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.

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.

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.

This is the first Lawrence Arabia album that fully reaches the promise shown by the first three albums, the first that works from start to finish, and the first that edges Milne close to the rarefied air his heroes occupy.

Rough and explosive yet perfectly controlled, Guidance is yet another powerful statement from the heavy instrumental rock behemoths.

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.

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.

The album has no weak songs. There is an excess of adequate ones, however.

The release does an excellent job of touching on several facets of Moss' personality, and will most certainly encourage newcomers to seek out as many of his other recordings as possible.

It shocks by sounding as vital as Dinosaur Jr. ever has. Deciding to not to build upon the expansive textures of I Bet on Sky, the trio nevertheless sounds vividly oversaturated throughout Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not.

Forget the sophomore jinx, this set delivers on the promise of that first album and then some.

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

A set of songs that stick and hold up to repeat plays.

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.

This is an album full of vivid imagination, and executed with the skills to make those ideas stick.

A Cure for Loneliness is solid Wolf.

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

This debut EP is a deeper, meatier experience than expected, going as far as to be a conceptual release focused on relationships.

One hears the core of a great band on I Hear You, but if Arbor Labor Union want to make a great record, they're going to have to find a way to make these songs go somewhere rather than letting them wander in a circle, though they at least sound like they're having a good time staying in place.

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.

This sprawling, cumbersome, and often psychedelic effort feels like a glorious clearing house for the diverse and deep rapper, offering giant, cinematic, and challenging efforts.

Such accents as early-'70s analog synths and a couple of pastoral acoustic numbers may give Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel a throwback feel but the Chris Robinson Brotherhood aren't living in the past, they're pushing jam band tradition forward by keeping their expansion focused on funk.

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

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.

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.

Though their debut remains the high-water mark of production, catchiness, and vitality, Washed Away is a fine set to buffer Rooney's catalog.

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.

This is obviously not meant to attract new fans, but one to re-engage longstanding ones. It's a mixed bag, but its experimentation works more often than not, while the new songs suggest Heart's creativity is undiminished.

A record that tries hard to please but never does because the labor is always too evident.

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.

Pylon Live isn't perfect, but as a reminder of what made Pylon special and how well they worked on-stage, it does what it needs to do beautifully, and this is a splendid archival document of a group whose importance becomes increasingly evident with the passage of time.

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.

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.

File this massive effort next to Damian's Welcome to Jamrock, Stephen's own diverse 2007 release Mind Control, and maybe even Dad's 1976 "Roots, Rock, Reggae" breakthrough, Rastaman Vibration.

Afraid of Heights is their most overtly political statement yet, a highlight in the Billy Talent catalog and perhaps their best to date.

As ephemeral and powerful as a crush, Nothing's Real marks Shura as the kind of smart pop star the 2010s need.

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 piano ballad "I Still Make Her Cry" stands as the lone truly intimate moment of the record which, despite its enthusiastic choruses, harbors reflective, self-doubting lyrics.

Considering the emotional arc of this mix, it seems likely that the listener will have fallen asleep crying by that point. There's some fine music on it, but it's not recommended if you're expecting pleasant dreams.

This Is Gap Dream has enough going for it that it's well worth a listen, but while Gabe Fulvimar can make a good album all by himself, one wonders if he could make a better one with a few other people helping him tighten his focus.

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.

Apache could have easily slid into uninvolving sentimentality, but each song works some combination of the heart, mind, and hips.

Spain have been producing subtly remarkable albums since they debuted in 1995, and Carolina shows they've grown remarkably as artists since then.

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 whole work hits like a long-forgotten memory. Fans of Picture You, or of wistful atmosphere in general, will want to dig deep into Ambulance, and, to its credit, will find the room to do so.

Luckily, the new songs here aren't just filler between pre-existing singles; in fact, there are so many standouts that any of these songs could work as a single.

The songwriting on Born of the Sun is wider and more focused; the performances and warm production are much more immediate. Combined, they offer the most "accessible" offering in Faun Fables' catalog (relatively speaking), thus adding a new dimension to an already compelling, complex musical persona.

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.

It's not pop, and you can't really sing along to most of it, but it is exciting and sometimes even thrilling music that's spilling over with ideas and real-deal emotions.

Day to Day is dazzling. It leads the listener outside standard jazz/world fusion tropes to ask new questions about musical and cultural origins, traditions, and lineage and it does so with grooves and mystery intact.

Luxury Alone is a rare blend of vulnerability and beauty that puts Weird Dreams on a new level.

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.

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.

Call it based, cloud rap, or crumble core, but whatever the subgenre, Clams Casino's vanguard style now comes in a near-perfect package dubbed 32 Levels.

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.

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.

With this release, Kiwanuka has delivered a dark, graceful, and affecting artistic statement that is worth the patience it takes to experience it.

There's a lot to take in, but Inter Arma are one of the few bands who could deliver a work of such punishing excess, expansive musicality, and devastating beauty.

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.

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

Credit Broyles' mastery with six strings and a reverb pedal or Frobos' snarky, keening vocals. Give Mitchell a hand for pushing the songs forward with just the right balance of muscle and restraint. Most of all, just be glad these guys all quit their musical day jobs and formed Omni, because they made one heck of a good post-punk-pop album together.

As pop has become more eclectic, so has Murphy; even if it takes a little more effort to follow her on Monto, the results are worth it.

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.

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.

What makes Young in All the Wrong Ways resonate is how it touches upon her bluegrass and folk roots while feeling entirely different: the work of a musician who is integrating the whole of her influences into an idiosyncratic voice.

Turning moments into music is the next best thing, and something that Mount excelled at in the years after Nights Out as he became a more eclectic, emotive artist. Summer 08's exuberance and sophistication are a testament to those skills, as well as to music's power to define and evoke a period in time--and one of Metronomy's most enjoyable albums yet.

Lines aimed at authority, competition, and bottom feeders all shoot clean through.

They stay true to the genre's penchant for loud/quiet/loud posturing, on-the-nose emotional cues, and strategically placed breakdowns throughout, but they do so while flexing some significant creative muscle.

f this album is slightly less thrilling than Mourn, it's also more consistent, reflecting the mix of discovery and growth most people experience as they leave their teens. On Ha, Ha, He., Mourn do a little of the former, and a lot of the latter.

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

Everything sounds so precise, crisp, hard-hitting, and indomitable. For that exact reason, Bottomless Pit is an ideal effort for longtime fans and newcomers alike. Needless to say, whatever the type of listener, it won't be forgotten.

Lyrical prowess is never in doubt, and neither is the idea that the MC is an acquired taste, but this wordy, extroverted, and capricious effort is an alive whirlwind with more pride than usual. That last bit makes it one of the most persuasive Aesop efforts to date.

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.

The band's devotion to unadulterated sonic malevolence remains unchanged. They know that the darkest corners of the human psyche have deep closets, and they would like to show you what's in them.

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.

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.

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.

As far as follow-ups go, the Julie Ruin have hit their mark squarely with this oddly hooky, and totally unique, release.

Big Business may be broadcasting from metal's outer limits, but these knotty post-rock anthems dressed up in stoner metal might are as engaging as they are sonically demanding.

The EP is fine, by all means, but it's definitely not the Aphex release to reach for if you're expecting to be challenged or blown away by something utterly unique or exciting.

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.

Taking Craig's already distinctive, powerful sound to extremes, Centres is another truly remarkable work.

As should be expected from a secondary release, the quality control here is not as tight as it is on Islah, but this is Gates in undiluted form.

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

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.

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

Get Gone is a very special dose of rock and soul, and one of the most purely enjoyable debuts of 2016.

While sharp musical contrasts may be nothing new for Odonis Odonis, they've never sounded as meaningful as they do here. Post Plague is some of their most urgent -- and satisfying--music to date.

They blend numerous influences and don't conform to any traditions. More than anything, their music is exuberant and immensely enjoyable.

This album is a wound-up marvel of imaginatively bent punk rock, and if Segall, Shaw, and Moothart have more like this in them, one can hope they'll pass it along.

Martha may be saddled with a name that doesn't exactly imply excitement, but one quick spin through Blisters is enough to dispel any doubts as feet start to move, pulses begin to race, and the part of the brain that compels one to sing along is stimulated in a big way.

While the album is not as fluid as BLACKsummers'night and has a couple frayed ends, it includes a high quantity of open-hearted ballads and variable-tempo jams that sparkle with indisputable power. Each one is supremely sculpted. Their decreased vocal smoothness and increased rhythmic friction are major factors in the set's allure.

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

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.

With On Desire, the Drowners sound more confident and more in tune with each other as a band, but they still remain captives of their influences. They're evolving, but at a pace that may never yield any new fruit.

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.

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

While Blues and Ballads is by no means Mehldau's most ambitious album, it's nonetheless a work of expansive emotionality and deeply hued beauty.