Famous faces Drake, Future, Kid Cudi, Big Sean, Lil Baby, and Skepta also appear, but there's so much quality content to wade through on Slime Language 2 that their turns aren't even the most notable.

The set employs the unique, off-beat flow preferred by the Michigan underground, which Yachty adopts well enough on tracks like "Concrete Goonies" and "Final Form."

Fortitude is a fitting, welcome follow-up, and a brave new chapter in Gojira's continuing musical evolution as they weave old sounds with new ones in creating a sonic tapestry that showcases startling imagination, thought-provoking musical and human intelligence, complex emotions, and immense physical power.

Easily his most introspective project.

Shirushi is as promising and satisfying a debut as any North American group has presented in quite a while.

As a songbook, it's excellent, but it's equally effective as an album, as the trio harmonize and pick guitar with an emotional immediacy that gives The Marfa Tapes a warm, resonant immediacy.

There Is No End delivers more evidence of that. Taeger and Taurelle fully comprehended Allen's musicality and embraced its kaleidoscopic dimensions. As such, it is rendered free of the misdirected, sometimes jagged and piecemeal conceits that litter other artists' posthumous offerings.

The minimalism of Dodie's songs gracefully juxtaposes their sophistication, helping to illuminate the many revelatory pop moments that can be heard throughout Build a Problem.

Truly a band for the times, Squid feels like a wild jumble of thoughts come to life, effusing anger, confusion, humor, detachment, and even joyfulness in their pursuit of true creative freedom.

As always, his saving grace is his expert control of his voice and good musical taste, qualities that prevent Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 from being as sour as its creator.

Ultimately, this record is a triumph for the band, born out of strange times, and although it may not be their best, their blend of bitter and sweet still rings true.

Any of its retro origins are washed away by big, dumb sounds that keep the record grounded in the eternal now, an aesthetic choice that also helps the album be a rousing good time.

Based on the profundity of its content and the jagged beauty in its execution, Now belongs in the pantheon of culturally important works that include We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, Eddie Gale's Black Rhythm Happening, and Sun Ra's Nuclear War.

Hayashi's music can be hard to grasp at first, but it's clear that he's interested in channeling the spirit of all the music he loves while taking it to a different place, and listening to his music is a fun and mysterious experience.

Earth Man Blues stands out slightly from the several records that came before it, for both its abundance of hooks and its tendency to take the songs even further off the deep end. As with most GbV albums, it's a wonderfully bizarre and occasionally disarming ride through warped thoughts and cracked beauty.

Coral Island is the band at their best, effortlessly conjuring up the glorious ghosts of rock & roll's past and turning those sounds into something timeless and instantly rewarding at once.

There's also an unexpected flow to the album, with the more robust, high-energy tracks appearing earlier and the more subdued, introspective ones coming later; all of which beautifully reflects the ebb and flow of life. The Million Masks of God captures this flow, taking you on a theatrical journey that's often as moving and poignant as it is aurally engaging.

They are pop journeymen who can bid a fond farewell to one member as they look forward to where the music and the Endless Arcade will take them next.

Typhoons is designed as a late-night party record and if Homme occasionally pushes Royal Blood to lean in a bit too hard in this direction, the results are quite effective.

She Walks in Beauty is a loving testimony to the power and lasting vigor of the Romantic poets, and also a reminder of how lucky we are to have an artist as gifted as Marianne Faithfull giving us this remarkable tutorial.

Although there are fewer flat-out astonishing moments here than on the earlier LPs, numerous cuts elicit blues-shedding movement and seem unfadeable.

The lack of instrumental country accouterments heightens the album's stylized spaciness; it's not earthbound, it floats upon a breeze. Sometimes, Rosegold threatens to drift away yet it's never threadbare: it's a singular mood piece, one that suits a spell of twilight reflection.

While there might not be quite as many essential tracks here as on the other Switched On volumes, Electrically Possessed is a reminder that Stereolab were releasing so much good music that it was easy to take it for granted at the time, and it's well worth a listen for fans who may have missed or glossed over these songs when they were first released.

It's the work of two collaborative artists who are in the midst of a later-period renaissance that has spawned powerful, evocative music that speaks to its time without being confined to the crises that sparked its creation.

For anyone who hasn't explored the music Joe Strummer made after the Clash, Assembly works well as a compact introduction.

The style/substance balance is a difficult one to negotiate -- "Whip Cracker" transitions from upstart energy to Daft Punk-ery with minimal grace, while flecks of futuristic dance don't quite land on "I Don't See Colour" -- but for the large part, Owusu is a blessing to his genres, gifting them with his vivid personality and potent narrative threads.

This is entertaining from front to back, if not quite as much of a thrill as Waterhouse's previous studio LP.

Easily as good as the music that he released when it was recorded, Mutator is an enticing first dive into the Vega vault that will whet fans' appetites for more.

The few songs where Oldham and Sweeney strike up the band -- guest shredding and revved-up rhythms by Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar and his band on "Hall of Death" or the tense brooding of album closer "Not Fooling" -- are lively fun, but much like Superwolf many years before it, Superwolves is at its most powerful in its calmest, most clearly articulated moments.

Even at its most experimental, Vynehall's music radiates with energy and spirit, and Rare, Forever brims with a different type of excitement than his past work.

Mostly, Let the Bad Times Roll sounds like what it is: the work of middle-aged punk lifers who don't change their style, sound, or perspective.

Surrounded by Time is magnificent -- it's redolent with wisdom and a raging lust for life that is free of camp. It offers abundant proof that despite the passing of years, Jones has lost none his power or swagger.

Fire It Up showcases Cropper's joyous brand of grit & groove with swagger and attitude.

With 11 Past the Hour, May has crafted a generous, collaborative album that feels like she's lifting others up, just as they are lifting her.

Compared to Dekadrone, BN9Drone doesn't quite lift off, staying closer to the ground for its duration, and at 64 minutes (including a false ending), it simply goes on for roughly twice as long as it needs to. A shorter dose of it can be effective, however.

Full of smart nods to their pop inspirations, Field Music's Flat White Moon is a poetic and beautifully realized production.

Sweep It Into Space boasts some of the catchiest and most immediate songs Dinosaur Jr. has released since their reunion. There aren't many sharp turns or wild surprises, just a one-of-a-kind band doing what they do best.

Pale Horse Rider is lonely, lamenting, and distant but beautifully warm, marrying Hanson's love of psychedelic experimentation with a more cosmic take on country. It's more immediate than his sometimes-deranged earlier work, but never so straitlaced as to feel safe or predictable.

What might look and sound like merely another Stott album has the deepest well of emotion.

With this collection of poems, Lana Del Rey offers an alternate view of the sun-dazzled California dreaming that fuels her songs. Her spoken word pieces reveal a more immediate lyrical sophistication, but they maintain the strange and powerful magic Del Rey has been cultivating her entire career.

Californian Soil is a standout in London Grammar's catalog and a significant step forward in the trio's artistic maturation.

More transformative than dour, Head of Roses is a journey toward healing and marks another strong entry in Flock of Dimes' growing catalog of work.

Swift largely re-creates the arrangements and feel of the original 2008 album, yet her voice and phrasing has aged, giving the music a hint of bittersweet gravity. That said, it's only a hint; Fearless (Taylor's Version) serves the purpose of offering new versions that could be substituted for the originals for licensing purposes. It's to Swift's credit that the album is an absorbing (if long) listen anyway.

Haunting and expertly crafted, Playground in a Lake takes its place alongside Bibio's Phantom Brickworks and Loscil's Monument Builders as a beautifully destroyed sonic environment that provokes a powerful emotional response.

If In Another World doesn't quite feel like a classic Cheap Trick, blame that on the group's dogged adherence to their old blueprint; they follow it so closely that they don't allow room for adventure, mistake, or fashion. Maybe that means the album doesn't quite seem fresh, but it does hit its marks in a reliable, satisfying manner.

Technical precision and introspective lyrics mark this album as their most rap-centric project thus far, inspiring both concentrated head-nodding and the thrill of the rush as each emcee's verse impeccably weaves from one to another.

The pair find comfort within each other, yet they cannot shake the yearning for other people and places, a complex set of emotions that were quite universal during 2020 and 2021 and are richly conveyed on this soulful, searching album.

Lovato's frankness is disarming, forcing a listener to reckon with the depths of the singer's distinction, yet the album works best when it veers toward lighter territory, letting the slick R&B rhythms and sugared hooks carry Lovato's emoting.

Clamm's storm of cathartic energy disguises how intricately constructed the songs are and makes Beseech Me both exhilarating and engaging.

More Geddy Lee than Robert Plant, Josh Kiszka commands attention then alienates; his wail is the weak link in a group who is getting better at their period-accurate cosplay.

Made Out of Sound is their third studio album together, following 2018's acclaimed Brace Up!, and it's their most refined collaboration to date.

A few of the first names that come to mind with this sort of thing aren't here. Whether due to familiarity, licensing restrictions, budgeting, or taste, the exclusions are of no consequence given the depth and range of what's on offer.

While '70s and early-'80s pop informs all of Music, there's still something contemporary and deeply sincere in Benny Sings' songs. He's a quirky indie rocker drawing upon his vinyl heroes for inspiration and reassurance.

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE make willfully unorthodox music and seem to dare listeners to keep up with them and make sense of their art, but those who make the effort are rewarded by the band's unbridled creativity and warped yet radiant sense of optimism and excitement.

Holley's observations are as powerful and poetic as ever, and White and his band simply sound out of this world, making Broken Mirror a spirited, magnificent collaboration.

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.

The soft focus of Under the Pepper Tree is alluring, even soothing -- a record that could calm the nerves of frazzled parents as they put their child to sleep at the end of a long day.

Plugs 2 is a typically intense, lyric-heavy offering from the skilled emcee. Combined with Fraud's nostalgic, sample-filled backing, the short set feels like a time machine to the golden age, only updated for the 2020s with crisp and impeccable production.

Each one is more exploratory and/or less commercial than any of its counterparts. This is evidenced most strongly by the bleak post-punk electronics of Perfect Mother, whose "Dark Disco -- Da-Da-Da-Da-Run" convulses like an outgrowth of Throbbing Gristle or Cabaret Voltaire (and was previously excavated by the Minimal Wave label). Starker still and more alien is an alternately thudding and twinkling cut from R.N.A.-Organism.

La Femme's passion for seeking out new (or vintage) sounds to add to their omnivorous pop is contagious, and never more so than on Paradigmes.

While Homecoming is missing some of the eccentricity and intimacy that made Lung Bread for Daddy so powerful, its frankness and playfulness proves Du Blonde can give her music a pop makeover without losing what makes it real.

Gomez has grown significantly as a performer since her early Disney years and Revelación further underlines that transformation.

Walker may tip his hat to Chicago's experimental underground or prog behemoths like Genesis, but with this release, he's very much his own man.

They know exactly what they're doing, and the risks they take result in a debut album that brings a fresh energy to post-punk that's equally challenging and rewarding.

Many of the EP's six songs began as ideas while the band was recording The Main Thing, but instead of the crisp production and defined hooks of that album, Half a Human harkens back to the hazy dreaminess of the band's earliest days.

If the final track is an act of public mourning, the rest of J.T. is the loving and appreciative celebration Justin Townes Earle's music deserves.

Just as it seems like it's about to spin out of control, the band regain focus and add strings that shift it closer to a vaguely country-ish lament, then end the suite with the sounds of distant explosions. ... On the second suite, wayward drums and haunting strings tumble like a ship rocking from side to side, then the group locks into a steady, churning rhythm, slowly getting heavier and hotter until it all seems engulfed in smoke.

With Kids, Erez makes a significant leap forward from Off the Radar. Though she still sounds like an outsider, the skill she displays on these songs suggest she shouldn't be one for long.

Altogether, The Bitter Truth carries listeners on a journey both familiar and fresh, recapturing the heavy-yet-melodic hallmarks that made Fallen one of the most successful albums of the 2000s and pushing Evanescence into the future with a graceful maturity and worldly perspective.

Embodying hard times as well as the way friends lift each other out of them, Oh No also exemplifies the drama, mystery, and deeply felt emotions that have made Xiu Xiu a vital musical force for decades.

Is 4 Lovers one of Death from Above 1979's most balanced and stylistically engaging albums.

More soothing and fulfilling than thrilling, Deacon revolves around the idea that love doesn't have to be a burden. It's a realization that serpentwithfeet transforms into a beautiful, fully realized work of art for his audience to savor.

The trip is well worth completing despite Sanders' early exit.

This is more modest than monumental, and that small scale is appealing in its own right.

While Rose's music certainly has indie crossover appeal, in the grand tradition of classic country, How Many Times is a relatable pick-me-up for those who may be feeling down.

tUnE-yArDs haven't sounded this infectious since Nikki Nack, and Sketchy. captures the inflection point where frustration becomes positive action in funky, happy, angry, and inspiring ways.

The upshot is that Justice is one of Bieber's steadiest releases, among the easiest to play from start to finish. The only overdone aspect is the low self-esteem and unworthiness the lyrics either suggest or flatly express in almost every song.

The final two tracks are a well-deserved comedown from a truly thrilling, energetic sequence.

On the whole, Green to Gold reshapes the Antlers' once somber and brooding chamber pop into something bright and smiling. The songs strip away the sharpness and volatility the band reveled in on earlier albums to reveal a pleasant glow that was all too often hidden in the shadows.

Collected, the songs are simultaneously familiar and surprising -- a blend that always was among the chief attractions in Cornell's work -- and while there are echoes of the original recordings here, he shapes each tune to fit his voice and contemplative bent. The inherent power in Cornell's voice can still be heard, but what lasts is the passion and intelligence, emotions that make this a bracing if bittersweet experience.

Notes with Attachments is a strange record, but it is also welcoming thanks to an unhurried pace, colorful yet economical production, and restrained dynamics, all carried by the canny, warmly humorous musical instincts of its creators.

Fun, wild, and addictive, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy builds upon 2016's already-impressive Electric Warlock and winds up being one of Zombie's best.

While the materialism and egocentrism in some of the tracks no doubt clash with the film, matters such as survival, self-defense, and power are more frequently raised. Critiques of issues related to white supremacy, from police brutality to voter suppression, aren't far behind.

The album's 17 tracks address subject matter including breakups, grief, and struggles with mental health with a mix of pop, R&B, and alternative stylings and song titles like "Good in Goodbye," "Sour Times," and "Stay Numb and Carry On.

What's striking about the compilation is how a roster as diverse as Eric Clapton, Shaggy, Mary J. Blige, Annie Lennox, Herbie Hancock, Sam Moore, and Julio Iglesias doesn't sound especially eclectic; when the common denominator is Sting, all the guests adapt to his particular ways.

Consistency is a virtue in this case: maybe Starr does little more than deliver what he promises, but he does deliver, and that reliability is a comfort in times of uncertainty.

More rankled moments include the circular anthem "I Don't Care" ("I gotta do what I want to"), but these are outweighed by hard-won gratitude and affection on a set that above all delivers on big hooks.

Great Spans of Muddy Time makes for an immersive, profound experience that will reward repeat listens.

It can all be a bit much at times, but this all-in approach to creativity has been VanGaalen's M.O. from the start and his talent remains something to behold.

With Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Del Rey shows her softest moments can be her most powerful.

As a whole, Freedom Fables is a beautifully integrated, physical approach to song and narrative; it's a musical adventure as substantive structurally as it is enjoyable viscerally.

A standout among her already impressive catalog, The Moon and Stars is utterly beguiling with a luster that only deepens with repeated spins.

It's hard to tell what Smerz are going for on this perplexing mess of an album, but there's clearly a lot of potential to their ambitious fusion of modern classical, R&B, and experimental club styles -- they just haven't made their vision clear yet.

Road to the Sun showcases Metheny's developed musical hallmarks in compelling new and bravely wrought compositions, expertly performed by kindred spirits and modern masters.

77-81 is a brilliant testament to their visionary impact and lasting importance.

If the format doesn't seem as fresh as it did back in 2016, when Full Circle was the first record released from the sessions, that's only due to it being the fourth in a series of albums. On its own merits, Still Woman Enough is strong and vibrant, a testament to Lynn's enduring gifts and place in the firmament of 20th century country music.

There's never a sense that Lake Street Dive are preaching with heavy hands, and cuts like the bluesy "Hush Money" and the lyrical "Nobody's Stopping You Now" have a universally relatable feeling. That they also evoke the classic album-oriented work of artists like Fleetwood Mac and Carly Simon speaks to Lake Street Dive's ever-deepening sense of songcraft.

If The Pet Parade doesn't break new ground, it does offer comfort and compassion wrapped in a honeyed, effortless indie folk that honors the project's now-long tenure.