As unconventional as it is relaxing, Zebra is perhaps Arp's most inviting sound-world yet.

No Sounds ends up seeming a bit scattered, even by the Orb's standards, but it's still plenty enjoyable, and enough to distract you from the nightmarish absurdity of current events.

Sorpresa Familia is a portrait of a band that's grown stronger musically and personally in the face of hardship, and the wisdom and freedom Mourn display on these songs is the best revenge they could get.

As inward-looking as her particular brand of overcast indie rock can be, she possesses a relatability and a knack for crafting delicious earworms that render even the most painful admission or rumination a small joy to ingest, evoking the wry vulnerability of Phoebe Bridgers and the hooky pop acumen of Lucy Dacus.

Some tracks don't fully conclude so much as abruptly end, adding to the dis-ease and resulting in an album that is as compelling to feel as it is to listen to.

Bon Voyage shows that Melody's Echo Chamber is far from being just a Kevin Parker creation. Prochet's vision is her own, and it's strong enough here to fly free of any and all constraints.

There are not a lot of bands who do what Protomartyr does, and even if there were, the skill and fury of their music would still set them apart, and Consolation is a brief but potent reminder that they're a force to be reckoned with.

Whether it's the dawning of a new age of retro-looking records or a one-off blast from the past, Kicker is a welcome return and a raucous homecoming for a once great band that still has something left in the tank.

Like Stateless, New Bodies is vibrant and refreshing, brimming with ideas but never seeming overwrought, and challenging without being too esoteric or off-putting.

Girls Names do a very good job of keeping the drama, intensity, and twisted emotion in place while taking the music into darker, odder realms. It's pretty far from the poppy place the band started at, but their journey remains one that is very much worth following.

While it's unlikely that Bird Dog Dante will win him many new fans, its curious, intimate, casual approach will certainly appeal to those who have embraced Parish's earlier--and no less idiosyncratic--recordings.

Chaney's robust voice commands the room, deftly weaving between the intersecting lanes of vulnerability and raw power with remarkable poise, especially on standout cuts like "Dragonfly," "Roman Holiday," and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," the latter of which uses the "cockles and mussels alive, alive oh" refrain from the traditional Irish ballad "Molly Malone" to devastating effect.

With the fountain of material springing out of Newcombe's Berlin studio in the first part of the 2010s, the quality level has been rather hit or miss, but Something Else is a solid effort and somewhat of a return to form for the veteran band.

They haven't quite arrived on a focused, cohesive sound yet. They certainly have something to say about the state of London nightlife, however, and it's worth paying attention to their insightful observations.

Like Going Back Home before it, As Long as I Have You benefits from Daltrey's diminished range, as it adds gravity and grit to his interpretation. This album also benefits from its tight backing band, which is graced with a swinging horn section but distinguished by Townshend playing a secondary, sympathetic role to Daltrey, helping to give this muscular, occasionally moving record an air of grace.

The result is an impressive step forward, an album that finds Natalie Prass straddling the border between the future and the past, just as she promised.

Childqueen is a substantial accomplishment for Bonet, a cut above her debut, exceptional for 2018 or whatever year in which it takes place.

Kids See Ghosts is everything Ye wasn't, delivering a worthwhile listen in spite of the extended PR disaster that preceded its release. With Cudi as the yang to West's yin, the pair inch closer to finding peace and a light in the darkness.

Ye can feel uneven, sometimes boring, and more indulgent than usual, but it's a fascinating peek into West's psyche.

The truth is this sounds less like a 50/50 collaboration than a Joseph Arthur album with Peter Buck pitching in. Which is not at all bad, of course; as usual, Arthur's lyrics are bold, clever, and incisive, his vocals are passionate and reveal just the right amount of drama, and the melodies are strong, with Buck adding an extra spoonful of melodic bounce.

No Shame isn't a soundtrack to party. It's music for reflection, and coming from an artist who made snark her specialty, that's a step forward.

While Post Traumatic takes an emotional toll, it ultimately instills feelings of hope and the idea that things can get better. For Shinoda, Linkin Park, and their devoted followers, it's an effective group therapy session.

Certainly few, if any, bands of the era made an album as consistently great as Hope Downs. Not many in Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's era have, either. It's a small-scale triumph of hooks and guitars from a band whose members have figured it all out and delivered a debut album that comes as close to perfect as any guitar pop album can.

The greater flaw of Liberation is how its blend of R&B reflection and tense testifying doesn't seem to be an easy fit on any format in 2018. This weakness is also a strength, as it shows that Aguilera didn't take an easy route with Liberation: she instead found a hybrid between the personal and commercial, which makes the record resonate emotionally no matter what success it may or may not have.

At first glance, it's easy to underestimate Culture Abuse for the part-time slackers they present themselves to be, but there's a lot more to them than meets the eye on this satisfying second effort.

Both acts mesh perfectly with each other, and Mental Wounds Not Healing is a brilliant, seamless collaboration.

Carla Bozulich is a vital and fearless artist, and Quieter demonstrates that her muse can adapt to whatever fate throws her; this is fascinating music that merits your attention.

While not as immediately appealing as his prior releases, Nothing Is Still is clearly designed to be appreciated through multiple listens, and it's ultimately a work of considerable depth and feeling.

On Nightstand, she almost splits the difference, softening her tone but not abandoning the crunchy effervescence of prior albums.

Their sonic restlessness never falls off track into musical excess, but instead allows keen articulation of the plethora of identities found in non-Anglo culture, and denotes the places they intersect. Besides, you can dance your ass off while absorbing its coded messages. Bravo.

The Dock of the Bay Sessions is hardly essential for loyal Otis Redding fans, but as a compact summation of his final recordings, it's a fine collection that flows with the coherence of a "real" LP, and if you're looking for an album with "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," this is a good way to go.

An especially poignant return for Waterson, who endured a harrowing illness that left her in a coma after their last release as a duo, Anchor is a powerful performance arriving late in her career and is a testament to both her strength of will and creative voice. ... For her part, Eliza nearly matches her mother's earthen elegance as a singer while turning in some of the most natural and sympathetic fiddle work of her care.

Mien's experiments are sometimes a little too formless, but the album's standouts prove they weren't keeping all their best ideas for their main bands.

Acutely personal--almost to the point of discomfort--and exceedingly fragile, Seedlings All somehow manages to remain resilient, which is a tough balance to pull off.

With What Heaven Is Like, Wussy have made it clear they're not giving up their status as one of America's greatest indie bands just yet, and this is another dark but compelling album that deserves your attention.

It's an aural lava lamp, kicking up slow-bursting explosions of texture and sound.

Kanye West grants taut, grimace-inducing beats, assisted infrequently by Mike Dean and Andrew Dawson, enabling Pusha to pack each one of the seven tracks with characteristically trenchant and terse rhymes. The lyrical focus is similarly laser-sharp.

If Tomorrow's Daughter isn't a great Matthew Sweet album, it's most certainly a good one, featuring a batch of strong songs played with genuine skill and commitment by one of the most distinctive artists in contemporary power pop. If you liked Tomorrow Forever, you'll enjoy the sequel, and even if you missed the first installment, this is well worth a spin for pop obsessives.

The resulting Violet Psalms is more measured, but no less distinctive (and destructive) than previous outings, delivering all of the architectural twists and turns, fragmented rhythms, and surreal narratives that have come to define the group over the years.

A musical getaway, Rebound finds Friedberger freed from expectations, and with a spring in her music's step that hasn't been heard in some time.

While in some ways Testing is more musical than anything we've heard from A$AP Rocky before, it's also more confused, with ideas and musical shifts colliding at times to the point of randomness.

Equally soothing and exciting, heartfelt and innovative, Ecstatic Arrow is Virginia Wing's finest work yet.

Every track on this album is densely constructed, colorful, and unpredictable, and while it may seem lighthearted at first, it manages to cover a wide range of emotions. One of the most inventive debut albums of 2018, for sure.

Shannon in Nashville demonstrates she's capable of more than she's shown us in the past, and this is an experiment that succeeds with flying colors.

Soil captures a passionate, complex artist coming into his own.

The epic length of Our Raw Heart requires patience. While it unfolds slowly, the reward is big. It's shot through with musical invention and a clarity that makes it the new high-water mark in this trio's oeuvre.

On Prequelle, Ghost deliver fully on the promises of earlier records. Their strengths--including one for imitation--are fully assembled and focused in an exercise of irresistible arena rock excess without sounding like a pastiche.

Li's defeat and grief are palpable, yet she delivers with such grace and control, which offers a glimmer of hope for the fellow romantically downtrodden. With production to match, so sad so sexy succeeds in providing a relatable therapy session for love's final gasps.

Flasher appear to have arrived fully formed, with a deeply satisfying debut that's both coherent and imaginative.

Collectively, the songs play like movements of a single work, making for a consistent set of low-light, David Lynch-ian ambience.

Without Tinsley nor the late LeRoi Moore, Dave Matthews Band doesn't seem as loopy or rangy as it did in its prime, yet this leaner sound suits a middle-aged Matthews who is comfortable in his skin yet restless in his mind.

The Alligator Bride is louder and prouder than Mansion Songs, but it's also somehow more relaxed, as if there is nothing to prove. Hopefully, Miller will keep this rocking line-up together for the foreseeable future.

It's an impressive formula for a debut, and one that succeeds whether listeners are tuning in more for the soundscape or more for the sentiment.

With Hell-On, Case has once again given herself an ideal showcase for her talents as a vocalist, songwriter, and producer; it's lush but intimate, and one of the strongest and most satisfying records she's delivered to date. Which, given her catalog, says a great deal.

The EP is classic Mazzy Star, showing none of the ravages of time one might expect and still making beautiful music that weaves a spell that's hard to break.

It doubles down on his distinctively mellow, '60s- and '70s-vintage sound. This time around, after demoing the songs with a four-track tape machine, he borrowed an eight-track reel-to-reel recorder to capture the official takes with his band.

The extensively detailed liner notes feature interviews with the musicians as well as plenty of gorgeous photos, but the music itself is the main attraction, and it all sounds uniformly incredible.

To dive into Whale City is to immerse yourself in the stranger side of rock & roll, but it's worth losing your mind over.

It's not difficult to call an album as multi-layered and fascinating as Age Of a landmark work.

Noonday Dream can feel ephemeral at times, but never is it unpleasant, even when it's fishing for emotional truth in unstable waters. Introspection rarely feels this inclusive.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/gods-favorite-customer-mw0003172246

Despite these two tracks ["Psy-Fi/Fantasy" and "Forever Jung"] and the presence of electronics, 1984 is memorable for its folky, Scout Finch-like recollections that mix the playful, unfortunate, and innocent.

Vibras is more consistent and varied than Energia. Its songwriting, performances, and production are truly inspired, making for an utterly compelling listen and one of the essential soundtracks of summer.

A really good album; one that shows Rault reshaping his sound and sounding even better than before.

Not everyone who digs Donovan's more rock-oriented projects will connect completely with How to Get Your Record Played in Shops, but if you want to experience his musical vision in primal form, this merits your time and attention.

Emotionally effective but quite different from anything he's done prior, it's an endearing, rewarding peek into Davis' interests outside of his day job.

While challenging, the album seems to symbolize a struggle to achieve balance and harmony, and the results are frequently exciting.

It's truly a team effort and the result is a heartbreakingly emotional record that sounds great and has tunes that will leave the listener humming long after the final melancholy notes fade.

The most impressive thing about Love is Dead might be that as big as its sound gets, Chvrches never lose touch with the humanity that's at the core of their music.

Argonauta is, by the nature of its inspiration, a brooding work, but it's also a comfort, providing a place to sit amongst warm tones, elegant harmonies, and pensive understanding.

Stylish and yearning, Love Yourself: Tear is BTS at a polished and focused peak, cohesive enough to feel like it was conceived in one particular period rather than cobbled together like some of their previous releases.

Throughout Wildness, Lightbody pushes his message with evocative lyrical imagery and the consoling empathy of someone who has fought the battle and emerged triumphant. The result is one of the most comforting and relatable inclusions in the band's catalog.

Their playing is energetic and in good spirits, and most importantly, their positivity never sounds forced or unnatural. They're not acting like clowns and forcing anyone to smile, and they never sound too eager to please. They're simply having a good time and making relaxed, not-too-heavy boogie rock fit for a summer gathering or a road trip through the desert.

If the decision to make Tunnel of Love, Human Touch, and In Concert into double LPs means they're slightly cumbersome listens, they nevertheless sound wonderful, and that's the ultimate reason for acquiring this box: these records have never sounded--or have been presented--better than they are here.

Rich and soothing, it's a focused and warmly crafted debut that sounds unlike anything else in Watson's previous recordings.

All the songs may be good, but they're given life by a group that has been broken in by endless dates on the road, a difference that helps turn Weiner's best set of songs into Low Cut Connie's best album.

Like its predecessor, the album revels in the dark and danceable timbres of English, German, and American clubs circa Joy Division, Suicide, early Cabaret Voltaire, et al.

While the acoustic treatment is more effective on some tracks than others (certain Alex lyrics and melodies demand noise, including "Filthy Luck"), the naked distress of these versions often delivers its own power.

Beerbongs & Bentleys is an apt reflection of his lavish lifestyle and his subsequently begotten hardships, but its attempts at sincerity work only when Post Malone stops trying so hard.

Harris takes a minimalist approach on Grid of Points, but she imbues it with so much feeling that it could never be called slight.

Similar to her previous works, composer Christina Vantzou's fourth solo album blends orchestral and electronic instruments as well as unearthly voices, resulting in slow-moving, calmly introspective soundscapes.

As her first official salvo into the pop arena, Speak Your Mind hints at an enticing amount of potential for Anne-Marie and her engaging vocals.

Kinetic and heartfelt, Beautiful Thing lives up to its name and delivers some of Taylor's finest solo music yet.

Taken as a whole--SR3MM is nearly two hours long--the album is a serious time investment. However, broken up into three parts as intended, it provides a trio of easily digestible bites that gives Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi freedom to indulge their own artistry while maintaining their bond as a duo.

Somehow more sophisticated and savage, Welcome Strangers is quite a leap from the bucolic folk of their debut and quite a bit more exciting too.

Those who are open to hearing the band take on a variety of styles and bend them to their will should be very happy with Wide Awake! Those who want the band to crank out an album of just bitter, bopping punk may have to wait until next time.

Success may have almost spoiled Puth, but it fueled his upward creative swing.

Bay never seems like he's pandering; he sounds thrilled that he has a chance to make the kind of layered, genre-bending pop that he wants to make, and listeners may well find that freedom alluring.

With its fascination quotient running so high, Walker's musical restlessness generously offers a sense of welcome anticipation that listeners can return to almost endlessly.

Malkmus may still stand on the outside smirking, poaching different elements of the underground and mainstream, assembling them in a fashion that's undeniably unique, but the craft and cleverness of Sparkle Hard can't disguise the simple fact that he means this music, man.

The album isn't an album of a moments, it's a collection that sustains a mood. A mood that's ragged and slack, but too dulled to charm.

Hundreds of Days finds Lattimore gracefully adapting to her new surroundings, adding new dimensions to her sound but keeping its dreaminess and sentimentality intact.

While Rausch initially doesn't feel like quite as much of a momentous occasion as Narkopop did when it first arrived, it certainly isn't any less beautiful, and holds up to repeated listens as well as anything else in the project's essential discography.

The melodies are engaging, and the turns of phrase are typically sardonic, with song highlights arriving via the breezy but narratively decadent "Everybody's Coming Together for the Summer" and the winking opener, "Angry Man on a Small Train." It's also nearly impenetrable for anyone outside of the U.K., as it's immeasurably steeped in the region's culture and vernacular.

Turner nails the concept, wallowing in warped dreams and painting widescreen soundscapes, but the foundation is wobbly; at a glance, it's impressive, but the slipshod details reveal themselves upon close inspection.

At 13 tracks, Let's Make Love drags just a little, especially in its first quarter, but as a whole, it's a welcome comeback from an enduringly creative act.

The Siren's Song is perhaps a bit too gentle in its attack to make Kacy & Clayton stars, but anyone with an interest in modern-day folk music will be happily mesmerized by it.

Prodigal Son is yet another act of committed intention from one of American music's greatest guardians and purveyors. In its grain, aesthetic pleasure and the will for justice converse and ultimately convince the rest of us to act.