His music seems a slight bit more danceable and accessible than before, but not to the point of pandering to a hedonistic club audience.

Riddles is easily his grandest work yet.

The whole record is a testament to the skills of everyone involved as writers, singers, players, and arrangers, an upgrade on In the Reins, and exactly what fans of both bands would hope for in a collaboration.

This is music that takes its time but is never less than absorbing and rewards repeated listening. Chastity Belt's musical evolution has been a fascinating and rewarding thing to witness, and this may be their smartest and most compelling music to date.

Moreland is honest and articulate as he tries to sort out his demons, and if this is a very different album for him, the songs are heartfelt and well-crafted, and the production by Matt Pence of Centro-Matic takes the songwriter to a different place with effective, moving results. Some of John Moreland's fans are likely to be surprised by LP5, but as an expression of his talent and range, it stands with his best work to date.

A record that is just as impressively crafted as anything Prochet has done. That is high praise indeed, considering she's made some of the most inventive and pleasing neo-psychedelic adjacent albums of the previous decade or so.

Floor are that rare band that have managed to channel a decade's worth of personal and artistic growth into evolving their sound while somehow making the whole thing feel as though it could've been released the year after their landmark debut, making Oblation an album one that not only lives up to the band's legacy, but is a meaningful contribution to it.

Kiss Each Other Clean is the result of years of growth and change, and though that sounds incredibly boring, it's also a record full of roiling emotion, tender wit, and deeply felt melodic beauty.

Arde is a low-key affair, relying on ethereal and hypnotic arrangements and slow tempos. However, there is a distinct pop sense to the album...

In 2001’s current crop of R&B singers, Blige’s voice is truly inimitable. It’s husky, strong, soulful and full of maturity. Make no mistake, though, this lady can still flow like no one’s business...

A fantastic debut album that only gets richer and better with more listens, Gallowsbird's Bark is more fully formed and daring than most second or third albums from many bands.

Like Springsteen, Phillips centers his songwriting in a kind of mythic America, an approach he used as well in his former band, Grant Lee Buffalo. But it is an approach that works only if the songs and the characters in them are believable, and Phillips' carefully considered, ornate lyrics often work against that believability.

The most surprising thing about the album is that it sounds exactly like classic Steely Dan, but without feeling dated.

Scorpion isn't an album for the good times, but its portrayal of dark days is gorgeous.

Punching with more focus and power, by the time the last note fades they emerge from the ring with the post-punk revival title belt slung around their triumphant shoulders.

The songwriter goes on to defy social etiquette with more of her direct lyrics about sex, desire, and self-loathing on songs with titles sure to offend or at least embarrass a few parents. Ulven tests the line between potential catch phrases and potential cringes on more than a couple occasions here.

As the years of shock tactics and theatrics fade into memory, Manson's left with just the music, aging as gracefully as he can with another expertly crafted offering for the altar.

In the end, the unexpectedly loose, protean feel of Rush to Relax makes for a wholly satisfying step forward from one of Australia's finest bands of the first decade of the 2000s.

Loud Planes Fly Low captures fragmented moments instead of formless dreams and random wishes: the melancholia that lingers throughout feels like one of experience rather than self-conscious ennui.

Ultimately, while Vital is Anberlin's most challenging album to date, as the title implies, it is perhaps the band's most rewarding album.

McKeown's seventh studio album is as bold and determined as anything in her repertoire, but it never sacrifices musicality for message, resulting in a taut, compact, and engaging set of 21st century urban folk songs that invites the listener into the fold before unleashing its directive.

As a whole, Live at a Flamingo Hotel is unlikely to attract too many new fans. It's a solid and spirited live album, but hardcore devotees are already well aware of the band's prowess on stage and they'll be the ones who benefit the most from this release.

Gates of Gold shows they can contemplate the infinite and chart new paths while still sounding like no one but themselves, and they can do all of this with the force and agility they commanded when half their age.

Many of the songs are free of artifice, boiled down to voice and guitar or left nearly naked to let the emotional impact of the melodies and words cut more deeply.

It's anyone's guess if Stitch Of The World will make the world more aware of Tift Merritt, but for those who know, this is another splendid work from an unsung heroine of American roots music.

Whichever word one may choose, the record is a delight for lovers of psychedelic guitar interplay, and Beaches continue to be one of the best exponents of that sound around.

The combination of talents involved works in all of their favor, and the result is a short, snappy modern art-punk album that is a worthy addition to each act's already strong catalog.

Local Natives' sophomore effort, 2013's Hummingbird, is a more atmospheric and introspective collection of songs in contrast to the band's effusive 2009 breakthrough debut Gorilla Manor.

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

A sadder, wiser, and stronger album, Shadow Offering reflects big changes in Braids' world, but proves they're still at their finest when they dig into -- and sit with -- complex emotions.

The left turn Hebden has taken into jumpy Krautrock with 2005's Everything Ecstatic will make listeners yearn for the clever, nuanced productions he turned in on Pause and Rounds.

It has all the fire and fury of the debut, the same live-wire dual-guitar attack, and a similarly top-notch batch of songs that deliver plenty of rock-hard punch and are loaded with a nicely strutting power that has as much swing as it does thud, but also a few that show just the smallest bit of restraint and Spoon-like attention to sonic detail.

Short for "good night," GN is hardly bedside reading material, full of tales of life trials, some personal, some harrowing, some both. Its musical warmth and unassuming tone, though, may be just the thing for those seeking a melodious, soft-focus diversion.

This isn't an acoustic album: it's a lean, nervy rock album that uses its mess and its contradictions to its own advantage.

While The Civil War isn't as exhilaratingly disorienting as A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure, it's another triumph; history may repeat itself, but Matmos never does.

If Rival Schools had returned and tried to sound like the same band they were in 2001, there would have been the very real danger of it feeling disingenuous and forced, as if they were trying to recapture their glory days. Instead, the band is more relaxed and confident, and not afraid to experiment a little.

Gallows finds them staying the course, delivering high-octane thrills on every track in a way that feels as if it's meant to reassure fans that Gallows are done playing around and are ready to get back to business.

If there's darkness and pain in these grooves there's also plenty of lightness and joy, with a consistent, compassionate message of redemption through acceptance — as Burhenn sings on "Ways of Looking": "It can be easy if you just let it." That simplicity informs both the album's unstudied songwriting and its deft, uncluttered arrangements.

This may be the most subdued of Richter's Fat Cat releases, but every nuance shows the care with which he crafts all of his music.

Nude Beach were already a better-than-average garage punk combo on their first two long-players, but they're growing into something more on 77, and it's smart, well-crafted stuff that could possibly move them to bigger and/or better things.

With Ross as a foil, Reznor's usual indulgences become focused and refined, making Add Violence a satisfying addition to NIN's less-essential, non-album output.

Lyrics like the closer's "No more listening today" and "No one left here today" may apply to some returning fans, but the invigorated approach to production, arrangements, and, in many cases, performances makes for a still highly listenable set that's at least as likely to excite as to challenge.

With Heart-Shaped Scars, she's found a home in sparse and spooky folk. Possibly not something one could have predicted when she first arrived on the scene with One Dove, but something that is satisfying and true all the same.

At 53 minutes, You're Not Alone might have benefited from some trimming, especially given its relentless volume and energy, though it's not without its dynamics.

As ridiculously high as his [Quinn Walker's] voice may be, and even though it may take several spins to become acclimated to it, the melodies are sharp and enticing.

Without losing any of the distortion, Devine's approach is clear-headed and direct, melding the indie pop mysticism of Neutral Milk Hotel or Elliott Smith's tunesmithery with the political conscience of Billy Bragg.

Even more so than on The Race for Space, PSB seem less like a gimmicky novelty group and more like a new breed of intelligent, socially conscious pop music.

At the Gates have been at the fore of the Scandinavian death metal scene since the early '90s -- Terminal Spirit Disease and Slaughter of the Soul are seminal works -- and the dark and inventive Nightmare of Being should ensure that they remain there.

Year of the Spider is the work of four musicians who are not content to be goofballs -- they can maintain their creative vision while making more of it, and it's a great step forward for a band that's becoming deeper and more satisfying than one might have expected.

James' own lyrics are plainly stated and confessional, as on tracks like "The Book of Self Doubt" and "Seems Like I," though she often embellishes them with pitched-up accompaniments. The tracks with guests are often the most successful, as they offer a bit more tonal and melodic counterpoint.

On this 11-track masterpiece, so full of adrenaline and swarming moods, ATDI has created one of the most infecting and mind-blowing rock albums in a long time. While most of the tracks are of the more aggressive edge, this is undeniably the band's most focused and well put together and, therefore, best all-around album yet.

A brief but compelling work from an important artist.

Bardo Pond seem to be on an eternal, destination-free odyssey, and Vol. 8 is another strong stop on their trek.

Rappers Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot break up their unhinged, nasal flows with moments of jubilant soul harmonies ("Top Down"), bounding upbeat acid jazz instrumentation ("Blue Moon"), darkly experimental beats ("Avenue"), and different approaches and coloring on almost every track.

It's not every day when a band makes a second album that's more thrilling than their debut, but Pom Poko aren't an everyday band. Their tricks are always in service of their songs on Cheater, and their excitement about the possibilities of their music is utterly contagious.

It's an album less for blasting out of car radios and more for dusty Sunday afternoons and at times, it can feel a bit dulled by its own weight. Still, it's nice to hear the band stretching out and evolving, and even if Keep You requires a little more patience there is still much to like about it.

She may be not a girl, and not yet a woman, but on Speak Now she captures that transition with a personal grace and skill that few singer/songwriters have.

Same Old Man shows he's learned a lot since then, and you can hear the lessons shining through in this music.

It's uncompromising yet masterful, an auspicious and perhaps even magical first offering.

Red Barked Tree is another strong effort, and while Wire is still making music that shatters expectations, after 30 years they're sounding a lot like the mainstream rockers they once despised.

Withstanding some strange experimentation - including a steamy a cappella version of the Canadian folksong "Peggy Gordon" and a sludged-out, seven-and-a-half-minute cover of the Who's "My Generation" - The Bride Screamed Murder is surprisingly accessible.

Civilians has as many stories attached as any record Henry's written, but they're so finely crafted now that the singer almost disappears in their flickering appearances on the wall of the mind of the listener.

He was an American original, and American Tunes functions as a lovely coda to a legendary career.

Ex Hex can't really be called a return to form because Timony never lost it in the first place, but it's probably the most immediately appealing album in her solo career for Helium fans who missed that band's bite on her other albums.

With Migration, Green blends the unexpected with the familiar and emerges with some of his most affecting work yet.

This is a surprisingly, satisfyingly vigorous record.

An affable shrug of an album, it's fine, but that's not necessarily OK.

The Minus 5 record really works when it gets close to power pop, such as "Got You," the sprightly "You Don't Mean It" and the wistful "A Thousand Years Away."

If there's any problem with More Than a Woman, Toni Braxton's fourth album, it's that its so consistent, so much a continuation of its predecessor, Heat, that it may be hard to pinpoint distinctive characteristics.

It is a generally pleasant effort, but it isn't in a class with either Hatfield's best solo output or the Blake Babies' most memorable jangle pop.

Parts of One Part Lullaby work very well, but it's also curiously flat. The modern rock production feels two years out of date -- shiny and commercial for 1996-1997, but an anomaly in 1999. ... That's not to say One Part Lullaby is a failure -- when Barlow and Davis pull it all together, the results are as strong as anything else the duo has recorded. As a whole, however, it winds up being strangely unengaging.

Adding some variety to their tempos would make the band even more impressive, but with More Parts Per Million they've created a bracing, charming debut.

Like a long lost Fluid disc, Electric Sweat proffers primordial MC5 riffs with a healthy dose of soul as only four white guys in leather jackets with every Motown record in their collections could manage.

Take Fountain is a solid Wedding Present album, one that will satisfy those who have been following Gedge all along.

The Blind Boys of Alabama still know how to get to the soul of the matter.

Rocks harder than any Crowell record in the past.

Demons is well worth checking out for those who like a sense of the unexpected in their pop.

Zeroes and Ones is probably the album that best showcases all sides of Eleventh Dream Day, and might just be their best album yet.

Yet although his mixture of politics, heart and intelligence with taut guitars and a sweet falsetto will presumably be engaging forever (and Leo hits much more than he ever misses), it's getting hard to ignore that little voice inside that wants something more from him.

God Save the Clientele is another stroke of magic from a band that has few peers in delivering music that can make or break your heart with a vocal inflection, swath of strings, or gentle arpeggio, music that can devastate you in one breath and lift you to the heavens with the next.

Musically it's imaginative, fresh, full of a more studied elegance and a leaner kind of pomp that we heard during her Geffen years.

On North Star Deserter, the musicians working with Vic Chesnutt serve as collaborators rather than simple accompanists, and they've truly brought out the best in one another; this is powerful, adventurous music that's as challenging as it is beautiful, and ranks with Chesnutt's finest work to date.

The ex-Noise Ratchet founders shift to more rootsy territory with their new band, yielding impressive results.

The New Year also stands as an equal to the brothers' best work and that makes it absolutely essential to any card-carrying indie rock devotee.

Thirty-seven years after their first album got lost in the shuffle, the Flatlanders have not only survived, they have a lot to say about what they've seen, and Hills and Valleys is proof these men still have plenty of songs in them yet.

The true testament to the value of that craft is that The Liberty of Norton Folgate is as rich and rewarding in its deluxe double-disc incarnation as it is in its simpler, single-disc set, something that speaks volumes to the extent of the band's unexpected revitalization here.

Ultimately, Blood from Stars is the most sophisticated, redemptive, and romantic album Henry's cut; the love songs are simply raggedly breathtaking.

Nothing Hurts is a strong debut, even when it's gentle.

Cantrell's all-too-brief Kitty Wells Dresses contains its object's sense of sophisticated vocal economy that still conveys the power of truth in the human heart with elegance and grace, making it a fitting tribute for all the right reasons.

Sugar Daddy Live finds the sludge metalists powering through an energetic 13 songs nearly 25 years after their formation, and having a ton of fun while doing so.

It's all very definitely Walkabouts in its sound -- with some glorious lyrics from Chris Eckman

On In a Dim Light, Nedry never get as self-consciously slick as many of the bands that made trip-hop so dully tasteful in its later years, but they're still at their best when they're fully in touch with their volatile side.

There are some moments that hint at that brilliance.

By employing hard-rocking, sometimes spacey psychedelia (gloriously) to express the anger he feels as he watches the hard-won gains of history being damaged and destroyed in unsavory ways, Hawley creates an essential listen.

This music is welcoming and accessible, underscoring the notion that Garrett's new compositions have that mercurial something in them that approaches the mysterious nature of song itself.

She's constructed something so precise its success seems preordained, but underneath it all, Taylor is still twitchy, which makes Red not just catchy but compelling.

Going into this with no expectations should prove to be beneficial.

For anyone who has followed the band, Autotheism feels like part of a logical evolution, with the band expanding its sound from album to album before really cutting loose and diving headfirst into more heady waters.