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.

Inspired by a trip to Japan, Good Luck and Do Your Best is one of Gold Panda's warmest, sunniest releases, reflecting the colorful foliage of the island nation.

Congrats still sounds unmistakably like Holy Fuck, but their vision of weird electronic pop is much clearer here.

With this album, Kristin Kontrol makes claim to the top tier, and if she continues to make records this powerfully good, she may find herself alone at the top before too long.

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.

Ultimately, it's this guitar interplay that's the attribute of Pierced Arrow. Some of the songs stick out--particularly, Stills' two attempts at social commentary, "Virtual World" and "Mr. Policeman," both of which would've fit on a CSN LP -- but this is a record about instrumental interplay, not about songs.

Kidsticks isn't the sound of Orton closing her circle but opening it wide. In her restlessness and self-discovery, she looks outward and comes away fresh and renewed as a result.

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.

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.

This is heady and hearty stuff delivered by a band surveying the ruins below from their creative peak.

For all their self-deprecation and ramshackle bombast, there's no hiding the band's innate musicality, which reveals itself in the myriad of clever changes and occasional bursts of slick vocal harmony, especially on the epic closer "Pine Point." If the dream really is over for PUP, they sound awfully confident.

Rhythmically a balanced mix of energetic grooves and melancholy explorations, the album is wall-to-wall artful expression that finds a songwriter thriving as part of a four-piece.

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

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.

Micky looks at the past not with sad reverence but with a smile, happy that he was there and happy to be able to sing about it still, and that's the vibe of Good Times!: it was a blast to live it then and it's a blast to relive those times too.

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.

For the second time, Leon Vynehall has crafted an exquisite album of cheerful, jubilant tracks to get blissfully lost in.

It is the most artfully rendered and sophisticated recording in her catalog, the work of a mature artist in full command of a sonic language. It's also a hell of a lot of fun to listen and dance to.

The album is at its best, though, when Butler is cranking up the big rock and Jackson belts out melodies as straight and clear as an empty motorway. British Road Movies has plenty of that, and if it's not quite enough to make anyone forget the Long Blondes, it's a definite reminder to keep in touch with Kate Jackson.

And yet for all its troubles, the South remains both her home and her muse, and these eerie gothic blues make for one very enchanting debut.

These People functions as a pleasing adult alternative record.

While some of these cuts work better than others, the range is impressive, as is Grande's measured, assured performance.

Like Bringing Back the Sunshine before it, If I'm Honest is at its core a balladeer's record, and Shelton pulls off these romance tunes with a sly, masculine grace that complements the album's sleek modern surfaces.

Wild Pendulum makes a strong case that the Trash Can Sinatras may never lose the plot. It's also quite likely the best sophisticated guitar pop album anyone is likely to hear in 2016, made either by whippersnappers or old-timers.

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.

Throughout, the album never loses its quietly hypnotic, reflective character or its soft-footed, ornate chamber-folk palette, transporting us to a distinct and remote destination that's nonetheless intimately relatable.

It's a good-time record, but one intended to showcase how Mudcrutch hit harder and dig a bit deeper than they initially seemed to do.

They may lack the immediacy of some of their more envelope-pushing contemporaries, but as sonic world-builders they excel, and certainly possess the acumen to expand those horizons on future outings.

His idiosyncratic, mumbled vocal delivery might occasionally make understanding the lyrics a bit of a challenge, but it's also one of his unique distinctions and with The Party, he's added another strong outing to his canon.

Rock history teaches us you can't will a masterpiece into existence, but with Car Seat Headrest's Teens of Denial, Will Toledo has created something like a novel after previously offering us short stories, and it's a piece of rough-hewn brilliance.

Whether it showcases a singer with a guitar or circular improvisations on a theme, most of Day of the Dead follows a similarly understated, tasteful path and, ultimately, that's what's impressive about it: it is a tribute to the Grateful Dead as sonic adventurers, pioneering new avenues into space and beyond.

It's not a vibe record so much as it's an album about the interplay of old pros who still get a kick playing those same old changes years after they've become second nature.

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.

Oscar displays a light touch that ensures Cut and Paste is a charming, unpretentious confection of an album, as well as a promising debut.

After such a long journey, the original lineup have finally made an album together and it's every bit as triumphant and evocative for fans as it is for the quartet who have finally fulfilled a vision they had at the turn of the millennium.

The Triad is an expansion of Pantha du Prince's otherworldly sound into a more human realm, but it still maintains its ethereal, magical qualities.

Blau places himself completely in his producer's hands. He digs into these lyrics and charts for all he's worth, delivering a gem that is as timeless as its songs.

The results are understated yet extraordinary, an idiosyncratic, romantic vision of 20th century America.

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.

Almost a decade into their existence, the So So Glos have matured and tightened their execution, making Kamikaze a huge leap past their already 2014 breakthrough, Blowout. Musically, the album is a pure joy.

A Giant Dog aren't necessarily offering anything that hasn't been done before, but Pile is definitely a fun listen with enough bright spots and kinetic energy to sustain it.

Material is the black celebration that Depeche Mode foresaw, sparkling party music for the downcast masses.

If getting a live, rough demo energy was the goal, then the Heavy have succeeded. While the album never sounds lo-fi, the production nonetheless has the taut, confrontational energy of a basement punk show or old-school juke-joint performance.

This is a record that attempts to unfold but remains grounded within its own humble limitations.

Beauty Already Beautiful is bold, soul-baring proof that Spookyland knows the best rock & roll is all about unexpected contrasts; even when they nod to decades' worth of rock history, they sound vital, never lazy.

In some ways, this feels like the album Susanna's career has been building toward; her music has always united the heart and mind, and she does so with striking creativity on Triangle.

It Kindly Stopped for Me is no easy listen, and its mostly mumbled outpourings don't leap out of the speakers, but it is intensely honest, which is something we don't hear often enough.

The heavy-hitting social commentary of "America" is an example of Royce in the spotlight and exceeding expectations.

For Beans' nightmarish spoken narrative, Pritchard makes like a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop with intensifying patterns of organ filigrees and electronics that blip and swarm.

Honey nonetheless comes across as an attention-grabbing experiment more than it does a third proper full-length.

She and Greenspan refract techno-pop in their own way while binding additional forms of electronic post-disco that cross four decades, from boogie to juke.

Even if it isn't as dynamic as its predecessor, at the very least Ullages reflects that Eagulls can do more than rant.

It's all spirited and lively. At their best, the wide-eyed folk-soul moments tend to evoke a contemporized version of fellow Englishwoman Linda Lewis.

On the whole, Absolute Loser is dominated by an energetic wistfulness and sweet melodicism that characterize most of Johnson's work, whatever his instrument palette. While that should please fans, the solidly crafted song set also offers as good an entry point as any for potential admirers.

With three albums under his belt, Vance has settled into a nice groove, and on The Wild Swan, he's pulled off a neat trick. He dons some familiar hats, but never loses himself beneath the brim.

The Machine Stops sounds like Hawkwind--a diluted version of what they sounded like at their peak, to be sure, but still Hawkwind, as eccentric and individual as ever.

She's smart to keep things light and positive--it's a deliberately youthful sound in an era that yearns for maturity--but by working the same territory so carefully, the seams in her construction are difficult to ignore.

Some stretches of the album may be a little too sleepy and subdued, with songs bleeding together in a hypnotic haze. Nonetheless, refreshingly void of aggression or any deliberate tension, Cloud Nine comforts with its positivity and charm.

Concrete Confessional can be borderline silly in its saltiness, but it's the best kind of comfort food, even if it breaks your jaw.

Whether consumed by itself or paired with its quieter sibling, Taste excites in a way that Islands have not elicited prior to this release, offering a body-moving experience to balance their typically quirky indie rock tendencies.

Again produced by vocalist Nick Thorburn and bassist Evan Gordon, the album nods to Islands' past but remains firmly planted in the time of its release, not only in production quality but also in focus. The hooks dig in deeper and the melodies hit harder, maturing their sound.

With Paradise, White Lung have ultimately crafted an album of hooky, infectious songs that still retain all the rage and D.I.Y. punk creativity of their previous work.

Another Splash of Colour is a perfect jumping-off point that covers most of the important players--sadly, no Dukes of Stratosphear tracks were available--and does a great job capturing and defining an almost forgotten scene with the care it deserves.

Established fans will be glad to know that Down in Heaven still carries the torch of garage rock, and anyone who misses the free-spirited, clattering style of those influences has a generous 13 new tracks to enjoy.

Everything at Once is their liveliest and most lighthearted effort to date, a celebration of both their legacy and their maturity.

It may be an intentional shift, but the soulful resonance of 2012's The End of That has given way to an artful experimentalism that, while musically impressive, doesn't make as big an impact. Still, it's an ambitious near miss from a very good band that has proven it can be both cerebral and heartfelt.

Compared to the self-titled debut and Overgrown, this a more graceful and denser purging, one that can soundtrack some intense wallowing or, at a low volume, throb and murmur unobtrusively in the background.

Stewarding them into their next phase is producer Joe Reinhart (Joyce Manor, Hop Along) whose outside influence helped streamline their powerful sound into a surprisingly cohesive album, given the album's unusual sequence.

It's as if this is a needy mixtape, but that minor complaint aside, Free Will finds Freeway's great mix of cold and clever on the upswing, and packaged in a near perfect blend of old and new beats.

It's not easy to grasp at first, but it reveals van Dinther as a restless creative spirit, and seems to only hint at the directions his artistic career could take in the future.

Radiohead is recognizably the same band that made that pioneering piece of electronica-rock but they're older and wiser on A Moon Shaped Pool, deciding not to push at the borders of their sound but rather settle into the territory they've marked as their own. This may not result in a radical shift in sound but rather a welcome change in tone: for the first time Radiohead feels comfortable in their own skin.

Eventually, people will get tired of the same old song if it's sung too often. On Views, Drake is starting to sound a little weary of it himself.

Nothing had every element in place to make Guilty of Everything very close to brilliant, a modern shoegaze/noise rock classic; on Tired of Tomorrow, they seem to have lost their way and have made something quite standard issue and disappointing.

Testarossa is a perfect road trip album, albeit one that's best put to use when the listener takes the road less traveled.

Strange Country is a mysteriously and profoundly pleasing piece of work.

As If Apart maintains a laid-back, weekend-afternoon feel, but it never seems too lazy, as Cohen is clearly adept at crafting pleasant yet sophisticated songs.

An intentionally fragmented portrait of change, Will's cracks show the growth in Barwick's music, and its pieces are facets that allow different aspects of her talent to shine.

Combined with beats seemingly tailored for each voice, the album could have resembled a disorderly production showcase, yet Celestin applies his experience as a deeply knowledgeable selector to stitch it all together with few obvious seams. He excels most at bold modern boogie with spring-loaded drums, zip-and-glide basslines, and radiant keyboards.

Anohni's targets deserve all the fury she unleashes upon them, but that doesn't make this any easier to engage with, even if you agree with what Anohni has to say.

As with the first volume of Electronica, the second is commendable for its scope and its attempt to bridge several generations of electronic music, but as a listening experience, it requires a fair amount of cherry-picking.

If there's a knock against Take Me to the Alley, it's that it feels a bit long. Editing out two or three tunes would have heightened its impact. That Porter doesn't break new ground here isn't a big deal; he doesn't need to.

Close to the Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984 collects four discs of the alternately thrilling, grim, silly, and just plain bizarre stuff.

On a track-by-track level, Detour has a few stumbles--the biggest is "Night Life," and that's due to the gravelly growl of Willie Nelson, not Lauper--and if it's taken as a collection of performances and not a coherent record, it's fun.

The ambition on this first part of Prayers for the Damned is admirable. Better still, they often manage to take this roiling outrage and shape it into something melodramatically satisfying, an achievement that suggests why Sixx had no trouble saying goodbye to Mötley Crüe.

Spiritual Songs is not a casual listen and can be emotionally overwhelming at times, requiring complete attention in order to fully enter the intimate world of these star-crossed lovers. Once inside, Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing is as intoxicating as falling in love for the first or last time.

Metal Church seem to have finally found the sweet spot between the thrash-kissed days of yore and the more traditional yet no less meaty metal stylings of their 21st century incarnation.

Earth into Aether is an opportune entrance point for those new to the artist, doubling as a well-curated playlist for established fans.

A much different but just as powerful statement as their debut, the Magnetic North have once again crafted something that is wholly unique.

His mixtapes certainly feel more "alive" and offer more variety, but couple them with this deeper, hard-hitting album, and the full Young Dolph picture becomes both clear and more attractive.

Advancement ends up being an appropriate title, as this album largely dispenses with the cheesy elements that marred previous Solar Bears recordings, resulting in their most accomplished and enjoyable release to date.

The result is an album of angular yet immediately memorable hooks bathed in a fizzy mix of rock guitars, candy-coated synths, and gigantic drumbeats.

Frothing with haze and sultriness, Luck or Magic is unlikely to either surprise or disappoint established fans, and likely to seduce, in general.

Muscular but graceful, The Westerner is as effective as anything Doe has released in his solo career. It confirms that at the age of 63, he hasn't run out of ideas and is not afraid to challenge himself.

Brilliant Sanity's musings on uncertainty are some of their most confident songs yet.

All of the material contained in this set is essential listening, as it chronicles the most groundbreaking period of a group who consistently explored new terrain with each successive release.

Fans of Zombie's rockabilly occult schtick will appreciate this new volume--not only for its respectful nod to his legacy--but also because it's Zombie giving them what they want: freaky fun that entertains, shocks, and rocks.

Konono No. 1 Meets Batida is a resoundingly successful collaboration, and any cut from it would sound absolutely killer on a dancefloor.

If Mockingbird Time was a reminder of how well Olson and Louris compliment one another, this album demonstrates that Louris still knows how to make a memorable album as the group's sole leader.