Throughout BITE ME, Rapp serves up plenty of wry pop charisma, which is more than enough to sink your teeth into.

If Not Winter is the work of an artist who thinks and dreams big, and it secures Wisp's place as one of the acts defining the sound of shoegaze in the 2020s.

These recordings are not just charming, but along with the other studio out-takes, portray a young artist who’s excited about an opportunity to realize his songs to their highest potential, and motivated to do some homework in preparation. Famously, Drake’s music was gloriously, beautifully sad, but The Making of Five Leaves Left helps show that the experience of creating it was a thing of great joy.

Like so much of Hanson's music, these songs come on strong from one direction while hiding deeper peculiarities and weirdnesses below the surface.

Digging its claws in after repeated listens, the result is a more nourishing experience that could have longer legs as time goes on.

This may be somewhat of a disappointment for expecting more from the vault: regardless of how good these selections may be, there's only seven remixes and just one demo of a "new" song that wasn't on the original Ray of Light. For more forgiving fans, however, this release offers a fascinating peek into the era, providing more intense, trance-y forays for some much beloved tracks.

Night Moves still know how to spark your emotions, and cuts like the opening "Trying to Steal a Smile" and "Almost Perfect," as with all Double Life, have a bittersweet romanticism about them that pairs nicely with the band's clubby, strut-ready attitude.

Tere are precious few singer/songwriters with Patty Griffin's level of craft, empathy, and wisdom, and nearly every album she gives us is a gift. That's absolutely the case with Crown of Roses, and it demands to be heard.

Going Down To The River … To Blow My Mind works well enough that one hopes they'll change their minds about this being the end of their trilogy.

With Find El Dorado, Weller celebrates the passion for finding a good tune and the feeling of having discovered a lost treasure when you do.

All told, Precipice is enjoyably hooky, but taking the edge off of her sound and, ultimately, songs doesn't do their emotional weight any favors, even if -- or rather because -- it makes them go down easier.

While the group's sound is timeless, their lyrics are often distinctly modern.

50 years later, these demented rock & roll outsiders pick right back up as if no time had passed at all, and they have a blast doing it.

Whatever was involved, the sound of the cello is ravishing. Listeners interested in microtones and their possibilities in a close-up focused environment are advised to hear Blue Veil.

Adventure is another chapter in what has become an improbably delightful late-career renaissance for these pioneering underground heroes.

The First Family: Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967 offers a fascinating and exciting glimpse of them in their embryonic stage.

Admittedly, all of Yungblud's sonic borrowing can get a bit maddening. Nonetheless, you feel his passion, and the album takes on layers of meta-self-reflection, as if he's trying to work through his influences as a way to suss out his own musical identity and legacy.

Different Rooms is a nebulous haze of semi-familiar melodies and half-heard voices, forming an abstract dreamscape.

Gathering around the fire, joining together for a cèilidh, meeting the solstice, and honoring the mythical fellowship of fairies and giants -- each of these themes are present on this stirring and sometimes radiant collection.

Simply put, the wonderfully accessible, soulful and bracing Tuff Times Never Last is the summer soundtrack of 2025.

Here, the duo still sounds like the mortal threat they represented in younger days, but integrates refinement, spirituality, and reflection on hard-learned lessons under that lens, communicating from a place of wisdom without losing any of their time-tested fury.

Personal History is a triumph, offering an unguarded look into her heart and her soul.

Gina Birch has always been a brave and clear-minded voice as a writer, musician, and artist, and Trouble leaves no doubt that she's rabble-rousing for the right reasons, and making compelling music at the same time.

Some of the ideas on The Fateful Symmetry seem a bit mismatched, and not all of the songs really work, but it does have its poignant moments.

Throughout, Winter's elfin yet confident vocals add a touch of vulnerability to a set of "over it" songs.

Loner is an easy improvement over Barry Can't Swim's debut album, and he retains his ability to craft reflective, sentimental material while strengthening his skills at making airtight tracks designed to ignite the dancefloor.

This is artistic progression and while some might miss the old, more fun version of Gwenno, the more mature and serious version isn't half bad.

Moisturizer is more confident, and more revealing, than Wet Leg's debut. These are love songs for people who don’t want to fall in love, made by a band that sounds more comfortable in its skin than ever.

Despite the weight of its materials and themes, Metallic Life Review often feels lighter and more delicate than some of Matmos’ previous work. Nevertheless, casting their lives in bronze, aluminum, nickel, and steel lends a personal dimension to their music that's especially appealing.

While HAIM's songwriting is more prominent here than it was on Something to Tell You, it shares that album's emphasis on vibe, and though detours like "Spinning"'s pastel '80s R&B are entertaining, other songs get lost in the shuffle.

Five albums into an already sterling career, Tempest has made no real missteps, keeping his catalog consistently interesting, emotionally engaging, and, above all, incisive.

. isn't just a good album, it's a decisively great one, full stop.

Like some of his other albums, though, Landscape from Memory runs a little too long, with a few of the slower, less exciting tracks seeming unnecessary. That's not to say that it all sounds samey or lacks inspiration, however, and the record's best tracks are exceptional.

A more challenging work than RPG, This Material Moment is distinctive, deeply felt music from an artist committed to discovering new ways of looking at -- and listening to -- the world.

The ten-song set bristles with potency and urgency, especially on the high-octane singles "By a Monster's Hand" and "In the Barn of the Goat Giving Birth to Satan's Spawn in a Dying World of Doom."

It’s that excitement and the sincerity of Wauters’ creative mission that gives MVD LUV its inherent sweetness and makes it more than just another album of happy-go-lucky folk-pop numbers.

Overall, American Heart is pleasant, but lacks some of the rock'n'roll kick and glitz that Boone's stage flipping antics imply; a momentary rush of moonbeam ice cream that leaves a sweet aftertaste, but not much else.

Nothing is overly ornate. For the most part, it's a lowrider delight, all the way down to the weeping "Rust and Steel," where Jones compares the end of a relationship to a vehicular breakdown.

Albums by crossover stars like Rae are often dubious affairs, less than inspired productions that can feel like an attempt to package someone to fit a preconceived image, rather than showcase actual talent. Thankfully, she impressively side-steps any such pitfalls.

Overall, Princess of Power is yet another sleek, solid set from the reliable pop star.

2025's Walk This Road, however, bridges these two eras of the Doobie Brothers, with core members Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons, and John McFee joined in the studio by Michael McDonald, and the result is album that honors the band's rocking spirit while making room for McDonald's soul-satisfying vocal style.

A Sober Conversation is that rarity, a top-shelf pop album that also has something important to tell us.

While there's more obvious contrast between Streisand's voice and the gruff Bob Dylan on the standard "The Very Thought of You," there's a warm sweetness and even a little thrill to hearing the two musical titans come together.

Tracks II: The Lost Albums never sounds like a box full of also-ran material – in fact, several of these LPs are decidedly superior to most of his work of the 2000s and 2010s – and makes the case that Bruce Springsteen is a more eclectic and ambitious artist than he sometimes lets on.

On Virgin, she is transcendentally witchy, harmonizing with herself both literally and spiritually, a pop star in the throes of creative rebirth.

A tight 17-track, 38-minute album that should be welcomed by all fans but especially by millennials (and elder zoomers) aging alongside the beloved songwriter.

If you've been wanting to hear a band make a bunch of fractured noise and love every moment of it, UNIVERSITY is here for you and McCartney, It'll Be OK is their gift to the noise lovers of the world.

Oar On, Penelope! is the sort of spontaneously joyous record that reminds us it's a great thing he's still with us and making music. He more than gets by with a little help from his friends.

Do It Afraid is another impelling triumph from a thriving musical dynamo.

It's a throwback vibe, evoking the flannel-laden days of '90s underground pop guitar groups like Dinosaur Jr., Sloan, and Teenage Fanclub; unabashed touchstones for Anderson whose work on Raspberry Moon believably lives up to the comparisons.

Carner and his band create a warm, comforting sound on hopefully !, reflecting on life's trials but ultimately remaining confident and ready for the future.

Upon deeper listening, however, it becomes clear that some of the album's most overpowering moments are those that first come on as slight and retiring but reveal their anger, disappointment, and frustration by way of a slow, steady boil.

With American Romance, Nelson tunes into feelings of expectancy, newness, and a nervous uncertainty that's endearing.

Desert Window is her first full-length, and it's a more fleshed-out expansion of her sound, incorporating more acoustic instrumentation as well as more complex choral harmonies.

Despite a few drastically darker moments, the majority of Luminal feels familiar and comforting.

Cyrus' restless creativity and expert craft is a formidable combination, and at its best, Something Beautiful has a fearlessness and sensuality that could be the beginning of something exciting for her music.

Essentially, it's not that far off from The Glowing Man, which means that it's familiar territory for anyone who has spent time with the band's albums or experienced their concerts, but it's still an incredibly powerful record.

It's much more daunting to continue making records that forge a new creative path or write songs that explore new territory. Strawberries does both of those things and proves that Robert Forster is no nostalgia act -- he's still creating records as intense, meaningful, and dangerous as anything he's done in the past.

The magic is sadly absent from this overly-upholstered, clumsily ornate, and intensely disappointing return trip into the realm of boogie rock.

About Ghosts offers more proof that Halvorson's Amaryllis are among the most inventive, articulate, and creatively forward-thinking ensembles playing jazz right now.

Together, they dig even deeper into the woozy funk rhythms and fuzz-tone electric guitar psychedelia of the band's '70s recordings. It's a vibe they bring to full fruition on "Queenless King," a kinetic, Afro-beat-infused anthem that sounds like it is pumping out of the speakers of a vintage 1970s van.

Talkin To The Trees is another album of Neil Young doing what he felt like doing in the moment, and if it's flawed, after sixty years of record making, no one with any sense would want him any other way.

Morrison's been rambling in strange territory for the last five years, but this is proof that the restless wandering spirit didn't forget his Muse, or who he is.

Echo delivers on the promise of Happy, surpassing that debut with improved production, more daring choices, and impossible-to-resist choruses.

I'm the Problem sees Morgan Wallen deliver another sprawling double-LP.

Lil Wayne exhibits glimpses of the brazen genius of his earlier self intermittently on Tha Carter VI, but the album feels like a battle between those moments of greatness and the rest of his weird swings and inadvisable choices.

It's another quiet gem from an artist in the full bloom of his talents.

The piece is essentially a longform space lullaby, and it's as soothing and tranquil as one could imagine.

While relentlessly hooky and cathartic in addition to noisy, the album is submerged in a lo-fi murk deemed imperative by the songs themselves. In other words, after hearing it, it’s hard to imagine or want this album any other way -- and that’s a sign of something special.

The only thing holding Happy Birthday back from being classic is its brevity and maybe lack of ambition; other than that, the quality of the songs, the impact of the vocals, the excellent production, and his ability to reference the past without aping it combine to make it a superb start for a promising solo career.

On Lotus, the exceptionally gifted rapper is more vulnerable than ever, yet this only pushes her to be at her most self-empowering.

More is classic Pulp, aged to near perfection.

Bookended by the rousing title track and radiant "Magic Man," it's a success from start to finish, offering a deft blend of surprise and satisfaction.

"While My Machines Gently Weep" brings to mind the trippy, shoegaze-influenced techno of Daniel Avery, while others are closer to the stark, dub-informed tracks by Surgeon and the Sandwell District collective. "Roseville" is percolating electro-techno with snapping beats, and "Hazel" is akin to a bullet-train head rush.

Ready for Heaven is easily her best record to date; it brings all her talents together in one shimmering, emotionally charged, and musically impressive package.

Black Hole Superette is yet another successful Aesop Rock record which artfully details and comments on the remarkable aspects of everyday life.

Let All That We Imagine Be the Light is another fantastic 2020s offering from this masterful quartet, further solidifying their place as alt-rock royalty.

It's definitely a milestone and a career highlight, as well as a release that anyone who likes real live, breathing and bleeding rock & roll should be glad exists.

2 has come off as just a bit too haphazard and like editing practice to be fully immersive; but its bittersweetness and unusual, playful spontaneity are, like Shauf, not with their charms.

With membership that includes guitarists, string players, multiple percussionists, instrumentalist-vocalists, a woodwindist, and a brass specialist. their sophomore album, caroline 2, is at least as intoxicating as previous releases. Paradoxically exciting and narcotic at the same time.

In some ways, Evangelic Girl Is a Gun doesn't feel quite as personal as yeule's previous albums -- the lyrics don't always delve into specific subjects such as dissatisfaction with their own body -- and its sound feels a bit more comfortably retro compared to the dystopian future shock of the previous two albums. That said, it's easily some of their most accessible work, and one of the most potent distillations of their chaotic yet introspective songwriting style.

A deceptively artful examination of, and expression of, depression.

Even as Low’s sound twisted into new forms over the years, they never quite got into bluegrass territory, and it takes a few songs to acclimate to the combination of high-spirited acoustic music and Sparhawk’s emotionally powerful but usually subtle style.

Berninger's incisive turns of phrase and refusal to isolate the bitter and sweet are the governing forces throughout the record, even on songs like the jaunty "Junk," a defeated love song that imagines flowers sprouting through his own grave in Indiana.

Sincerely is best experienced from front to back. After the first seven songs lightly splash and bob while Uchis sings of gratitude, devotion, and self-doubt, song eight, "Fall Apart," delivers a knockout blow of heavy psychedelic soul.

Capturing the inspiring spark in bygone visions of what the future could be is one of Stereolab's greatest strengths, and the brilliant ways they do this on Instant Holograms on Metal Film don't just live up to their legacy -- they push it forward.

It may not be as consistent as some of their other albums, but there's still quite a bit of Sparks' witty tale-spinning for fans to enjoy.

Room on the Porch is a beautifully produced, modern, deep blues and roots album drenched in an all-inclusive Americana, generosity, and good vibes.

Ken Carson makes music to be overpowered by and to lose oneself in its sheer magnitude, and More Chaos accomplishes that once again.

Fans of contemporary punk upstarts like Lambrini Girls, Turnstile, Amyl and the Sniffers, and the Linda Lindas should find plenty to love on Are We All Angels, a refreshing dose of no-frills, youthful punk energy.

Everything Must Go pushes the group's creative boundaries while maintaining the relatable songcraft and inclusive vibes that have helped build Goose a loyal fan base.

Full of memorably wistful melodies as well as potentially relatable struggles, Hers feels like an instant classic, if one that's also outside of time.

["The Moon Explodes" is] a perfect example of the witty resilience that makes Metalhorse inspiring and often brilliant.

As on Sketchy.'s finest tracks, Brenner and Garbus deliver emotionally direct, musically cohesive songs that don't sacrifice any of their time-tested creativity or intellect.

It's a major work composed of gritty beauty, intention, realization, and hope; it belongs on the shelf next to albums by Virginia Astley, Marianne Faithfull, and Patti Smith.

Throughout Animaru, Semones and her band play with dynamics, dramatic pauses, chord voicings, harmonics, and a steady stream of surprises -- the closer is a waltz -- resulting in a memorable debut that's much more likely to delight than challenge.

A resounding return, The World Is Still Here and So Are We suggests the planet is that much better with Mclusky back on it

Pink Elephant feels like an album Arcade Fire "had to" make, one that addresses a very public period of the band's history without getting too deep (or deep enough at all) into the matter, like they just want everyone to forget about it and move on to the inevitable next album cycle.