesome rural tones with desperate suburban ennui, Everything So Far is a testament to a band that sounded original out of the gate.

2017's ambitious full-length Emperor of Sand saw the progressive/sludge metal veterans delivering a heavy-hearted concept album about grief, and while Cold Dark Place's title would suggest an extension of that narrative, it's more of a loosely knit addendum that illuminates the latter outings' soul-searching proclivities by proxy.

She radiates genuine personality, and her second full-length demonstrates just how well she can bend pop structures to her will and sound fantastic in the process.

Rather than a mundane breakup album rife with familiar tropes, Frawley channels his distress into a unique and engaging album that is easy to spend some time with.

Although it's only the first piece of the puzzle, on its own, Map of the Soul: Persona is a fitting celebration for a group at the top of their game.

On paper, there's no way all these combinations should gel, but C'est ça is so dense, hyper-focused, and determined that it forces itself to make sense, altering the listener's perception of how music works. What a bizarre, absurd, wonderful album. Easily Fly Pan Am's best.

A Situation, the group's third album, sounds similar to the first two, except this time there's a greater presence of lyrics, and the songs sound more urgent.

The songs generate a sense of vexation through the interplay between Zedek's plain-spoken guitar figures, with the interjections of piano, pedal steel, and cello, and the unobtrusive, rock-solid rhythm section that holds this music in place.

The resulting album is perhaps surprisingly uplifting and affectionate in tone. Based in a reflective, if dance-minded, bedroom-R&B zone for the most part.

In some ways, Compositions feels more like a film score than other Deathprod albums, not quite resembling variations on a theme, but aurally illustrating a specific scene with each track. Unfortunately, nothing here really expands past being interesting sounds or settings, and these pieces don't elevate to the haunting, mesmerizing level of Deathprod's best work.

More often than not, he delivers on High Drama, particularly on the insistent glitter march of "Holding Out for a Hero" and a smoldering electro makeover of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me."

Suzanne Vega is an artist who was built for the long haul, and Flying With Angels is impressive and satisfying in its craft and distinctive outlook – her songs made her stand out from her peers in 1985, and they still do in 2025.

Moby's weary voice surfaces during the mournful "This Was Never Meant for Us," one of several songs that start out slow and sparse but eventually bloom when the strings hit. "Mott Street 1992" recalls the best of Moby's downtempo material, with dreamy breakbeats and lush synths conveying a slow-moving but expressive rush of feeling.

"Corporation" and "Ice Station Zebra," the two funkiest numbers here, illustrate this with their precise grooves, but even the self-consciously weird interludes show this same level of exactitude. While that keeps Boarding House Reach somewhat in a straitjacket, it also makes it a fascinating listen, because it's a document of a control freak anxious to get loose.

Deacon reassures the listener that inner peace "starts any moment you'd like." Mystic Familiar's triumphant victory lap is "Bumble Bee Crown King," a dazzling instrumental featuring Dustin Wong's unmistakable, spellbinding guitar work.

This being the Rhye album with the most layers, Milosh was wise to employ the brilliant Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, the Killers) as mixing engineer. Every change pays off.

Cheap Trick can still make a solid and entertaining hard rock record. If that doesn't sound like much, compare Bang, Zoom, Crazy... Hello with the current work of their late-'70s peers and you'll see what a fine surprise that is.

If you're looking for something cool and groovin' to put under your tree or to slap on the stereo while you and your friends knock back some eggnog, It's a Holiday Soul Party is a hip, stylish, and rollicking good time.

What's different here is how relaxed Elliott is, how willing she seems to simply go with what comes naturally and sounds best.

Robust and fearless, Spirit may end up being one of the earliest and best salvos of its political era.

Surprises are around every turn.

The Joy of Sing-Sing is a divine first album -- fans will undoubtedly be delighted.

Blessed with a voice that immediately announces itself, Gray still hasn't found a musical personality to complement it.

True, Knopfler's basic approach remains the same - as a guitarist, he is still enamored of the minor-key finger-picking style of J.J. Cale, and as a singer/songwriter, he remains enthralled with Bob Dylan. But in one song after another on this album, you get the feeling that he started out playing some familiar song in a specific genre and eventually extrapolated upon it enough to call it an original.

References to fungus and food abound, but wrapped in the wooly blankets of Rawlings' signature picking and Welch's winsome harmonies, they take on a fireplace warmth that renders them amiably nostalgic rather than blatantly surreal.

The perpetually teenaged foursome still have their raw edges and sharp teeth, it's just that the edges rip deeper and the teeth bite harder with this more efficient and well-crafted rock assault.

Yet another triumph for the Beta Band.

This is ultimately an album that is catnip to those favoring a general sound and approach and otherwise will pass the time for most anyone else--no bad thing, yet nothing remarkable either.

On Fanatic, the Wilsons prove they can not only not re-create a sound they trademarked in the '70s, but can revision it creatively for the 21st century.

Kin shows that there's more than just gimmickry to iamamiwhoami.

As a whole, Upright Behavior is a lot to digest, and whether or not listeners will find enough incentive to spend time cracking Landlady's code depends purely on their appetite for this type of challenging indie rock.

All but the most stuck-in-the-'90s shoegaze fans will see that Sway is an album that would measure up to almost any album made by the first wave of shoegazers. And by the current wave of revivalists, grave robbers, and crafty thieves as well.

While Hold on Pain Ends is generally well played and well produced, little new ground has been broken and by and large it comes across as a fairly standard, mainstream pop-oriented metalcore record.

In its own claustrophobic, expansive, debauched, and sardonic way, 25 25 proves that less truly is more for Factory Floor.

Its gleaming surface feels shinier than previous McMahon productions, but rather than seeming like an attempt to chase trends, these inflections and accents feel like a culmination of craft. McMahon has long understood how to craft a song, and Zombies on Broadway proves he has the studio skills to match.

If Together at Last is a minor work in Tweedy's catalog, it's a simple but genuine pleasure that may convert a few doubters who haven't been won over by Wilco's eclecticism.

The set won't take the place of any of their studio albums, but it's a strong addition to their body of work that fans should treasure.

The two guitars pick out cascading notes--never chords--against one another, the bass borrows from both Interpol and Gang of Four, and Philippakis' voice cries out in repetition wonderfully, but it's these occasional horn bursts, the electronic chops and blips, that truly complete the songs, making "Antidotes" not merely a lesson in post-new wave noodling, but evidence of the power and excitement of the genre and music itself.

Based on Weird Sister, Joanna Gruesome didn't seem like the kind of band to bow to pressure or to fall down on the job. The intense and quite wonderful Peanut Butter is bracing proof of that fact.

The Golden Archipelago, a toothy, epic examination of island life, both physical and metaphysical, is enigmatic to say the least.

In Leo’s case, it’s somehow comforting that every few years he’ll be along to inspire and cajole his fans with his dedication and passion. The Brutalist Bricks will let no one down in that regard.

Nevertheless, even if Out of Touch, in the Wild is missing some of the bite of Dutch Uncles' earlier music, its brainy pop is always intriguing.

When it works, like on the rousing, sentimental opener "Walter Reed," "On Automatic" and "Mary Lynn," Penn knocks the ball into the bleachers, but there's an over-flow of mid-tempo pieces about halfway through that bring the record to a standstill.

Me Moan sounds like nothing else out there; it's completely original.

After eight albums that synthesize post-rock, home-listening electronica, and dub, the trio otherwise aren't up for much of a shakeup in their approach. None of the remaining seven instrumentals is novel, but they're all enjoyable on some level, cunningly shaped as ever.

Inner Fire is a showcase for the Souljazz Orchestra's depth and experience.

Shannon & the Clams have hit the peak of their powers here, making good on their promising early records and improving on the already strong record that came before. Here's hoping they can keep it up for many more great rock & roll albums to come.

This music is powerfully intelligent without sounding the tiniest bit pretentious, and imaginative without losing a bit of downtown grit. Blood//Sugar//Secs//Traffic is a blazing cool rock & roll assault, and a record that confirms greasy thugs can have a future after all.

This offers more of the detailed scenes only Ocean can script, as well as some stray sly quotables. Ultimately, it's a smartly ordered patchwork of mostly secondary material.

Folila is great music. Period.

They're among the very best American punk bands of their day, and show there's plenty of snarling, howling life left in the beast after all these years.

Complete Surrender shows that Taylor and Watson are willing to stretch out and continue their evolution as they deliver a strong third outing.

The uniformity of the album is at the expense of clear-cut standout tracks.

Rogers' guttural growls sound more menacing than ever, and what the album lacks in originality it makes up for with feverishly inventive riffs and melodies, making The Parallax II: Future Sequence the band's most inspired release since Alaska.

That her instincts are often right speaks to her skills; that she veers into accidental condescension suggests this country move may be motivated by finding a new audience, not satisfying her existing one.

There aren't many surprises here for fans, save for the fact that he manages to spin the same nocturnal stories of drugs, partying, and fornicating over 17 addictive tracks without it ever growing stale.

Presented as the daring and liberated sibling to a more traditional predecessor, Dawn of Chromatica unlocks an expanded world of potential and reminds her legion of Little Monsters that she still has a finger on the pulse and isn't afraid to take risks once in a while.

Curtain Call 2 is generous to a fault, playing like an endless streaming playlist instead of a curated compilation, yet it does feature many highlights from Eminem's mid-career records.

The pairing of Le Bon's netherworld production and Banhart's malleable talents makes Flying Wig a weird and enjoyable ride. It's a whole new spectrum of sounds and ideas for Banhart, but it fits as one more chapter in his oft-mutating muse.

The mix of the old, the new, and the unexpected... makes Live at Earls Court one of the most successful albums of Morrissey's career.

Folks who were hoping Sing It Loud would be k.d. lang's return to the approach of Absolute Torch & Twang are going to be left wanting again, but if you've been eager to see her clear out a stylistic direction that's her own and make something of it, this album feels like a strong step in a bold, satisfying new direction.

The songs take agile twists and turns, the guitar interplay between Mike Haliechuk and Josh Zucker is satisfying and makes room for far more than the traditional four/four downstroke, and bassist Sandy Miranda and drummer Jonah Falco power this music with muscle and panache. And if the mix doesn't always put Abraham's vocals front and center, making it something of a challenge to understand all the lyrics, what's audible hits an admirable balance between rage and hope.

There are also plenty of moments that aren't groundbreaking, but still show that Merill Nisker has a lot to say about sex, music, and pop culture nearly a decade after Teaches of Peaches was released.

Rant goes far beyond any glee club or barbershop perceptions with its reverence and creativity; while it may not change the mind of anyone who thinks a capella pop music is inherently hokey, it's still one of the Futureheads' most exciting albums.

Carry On might be the most personal Willy Mason record to date and finds him unafraid to use traditional blues motifs--narrow roads, one-way streets, and fugitives--to fully express himself as a songwriter.

Song for song, The Blow is arguably a more consistent set of songs than Paper Television was, but its aloof wit ultimately makes for slightly smaller pleasures than what came before it.

With this sophomore record, Nap Eyes offer a subtle gem that ultimately improves on their debut.

It's a record that gets by on feel, not songs, which may mean that it doesn't provide many distinguishing hooks, but it does sound awfully good as it plays.