Earrings Off! is made up of uncompromising stuff that may take some adjusting to, but willing ears will find articulate, distinctive musicality that rewards repeat listens. It might even provide an unexpected earworm or two.

As always, In Glendale is a lot of fun, especially for fans who are prepared to smile in recognition at these songs rather than laugh at them.

All throughout Ripcord, the electronic elements are at the forefront and foundation, but it's to Urban's credit that this never feels desperate or pandering: it's a smooth, logical progression that makes his music feel sleek and mature.

Mixing humor with pointed social satire, Rest in Chaos finds Snider and his group tackling both darker moods and high-spirited rock.

Any listener who has derived satisfaction from Snarky Puppy's live recordings will easily find it here, too. This is the place where musical restlessness and discipline meet creative adventure.

Lyrically, this is among the sharpest and wittiest collections of songs this band has ever released. Add in the similarly fine music, and Solid States demonstrates the Posies have plenty of fresh ideas and great records left in them after three decades.

The album isn't perfect, but at their best, Kikagaku Moyo excel at their unique, thrilling brand of psychedelic acid folk.

With Mosey, Daniel Romano leaves no doubt that he's got the talent to bring us something worth hearing regardless of the approach he takes, and if the sound of this set is something of a surprise, the quality is certainly consistent with Romano's best work.

For a band that has consistently switched up their direction with each successive album, the biggest surprise is not that To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere once again manages to add fresh ideas to the Thrice catalog, but that a band 17 years into their career still has new directions to travel.

Considering the disparate source material and the quantity of vocalists, instrumentalists, and producers involved, it's remarkable how smoothly the album flows from one track to the next. Unsurprisingly, it's most appealing to fans of Glasper and those he involved.

Sometimes, the duo's soul-searching is too insular for its own good, and the revved-up finale, "Whirling Eye," feels like it's from a different album, but more often than not the Kills turn what could be seen as weakness into artistic strength. Even if they're lacking some of their expected swagger, it adds truth to Ash & Ice's portraits of what remains after the worst happens.

Ultimately, while 7/27 isn't quite as loose or as fun as one might hope, Fifth Harmony prove they can balance youthful swagger with grown-up sophistication.

Rain Crow doesn't blaze many new trails for Tony Joe White, but it leaves no doubt that he's still the king of his own swampy sound, and he's not getting older, he's getting deeper.

For anyone who appreciates the original, this offers a deeper revelation of the process in and context of Reid's classic.

Ultimately, while Metheny is the undisputed leader here, it's the thoughtful interplay of all the Unity Group's members that makes these sessions so involving.

While it's clear that Fear of Men are branching out and exploring different sounds and techniques on this album, the warmth of the first album is missing, and the songs don't always benefit from the experimentation.

Inner Journey Out isn't made for all listeners or all purposes, but anyone interested in a journey down a peaceful river of sculpted sound is advised to investigate its properties.

Though it feels disjointed at times, at its best Kin captures the emotional impact of changes and their aftermath.

While case/lang/veirs doesn't approach the greatness these women have managed on their own albums, it does offer more than a few beautiful moments they could not have achieved on their own. The result is a fascinating, rewarding experiment that deserves to be repeated.

Unpredictable, completely dedicated, and honest to the core, it packs an emotional wallop and is yet more proof that Kevin Rowland is still standing, just as proudly as ever.

Get In finds Rehberg stretching the Pita sound into more graceful territory, but he hasn't lost his flair for the unexpected that made his work during the '90s and 2000s so visionary.

I Wanna Go Back to Detroit City makes it clear Andre Williams still has a lot on his mind, and time hasn't dulled his impact one bit.

Blending experimental excursions and more straightforward synth pop throughout, Throws isn't challenging so much as eccentric, and overcomes a thread of grayness with a spirited fancifulness.

A consistently brooding and steadily paced set, The Exodus Suite plays like a set of torch songs, but for humanity's sense of well-being rather than a romantic lost love. Occasional imperfections from the live recording process lend extra doses of humanity to the eerie proceedings.

U is quite an accomplished full-length debut from a talented producer.

Colvin & Earle plays more like a detour for these two artists rather than the beginning of a long-standing collaboration, but the enthusiasm here is honest and the result is a good week's work that leaves room for a sequel.

Jackie Lynn feels like the audio equivalent of a gripping short story or film, and whether it's a cliffhanger or its own entity, it's an engaging, suspenseful tale.

It's challenging and confrontational, but it's still engaging and relatable. Bracing and personal, What One Becomes is some of Turner's most intense work yet.

A record slicker and straighter than its predecessors. Call it maturation as much as a shift in aesthetics.

While Gonzalez still hasn't hit the perfect balance between her experimental leanings and undeniable pop skills, Liquid Cool turns the strengths of her debut and One Second of Love into her most consistent album yet.

Last Year Was Complicated feels assured in a way its eponymous 2014 predecessor did not.

Half the fun of the album is listening to the oddball ways he twists words and sounds into his own slack language. The other half is taking up oddly cozy residence in BRONCHO's unique world of underwater doo wop, naptime pop, and energetic inertia.

It never gets boring, it moves quickly, and it often hits lofty heights where the melodies, music, voices, and beats all combine as one to do what the best dance music does: Transport the listener to a sweaty, uplifted dancefloor packed with like-minded revelers.

At times, Hollingworth and Walton's freewheeling experimentation gets a little too chaotic, but I, Gemini is an adventurous debut filled with moments of surprising beauty and humor.

Anybody looking for a straight-up document of Young & the Promise of the Real may very well be disappointed--all those pesky critters keep getting in the way--but Earth is better because of its inspired madness: the weirdness isn't merely a reason to listen, but it elevates the album to the status of one of Young's genuinely inspired nutso albums.

The album retains Dear's personality while dutifully serving its function.

With The Digging Remedy, Plaid remain eclectic as ever, keeping their oddness and exploratory nature intact.

Some moments are so bleak that they could be titled descriptively as "What Does Your Witch House Look Like, Pts. 1-2," yet the whole thing sounds like it was created in a state of fevered inspiration.

Even if The Magic doesn't always hold together, it still delivers moments of pure anarchic fun.

Though darker than her previous albums, Undercurrent is also more resilient. Jarosz reaches through her musical and personal histories with vulnerability and willingness. She comes out on the other side with songs that possess narrative savvy, melodic invention, and a refreshing sense of self-assuredness.

While the added mainstream polish, hooky melodies, and guidance from blink-182's bassist do make No Grace sound distinctly like a big pop-punk record, PAWS' attitude here is ultimately more sober as they trade in some of the wit and exuberance of their earlier outings for more adult-oriented themes.

Mumford & Sons proceed with intention, making this into a listen that's not only more compelling than their 2015 full-length, but one that suggests ways they could grow.

Far from being an album for wallowing in the depths of grief, True Sadness is a record about the emergence of hope.

With just the right mix of nostalgia and looking forward to what's next, Hot Hot Heat puts a neat bow on the band's career.

Ultimately, Thick as Thieves plays like a heartfelt love letter to Temper Trap's fans who have stuck with them since Conditions.

Ibifornia comes with enough funk and cool from guest vocalist Cat Power that it could be the spiritual sequel to the Tom Tom Club's debut album, plus all the faux exotica, busy soundscapes, and chugging basslines suggest the Swiss duo Yello.

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.

Depending on listeners' patience, however, The Bride's slower second half may be hypnotic or dreary.

The record is so personal that the only one able to understand every layer is Hynes himself. As a result, Freetown Sound can come across as weighty, indecipherable chaos to some. But for anyone who can relate to him on some level, it's hard not to be in awe of a man as complicated as Devonté Hynes being able to compose such an insightful, personal experience.

On the whole, Otero War finds the group relinquishing a trace of distinctiveness while sounding notably more comfortable in their own skin.

Nobody else creates contemplative bass music quite like Mala, and Mirrors sounds fresh and inspired.

Friday Night is a stronger and more engaging work than Butler's solo debut, and the new songs suggest he should have something memorable next time he goes into the studio by himself.

Only "Better When I'm by Your Side," which hews a little too closely to the Lorde template, does anything to darken the mood. It's a tiny stumble that does little to detract from the pleasing nature of the rest of the album.

By focusing on outsiders instead of trusting their crate-digging genius, the Avalanches shortchanged themselves and ended up making the best psychedelic Chemical Brothers album ever instead of making another classic Avalanches album.

This weird and often wonderful ride broadens the scope, painting Desiigner as a much darker rapper with his hallucinatory music just skirting on the surface of a bad trip.

Glaspy defies easy categorization and this solid, cleverly written debut is a testament to her sense of craft.

Ziggy Marley, the LP, shares much in common with Robert Palmer's Pride, Black Uhuru's Chill Out, and even Gregory Isaacs' Night Nurse, as its diminutive, deft, funky, tight, electro-tinged, and sincere. With all these ingredients at just the volume, it's still one single or classic short of being the best-of Ziggy, but the cool temperament and empowering mood of the album offer a life-affirming soul massage through music.

Still Life is a captivating album of intense personal reflection, and marks a significant amount of artistic growth.

Jay Arner may be something of a misanthrope, but he cares enough to make great pop records for the world at large, and Jay II's juxtaposition of form and content only makes its pleasures more intriguing.

The truth is that Ellipsis is a pleasingly efficient album that never sounds incomplete or labored. If anything, Biffy Clyro have discovered new ways to boil down their more complex thoughts and emotions into snarling, meaty pop slogans.

Consider this an exciting double-LP throwback that drops "Even if I die, living legend" during the opening cut and then just gets bigger and bolder from there.

The downside is that, from a compositional standpoint, [the cover of Prince's "Strange Relationship] easily surpasses everything else on the album. Comparatively, the other tracks on which Britton's slightly spooky voice is heard are less songs than they are productions with vocals. Almost no living songwriter can be expected to contend with Prince, but the song's presence here is an ill fit.

Black Bubblegum isn't the type of sprawling, messy platter of rhythmic noise that one might expect from Copeland, but it's still wacky in its own way.

The album was co-produced by the band and Grammy winner Graham Marsh, who's engineered for the likes of Bruno Mars and Cee Lo Green, and they draw focus to the group's star vocalist without skimping on rhythm and atmosphere. That atmosphere is light reverb, heartache, summer vacation, nostalgia, and Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

This wonderfully demonstrates Jackmaster's flair for surprising selections while keeping the mix focused on moving the crowd.

Compared to the floating ambition of Emotion & Commotion, this album feels invigorating and suggests how Beck doesn't want to rest on his laurels, even if he's not fully committed to embrace the turmoil of the present.

Its sturdy set should also prove a worthwhile find for those interested in offshoots of math rock, or a kind of controlled virtuosity suited for rainy-day instrument workouts.

The slower stuff often turns sticky--but the group wears their heart on the sleeve and, somehow, that tendency is more endearing as the Maddens turn into middle age warriors.

Ultimately, one of the things understood is that for an album of cover songs, the result still feels entirely personal and held dear when hearing the father and daughter pay tribute to their inspirations together.

Cistern doesn't play out like a sequel [to Composed], but fans of that album may well find themselves still drawn to the musician's particular spark.

Several shorter, fragmentary cuts provide glimpses of indescribable studio happenings that can't be replicated. Titles like "Copy of Crazy" and "The Monkey in the Machine" hint at the playful, slightly chaotic nature of these sessions.

Tthe way she's moved forward on this date, wedding her musical identities, makes for a striking if uneven listen and bodes well for future recordings.

Without clear-cut standouts, Operator is really a full-album listening experience. This may hinder casual fans--there's no "Bounce" or "Heartbreaker" here--but diehards and lovers of more challenging electronic music will appreciate the chaotic journey of Operator.

Collingwood does a good job here of separating Look Park from his work with Adam Schlesinger in a way that will likely bring along a lot of existing fans, and with material strong enough to make it hard to pick standouts.

Rhyton sound like they could easily play for hours on end and not get tired, and possibly not even come close to reaching their peak, but they rein in their impulses in order to keep things focused and explore more ideas in the album format, and it works pretty well.

The King of Whys is still more intimate than any of Kinsella's prior bands, like American Football or Owls, or even Joan of Arc. The album is otherwise not likely to stand out among Owen's catalog, but it's still an affecting and worthwhile effort from an artist who's as reliably tuneful as candid.

Descendents are playing punk rock for the same reasons they always did--they want to, and they need to--and the fact they can mature while sounding thoroughly like themselves makes Hypercaffium Spazzinate a welcome late-era addition to their catalog.

Despite the haunting narrative tied to the album, Viola Beach remains the sound of youth, hope, and possibility.

Boy King may be some of Wild Beast's most consistent and accessible music, but at a price: It comes dangerously close to predictable, something the band never would have been called before.

Argentinian punk rockers Los Enanitos Verdes close the album with a squalling "Traveling Band" that snarls, churns, and nearly goes off the rails. A couple of other selections are less inspiring, but the vast majority of Quiero Creedence makes for a truly fine and original tribute record.

The contrast between Khaled's all-positive demeanor and his facilitation of buccaneering misogyny is stark as ever here, most evident in tracks like "Work It" and "Pick These Hoes Apart."

Over There That Way doesn't seem like the obvious path Heliotropes could have taken after A Constant Sea, which is to its advantage, demonstrating Numsuwankijkul isn't just a one trick pony.

Overall, Blossoms is a strong debut that distills the best of the quintet's diverse influences into a catchy amalgam that opts to shoot for the mainstream rather than stick to the same old sound.

This scattershot feel makes Tween something mainly for die-hard Wye Oak fans who want a peek behind the curtain, or for anyone curious about how they managed to make the daring stylistic leap from Civilian to Shriek.

Those new to Autechre might be best off starting with their earlier material, and working their way up to this gradually--or else diving in headfirst here and preparing for a long, strange trip.

Though the album is somewhat uneven, it proves they've got the potential to give their vintage influences an inspired update.

It's rare that someone has an idea this good and unique in the first place, double rare when someone can keep going back to that same idea and find new ways to express it. In that regard, Sweatbox Dynasty is another oddball triumph for a one-of-a-kind artist.

Though Innocence Reaches is more than a bit disjointed, offering a mix of styles previously explored and newly absorbed, it's an up-tempo pleaser with songs that promise to be handpicked fan favorites--if with little consensus.

On No Hard Feelings, the South Side native adeptly mixes grit and gloss.

While there's certainly a sorrowful theme to this album, it doesn't seem like West is merely interested in creating dark, depressing music; there's still something hopeful and encouraging about it.

It's unapologetically slick with major pop aspirations, but the Arkells have shown that they can play to the masses while continuing to challenge and entertain themselves.

Health&Beauty sound like a group well into a long career here, an auspicious trait for what is essentially a debut.

The Family isn't a grand statement, but an intimate one. Despite the dark threads that run through it and bind it, this collection is as moving as it is harrowing, as tender as it is tenacious. It's an album Arthur had to make, and as such is completely redemptive.

Usually the album is quietly roiling, sometimes drifting toward the meditative (as on the otherwise profane "Tired as F***"), yet always circling back to fierce, searching spiritual rock.

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.

Not every album has to bash listeners over the head with wild ideas and massive sounds; sometimes it's enough to provide a warm hug or a tender word, and Boys Forever does a fine job providing both.

As a whole, Home Wrecking Years is worth a number of complete spins to let it decant and work its magic.

The lack of variation creates a series of lovely, sad, but blurry episodes in an extended work rather than strong individual tracks. That said, this is a marked return to form for the Pineapple Thief; it delivers back to fans a sound most have been missing for years.