On top of the more accessible production, this record also boasts some of Granduciel's most immediate songs, making it some of the best work from a band with a near-spotless track record.

Interestingly, five decades into his career, Billy Valentine & the Universal Truth may be the record that finally introduces him to a national audience, simply because it's the protest-soul album we need most right now.

A Dancefloor in Ndola provides a valuable history lesson, but it also functions as a collection of great, uplifting dance music.

scular, miserable, mighty, and meandering, High Violet aims for the seats, but only hits about half of them.

Yanya covers a wide breadth of styles and emotions here and even if it all doesn't hang together perfectly, Miss Universe is a fascinating debut that is reflective of the pressures we place on ourselves and others which all too often result in a striving but imperfect mess.

Buck isn't a talented rapper, but he has a gift for expressive storytelling and evokes a range of emotions with his limited, mumbling vocals.

At a taut ten tracks, Bloom is an unambiguous statement from Sivan, clear in its intent to celebrate the highs and lows of queer love through the eyes of a proud pop star in the making.

He's merely living in his time and reporting, returning with an album that's vivid, vibrant, and current in a way none of his peers have managed to achieve.

Singles shows that their craftsmanship and good taste may have been their most defining quality.

In time, it should be seen as a career highlight from a superstar--one of the hardest-working people in the business, a new mother, in total control, at her creative and commercial peak.

Cole's Corner is glorious, magical, and utterly lovely in its vision, articulation, and execution.

Emeritus is not the usual, very serious good-bye record, but in so many ways, it's a typical Scarface record. It's just better than usual with the rapper sounding liberated by his decision to move on.

Once Nao enters on the finale "Amazing Grace," an ethereal original that shares some lyrics with the popular hymn and delivers another message of salvation, it becomes more clear why the title song, an ideal closer in just about any other context, starts the album.

Somewhere in the second half of this hour-plus album, the mostly sedate sequence of productions -- some without beats, others with dragging trap-styled percussion -- make for laborious listening. The trade-off is Walker's vivid and biting lyrics and knack for singing them with such grace that they please the ear as much as they raise eyebrows.

Evermore as a whole doesn't play as a sad album. Swift enjoys playing with the new musical and emotional colors on her palette for Evermore to anything but a warm balm, a record suited for contemplation, not loneliness.

Gore and Gahan transform tragedy into something profound and universally relatable. Though not their most immediate offering, Memento Mori is their most heartfelt, thoughtful, and moving statement in decades.

It's simply unlike anything else out there -- except perhaps Just Another Diamond Day.

Revolutionary stuff and absolutely no fluff, R.A.P. Music is outstanding.

All the sonic elements are in place, so it's slightly disappointing that the songs aren't as vivid as the album's deliberately hazy vibe.

They’ve been honing something so unique for so long that the new material emphasizes how timeless the older material is, and how it’s all been part of the same strange and beautiful continuum.

The last thing PWR BTTM are ready to do is mope; instead they've chosen to create a record that feels defiantly optimistic and celebratory.

This is deeply intuitive, subtly detailed, endlessly grooving, holistic jazz-trance music that was improvised at an extremely high level.

Slayyyter certainly cribs from many of her dance influences on WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, she never fails to make them her own.

Even with some of the smoke and mirrors removed, Ariel Pink is still a singular talent.

Art of the Improviser serves as a testament to Shipp's achievements, yet it is also a continuation of the discovery in his developmental musical language.

Made Possible finds the Bad Plus openly wrestling with the complex interrelationship between rhythm, harmony, and improvisation (individual and collective). It offers a more inviting aural view of the group confronting these questions, and the historic weight and imposing boundaries associated with "the piano trio" in jazz.

The passing of time has only increased Blur's stature as a British treasure and this is a concert that suits their status: it's crowd-pleasing without pandering.

Gorgeously recorded and mixed by Guip, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams is 44 minutes of roots music gold.

This is hardly the first or best study of the U.K. punk scene of the '70s, but Action Time Vision is an impressive tribute to the early stirrings of indie culture in England, and it's great listening throughout.

Amo is a genre-bending thrill ride that marks a brave new era for the band. Placing a significant amount of trust in their fan base, Bring Me the Horizon deliver an utterly refreshing and forward-thinking statement that finds them in complete control of their vision.

From beginning to end, The Long Goodbye is pure Pere Ubu: surprising, unexpectedly tender, and above all, thought-provoking. Even by their standards, this is a wild and challenging album -- coming full circle rarely sounds this exhilarating.

It's a striking album of hidden layers and plenty of craft that entrances from start to finish.

While LaFarge might still be a time-traveling rock troubadour, he seems to have found the center of his musical universe with In the Blossom of Their Shade.

There isn't a weak moment here, not even a middling one. Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound is forging a unique path into the future of blues, one artist and one impeccable track after another.

Bold and fearless, Chappell Roan's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is the best kind of pop album: it captures a generational zeitgeist and introduces the world to a refreshing new voice that can hopefully stand the test of time and a fickle industry.

There's a strong mood setting vibe on Motion I, one that finds Out Of/Into drawing upon Blue Note's past while pushing toward the future.

As a final album, Mulatu Plays Mulatu stands with his very best work and is a bittersweet joy to celebrate.

Shows a refreshing rawness that was absent before.

Ultimately, Fever to Tell might be slightly disappointing, but it delivers slightly more than an EP's worth of good to great songs, proving that even when they're uneven, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still an exciting band.

The Ugly Organ is greater than the sum of its parts, with tracks that flow into one another seamlessly in spite of the wildly varying tempo and stylistic changes, not surprisingly like a classical piece in that regard.

Wind's Poem strikes a balance between accessibility and ambition that offers something for every kind of Elverum fan, but never sacrifices its purpose in the process.

It's a marvel of design and execution that registers mostly as activated, unrelenting noise pop and invites listeners to discover something new and joyfully befuddling every time they listen back.

The album features a smart balance between serious, inward-looking ballads and dance tracks, and Starr writes from a personal perspective about the mix of emotions and circumstances brought about by early adulthood and stardom.

Crushing is riveting right from the spare, noir-tinged opening track, "Body," which remembers the moment Jacklin decided to leave the relationship after her partner got them thrown off a flight.

The Path of the Clouds was constructed by Nadler sending frameworks of songs to long-distance collaborators; Seth Manchester (Lightning Bolt, Battles, METZ) later mixed the album after judiciously adding feedback and distorted guitars. These adjustments perfectly suit the album's epic, aching songs, which refuse to keep tragedy at arm's length.

[Everything Hits at Once] proves there are few bands more adept at giving the venerable best-of compilation a refresh.

Placenta's sound, while immediately recognizable as a work of Niño's, goes very deep and very wide due to his familiarity, respect for, and reliance on the gifts of his studio cast.

King Gizzard are restless and brilliant and listeners must follow everything they do like a hawk because they might unleash something classic, just like they did with Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava.

Yonder Is the Clock is the band's most nuanced effort to date, an effortless piece of Catskills folk and narrative know-how that shows just how far a band can grow in one year's time.

While this effort may not be Welch's surprise transformation into a full-on pop diva, Dance Fever is a generous offering to the goddesses of dance and restorative energy.

While the first ten songs would have made for a strong return on their own, the final three put Second Chance over the top as one of the year's best R&B albums.

While The Living Infinite is certainly a whole lot of record, it's filled with enough vigor and creativity that it doesn't feel as though it's dragging along.

With 17 incredibly complex songs clocking in at almost an hour, the San Fermin listening experience is a commitment, but one that rewards greatly.

Any Human Friend sounds sleeker and more polished than Hackman's previous releases, but at the same time it takes the playfully libidinous tone of I'm Not Your Man and cranks it up a few levels.

These songs are crafted in the best sense of the word, with the lyrics delivering sublime twists that the music matches. As such, Mental Illness becomes something of a balm for troubled times; it's an album that finds reassurance within the darkest corners.

In the vein of Kevin Rowland or Elvis Costello, Ted Leo writes lyrical rock songs that sprawl out and rarely depend on a chorus.

There's a consistency to the EP that can get lost when a band is trying to work their way toward a longer running time, so although fans might not be getting a big a dose of new Down material as they might crave, they're certainly reaping the benefits of quality over quantity.

It's a resolutely lively and slightly dazed exploration of misshapen pop forms.

If Big Day in a Small Town occasionally feels like nothing more than a collection of great songs that don't quite gel into a larger picture, that's a minor complaint: songs rarely come much better than these.

The Age of Immunology is an idealistic, impressionistic rebuke to Brexit and the other xenophobic movements of the late 2010s. ... On The Age of Immunology, they set this message to beguiling, fantastical soundscapes that are as welcoming as they are unusual.

Balances the adventurous and traditional sides of Tiersen's music in a way that honors the sense of wonder and beauty in his work since the beginning.

Starmaker is a subtle, yet quietly powerful record that feels like it's been hiding in your record collection for decades, just waiting for the right rainy day to make itself known.

Treasure of Love isn't a pathbreaking masterpiece for the Flatlanders, but that's not the sort of album they were likely to make at this point in their lives. Instead, it's an affirmation of their friendship and their love of music, and if you've ever cared about any or all of the group members, this will make you very happy.

The end result is vast and ambitious yet deliberately welcoming. Its many sounds and rhythms greet listeners wherever they are and compel them to invest in an altogether wondrous sonic journey for body, mind, and soul.

Her lilting, rough-hewn cadence carries with it the weight, strength, and spry humor of her homeland, and her storytelling rings true and grounded, even at its most mystic and confounding.

The album, with its loungey, brushed shuffle grooves and sparkling guitar riffs, has its own intoxicating pull borne of the magical, decades-old chemistry between Wareham and Kramer. That's the Price of Loving Me might pull you into a golden vortex of their shared reverie, but it's a small price to pay.

Though there's an element of dark humor to the album -- note "Gamma (need the <3)"'s lyrical reference to Michael Haneke's home invasion satire Funny Games -- there's still a lot of sincere joy expressed in these songs, even if it isn't always obvious on the surface.

Dim Probs is vintage Gruff Rhys and the very simplicity and directness of the album sets it off from the many concepts and schemes of his other, bigger records. Sometimes less truly is more.

This blend of great tracks by well-known bands (add to the list of already mentioned groups a few more like the Three O'Clock, Green on Red, Redd Kross, Cynics, and Long Ryders), strong picks by the really good bands who filled out the ranks, and the occasional left-field surprise (looking at you, Camper Van Beethoven) makes for a collection that serves as a reminder of just how thrilling an age it was to be an open-eared and broad-minded fan of psychedelic and garage music.

While it doesn't always reach Sinning's heights, the deeper sexuality, deeper grooves, and deeper understanding Daniel seeks and finds on Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This? make it a triumph in its own right.

Tirzah's music may be volatile, but it's also remarkably consistent; trip9love...??? is the third time in a row that they've turned a handful of sounds and a wealth of ideas into a haunting, forward-thinking album.

Although A Hero's Death does suffer from repetition and a lack of literacy, it remains a fun enough; the mistakes it makes won't deter existing fans of the band, although it doesn't display anything new or exciting enough to propel Fontaines D.C. to any new heights.

Mint Field's gloominess is very real and relatable, and their debut is a truly remarkable work of art.

As it acknowledges current hardships and allow the tiniest glimmer of hope for tomorrow, It Won't Be Like This All the Time proves the Twilight Sad are making some of their most vital music more than a decade into their career.

It wasn't necessarily all that great of a stylistic distance to traverse, but it's certainly been a pleasurable journey. And while there are quite a few extant non-album cuts that might have found space on a more slavishly inclusive comp, what is included here is pretty close to perfect.

Post Self is more moody than direct, and isn't the most hard-hitting, immediate album in the Godflesh catalog, but for anyone who equally appreciates Broadrick's metal and electronic sides, the album is as stunning as one would expect.

Despite the bigger sound on average, however, Baker's brutal lyrical authenticity remains the main attraction.

Central Reservation is first and foremost a record about hope and survival ... but its underlying message of healing and perseverance is powerfully life-affirming -- her music hasn't merely discovered the light at the end of the tunnel, it's now bathing in it.

While there are come similarities to their previous efforts Bedside Drama and The Gay Parade, Coquelicot is more ambitious in its concept, arrangements, lyrics, and even artwork.

A vast improvement over the intriguing but rarely focused Let's Get Killed, David Holmes' third solo album benefits from his growing status as a producer to watch -- and specifically, from his ability to snag the talents of big-name vocalists.

Her easy, welcoming touch is a balm every time Tomorrow Is My Turn is played, but it's upon successive spins that the intricacies of Giddens' construction--not to mention her subtle political messages--begin to take hold.

Album closer "Snow White (& the 7 Dwarves Fans)" brings all of Fantasy Empire's best elements together, with manipulated vocal loops, dynamic riffing, and unhinged near-free drumming exploding in a metered, hypnotic assault that never loses power for any of its more than 11-minute running time.

Much of Face the Wall brings to mind the kind of ebullient, instant-classic indie pop that filtered through college rock stations in the 1990s. Think something along the lines of Juliana Hatfield improbably crossed with Liz Phair and Enya and you'll get a sense of the giddy, buoyant vibe she captures here.

Nymph isn't exactly the type of album full of bangers that one might have previously expected from Shygirl, but it reveals a greater depth to her personality, and it's consistently inventive and awe-inspiring.

The Chicago Sessions is a splendid example of of Rodney Crowell doing what he does best, with some help from a guy who knows how to get him to play to his strengths; it's Crowell as his smart and soulful best.

Jason Isbell is a singer and songwriter who is never afraid to do the work to make his music something special, and even when he's performing in stripped-down fashion, he delivers great songs and the commitment to make them special. Anyone who questions that hasn't heard Foxes in the Snow.

It's raw and fearless, and just as the earliest Nite Jewel albums quietly set the course for entire musical movements of their time, it wouldn't be surprising if No Sun helped usher in a new era of forward-moving conceptual pop.

It both makes the listener feel warmly good and tearfully bad at the same time. That's a satisfying dichotomy and one that's hard to pull off. With Le Bon and his band's help, Evans has done it and in the process made the best H. Hawkline record to date.

It readily embraces, borrows from, and intersects with other musics too. Often his cornucopia of other sounds has (deliberately) overshadowed jazz. That's not true here.

In full, And Nothing Hurt stands alongside the very best outings on the Spiritualized shelf. Its finest moments are consequently its most tender, revealing how much Pierce has grown as a writer. If he continues to record, this will be the album that opens a vibrant new chapter in the saga of Spiritualized.

Despite the lengthy dormant period that preceded it, As Days Get Dark is a perfect document of that beauty, offering a listening experience as chilling, nihilistically funny, and emotionally overpowering as anything the band produced before it.

With Brent, Dave has a singer/songwriter who is sly, well-versed in the history of country and funky Americana, who places equal emphasis on the song and the performance. As a result, Providence Canyon is fleet on its feet but also substantial: it’s a record that can be enjoyed as a vibe, as a sharp musical interplay and as a set of song that are malleable yet enduring.

In its own quiet way, Warm is one of the most powerful works of Tweedy's career, and it's the sort of music too many of us need today.

Buddy Miller lends all the support any artist could want or need on these performances, but he's smart enough to understand Julie Miller is every bit as deserving of the spotlight. On Breakdown on 20th Ave. South, he makes room for her to shine, and it's a very welcome reminder of her gentle strengths and singular voice. We need her in these days.

Infinity of Now is more adventurous, disciplined, and focused than any of their previous outings. Its dark and murky sonic vision is at once completely out of step with everything else, as well as miles ahead of it.

The Old Fabled River is a moving and inspired collection that followers of both folk and experimental music will find greatly rewarding.

These songs are full of a wobbly confidence that puts a tight focus on the personal and political, lashing out at a world of waste and injustice ("To-Do List," "Money Talks") while Felice wavers between a playful appreciation of his own eccentricity ("Jazz on the Autobahn") and a less charitable observer who has something timely and eloquent to say. The band's ragged but right grooves are in especially good shape this time out.

All these slight aural imperfections emphasize the extraordinary casualness of the gig. Young is loose but not sloppy as he plays songs largely unknown to his audience.