Taken as a whole, England Keep My Bones is evidence that Turner is an artist who has fully arrived and knows it. And that's no sin.

[III's] not all that different from their great 2013 album, II, but III experiments more, sacrificing none of its attractiveness while venturing into skittish micro-trap (lead single "Reminder"), exotic ethno-techno ("Animal Trails"), and something akin to Adele singing William S. Burroughs lyrics over classic glitch ("Eating Hooks").

The duo's sad, passionate vocals readily recall peak-era Depeche Mode, but the instrumentation is much more organic, and the production is far more atmospheric and multi-layered, even verging on hallucinatory at times.

Jones' originals feel as elegant as time-honored standards, and all her covers feel fresh. The former speak to her craft, the latter to her gifts as a stylist, and the two combine to turn Day Breaks into a satisfying testament to her ever-evolving musicianship.

On The Lion King: The Gift, Beyoncé deftly connects a kid's flick to something bigger, honoring not only Africa and its traditions but also shifting perspective to future destiny and greatness. It's a superior statement and a lesson on how to properly execute a winning soundtrack.

Maturity can be dangerous to your artistic health, but Bromst shows the right way to mature--broaden your vision while still spending plenty of time on what you do best.

By revisiting their past, Cloud Nothings find something new in it, as well as something timeless, and The Shadow I Remember is a full-throated, full-hearted triumph.

Although there are some clumsy similes and metaphors, and a surplus of astrological references, its lyricism is undeniable, abundant in pithy rebukes and come-ons. And while the predominantly crawling tempos can have a tranquilizing effect, there's nuance to nearly every cut with high-level songwriting to match.

Ambitious and masterful, Atomic is another peak in Mogwai's career.

This is music that looks outward at the pan-continental landscape while staying firmly adherent to and respectful of its deeply American roots; this is the emerging--and hopeful--face of the new millennium, and an altogether shining accomplishment.

Yes, there are slight differences between this and her previous work, but fortunately, she's still retained most of what made her special in the past.

his has long been Amos' calling card, this shimmering space between comfort and pain, but Unrepentant Geraldines trumps its predecessors by accentuating its polarity; it either seduces with its sweetness or it provokes with its pain, and either extreme is compelling.

Feels Like gets high marks for craft but barely merits a passing grade for fresh thinking.

Power metal may not be the most inventive musical style on the planet, but Dragonforce are making it more exciting than most anyone else has for quite some time.

Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs ends up being an urgent, stubborn, and sometimes overly dark view of love in all of its unavoidable permutations. In other words, it's exactly the kind of album of love songs you'd expect from Taylor, one that is direct and as baffling as it is challenging.

While Welcome Home Armageddon isn't quite in a class with 2005's Hours or 2007's Tales Don't Tell Themselves, this 2011 release nonetheless indicates that Funeral for a Friend have a lot of life left in them.

Guilt Trips is a soft, serene, and inspired debut.

Not only are each of the songs on Río unique; they're all impressive, adding up to a complete full-length album experience filled with highlights.

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

[The cover of Rod McKuen's "Love's Been Good to Me" is] a weak ending to an otherwise wonderful album that shows that Collins is truly back in command of his art.

Rushing by with a distinct sense of economy in less than 40 minutes and heavy on counterpoint between Pollard's robust fantasy rock and Sprout's careful sentimentality, Motivational Jumpsuit is easily the most satisfying full-length of GbV's reunited, overproductive 2010s phase.

Fryars has made an album that is cinematic, endlessly listenable and out of this world good.

The constant is the familiarity of Spacek's voice, his low whispers and high exhaltations, like he's serenading a nearby audience of one.

While Cutthroat may be a bit disjointed, it's not because Shame are indecisive. They continue to push and invent, even when it might be safer not to. Sometimes the results are thrilling, sometimes they're frustrating, but they're never cowardly.

Volumes: One (Selections from Music Concerts 2019-2023 6 Piece Band) might not be everyone's first choice for an archives dig, but it's clear the Vernon felt great love for this band and the sound they were able to whip up on-stage, so it's hard to complain too much.

Family Portrait is an uncommonly original album, keeping listeners guessing while making a significant, sometimes unexpected emotional impact.

The tunes are old and new, borrowed and blue, but Thomas makes them all her own.

The songs pop, the production is memorable, and the guests weave effortlessly into their respective tracks without detracting from Gucci's signature delivery.

As bleak as In Amber can be, it's as thrilling to hear such unguarded yet exquisitely crafted confessions from Hercules & Love Affair as it was to have them transport listeners to dance floor nirvana.

If anything, this is the most satisfying offering from Sykes and her band yet.

The Reason Why is mature, exquisitely crafted, and radio friendly; it ups the ante for contemporary country in songwriting, performance, and production (the latter by stripping away excess). It's as near to a perfectly balanced recording as one will find in the genre.

Generally apologetic, reassuring, and hopeful, Chaos Angel is a comforting album that features some of Hawke's hookiest and most self-assured material yet.

Proof of Youth is a pretty spectacular continuation of some of the most exciting, innovative sounds around.

The band does everything right on Wooden Head, from songs to sound, and while Hoare probably shouldn't quit his day job, if he and Claps keep making records as good as this he might seriously consider it.

These tracks are so striking that the album feels a bit top-loaded, but Abandoned City is still another fine example of Hauschka's combination of inspired musicianship and almost palpable emotion.

Throughout, though, the sound is so consistent, alluring, and distinctive that it's hard to believe that they have all three members contributing songs here.

Despite its intermediary status, its material comes across as deeply considered and hints at creative growth, with the singer/rapper even more persuasive with heartfelt sentiments despite being as understated as ever.

Seinfeld has mentioned that the album's title refers to how he's been able to reflect on who he is through experiences such as relationships and family trauma, and his music skillfully expresses a mixture of loneliness, uncertainty, and wistful nostalgia.

Why Lawd? is neither crowded nor compromised by the extra voices. Like the debut, this is primarily an R&B record with Paak's variably frisky and lovelorn singing voice and Knxwledge's warped sample-based productions as the basis.

Ultimately, this set proves that the debut was no fluke, and this genre-bending meld of street traditions both East and West is capable of appealing to anyone with blood instead of sawdust in her/his veins.

This time around the beats seem darker and more synth-oriented, giving it an edge reminiscent of the bass-heavy G-funk sound.

Summer Sun is so mellow and pretty that it feels uncharitable to call it one of their weakest albums in recent memory; many bands would kill to make music this accomplished.

They have smarts and energy to burn as well as a bunch of songs that are right up there with anything Interpol, the Rapture, or Hot Hot Heat have done.

This balance of elements, along with Elf Power's ragged but insistent groove, make Creatures a study of harmonious contradiction and unlikely balance.

It's not that Have You Fed the Fish? is vastly inferior to Gough's debut so much as it's an unbalanced and ultimately frustrating album.

The Chain Gang of Love is far more glossy and layered in melodies compared to Whip It On's gray-colored coolness.

An impressive 13-song set that's reliably original and streamlined.

What It Means to Be Left-Handed shows Pierce and company continuing to embrace a variety of artistic impulses that become their own enjoyable interpretations.

It's not exactly alienating but Wise Up Ghost does require work from its audience, and the more you know--and the more you listen--the better it seems.

A striking and necessary companion to Hunter, Hunted expands that album's world -- and Calvi's artistry.

Though it's very different from Dream Wife, So When You Gonna… is just as genuine, and the duality in Dream Wife's music only makes them a more interesting, and more relevant, band.

Trying Times continues a trend of the abstract and foggy elements of Blake's artistry falling away, and he manages to make this transition without fully shedding the mystery that made his earlier sound so intriguing.

Like its predecessors, Harvey's canny charts, arresting dynamics, and deliberate, reverb-laden production provide the glue for Delirium Tremens. Gainsbourg's work is now often recorded in English, but Harvey remains one of his finest interpreters.

Savage Times is indeed raw, desperate, and chock-full of new ideas and sounds, making this a creative breakout for El Khatib.

This clear-eyed view of the past and the care put into the sound make this one of the most rewarding albums Thorn has made in a career full of great records and classic songs. She shows no signs of slowing down on Record; her voice and songs are as impressive and important as ever.

Even though Gathered is very much a creative patchwork, it coheres thematically as well as musically, and sounds both sly and sincere. Howe Gelb's evolution from the most distinctive roots rocker in the desert to Arizona's most unlikely lounge singer is coming along nicely, and Gathered is a welcome addition to his catalog.

El Dorado might not boast enough shredding for King's usual audience, but if their interest in roots music goes beyond barroom blues into vintage soul, they should find plenty to enjoy here, and he's a more capable vocalist than some would expect, making this worth a spin for listeners who enjoy modern-day soul.

Local Honey is an inside record that's better-suited for humid mornings and overcast afternoons than the open highway. In looking stridently inward, Fallon has crafted his most homespun and relatable outing to date.

Even with the more tuneful tracks, the album has enough bizarre lyrical imagery, unexpected outbursts, and general freakiness to keep Man Man from losing the weirdness they built their sound on.

Lyrical themes orbit around topics he often returns to: crime, struggle, and street vengeance. With Beyond Bulletproof, however, the delivery is shades more relaxed and even introspective, allowing for a clearer view of Mozzy's pain as well as his personality.

Bright New Disease has some jarring sonic clashes, but both bands seem to be on the same wavelength in terms of their modes of cathartic expression and their disregard for stylistic boundaries.

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

Bombay Bicycle Club's 2011 album A Different Kind of Fix is a melodically compelling work that builds upon the band's eclectic guitar-based indie rock sound.

Spider Bags didn't seem like a band that would welcome maturity, these songs show they're growing into it in their own slightly sloppy way.

This is as strong anything they've recorded in their forty-plus year history.

A breakneck blend of craft, experience, fun, and excitement, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons is the most concentrated dose of the band's magic since Tyrannosaurus Hives.

The pop textures are more evident, the melodies are more hook-laden, and the overall vibe is more laid-back than past releases, varying in moods from positively gleeful to terribly melancholy.

Luckily, the endlessly creative and surprisingly fluid Forgiveness Rock Record dispels any notion of opportunism by sticking to what the group does best: crafting clever, ramshackle, occasionally soaring bedroom pop songs (listen close for sirens) in a big expensive studio.

There are times on Wheelhouse where Paisley simply has too many balls in the air and they're destined to fall.

The Kennington MC puts forward some of his finest work to date, with a bold three-act that dips through the various strands of his career. While the sustainability of such a wide-ranging approach remains in question, Music, Trial and Trauma provides too strong of a tape to dispute, staking claims for the rapper across the U.K. spectrum.

Garden Gaia is a varied presentation of the different routes Pantha du Prince has taken over the years, but its different styles contrast more than they conflict, offering up some of the project's most captivating material to date.

Neither a straightforward score nor a collection of kid-friendly indie rock songs, it lies somewhere intriguingly in between--and it's just as good, if not better, than the music these artists make with their main projects.

Castlemania does sound like the product of several happily productive days in this band's life; this album sounds less sinister and more playful than the bulk of their previous output, and if a lot of this is still going to seem chaotic and off-putting to anyone not flying a similar freak flag, it's an easier way in to Thee Oh Sees' curious musical world than any of their albums to date.

Fans of both bands will want to get In the Reins because it rates favorably with their best work.

There are a lot of bands playing indie pop in 2008, but very few do it as well as Headlights do on Some Racing, Some Stopping.

Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and White Denim's D are examples of similar-sounding albums that successfully pushed the respective bands outside their comfort zones, and Saltwater takes Brazos to a new plateau in the same way.

Young Modern is a highly ambitious work that happily jumps from glam rock to sweeping orchestral pastiches and almost everywhere in between.

Working in long phases of slow development, Death After Life manages to pull energy from the darker corners of several splintered fields of techno to craft a strange and menacing hybrid that reaches dizzying places of both ugliness and resolution on almost every track.

This isn't among the most substantive Four Tet albums, but it does reward repeated casual listening.

With its surprising warmth and immediacy, Bigger Than Life is some of Black Marble's most affecting music.

The album is great, in particular Shaw's uncannily Misfits-evoking performances. It's a testament to the verve of Hunx & His Punx that whatever form their muse takes, they fearlessly follow it and are even able to communicate a core of their own sonic personalities when doing so.

Liars have a surprisingly unique approach that distinguishes them from other groups in their willingness to experiment with different tones, volumes, and styles, all of which make They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument On an astounding debut.

Bestival Live 2011 is an understandably honest reflection of the Cure in the popular mind as their commercial high point recedes further into the past, but given Smith and the band's other contemporaneous activities, it's an incomplete portrait.

"Abysmal Thoughts"' breezy music and direct words are an arresting mix, and as Pierce stakes his claim as a 21st century master of melodrama, he delivers the purest version of his music yet.

Full of smart nods to their pop inspirations, Field Music's Flat White Moon is a poetic and beautifully realized production.

Some of the tracks on Three cover similar territory, but overall, the album is much more tightly focused than the abstract yet personal Sixteen Oceans.

This album presents a more pronounced sense of drama from the progressive aspect of analog electronic exploration, and delivers compelling yet open-ended compositions. To that end, it is nearly sublime.

Middleton and company burn through a set of excellent songs with confidence, ranging from other quick-as-hell rundowns to calm reflection.

For backpackers and underground fans, it's a must, but anyone who wants their hip-hop both a bit stranger and a lot deeper will fall hard for this one.

There's a right way and a wrong way to write anthems in the early 21st century, and the Joy Formidable -- with only three bandmembers present -- find themselves on the right side of the dividing line during the majority of this debut.

What their return does bring is that unquantifiable "getting the band back together" feeling and all of the excitement that comes with old friends getting back together to do what they do best.

A bit of a grower, Jaakko Eino Kalevi is a subtly enticing album that establishes his niche within experimental pop.

As precise as ever yet oddly moving, Silver/Lead reaffirms that Wire are more like mercury, shape-shifting effortlessly while remaining true to the things that have always made them great.

Taken together, the record's simple ballroom dance rhythms, memorable melodies, and nuanced performances are a recipe for pop confection, however unhappy.

It's remarkable how these fusions feel bright and lively and every bit as sharp as the Americana-leaning Freedom Highway. Giddens may be emphasizing a different side of her personality--and perhaps courting a different audience--but she's made no compromises.

Natural is a quiet but disconcerting snapshot of a world of chaos, which is to say it depicts a world not so different than the one that saw the birth of the Mekons in 1977, and confirms their message has remained constant even when their musical approach has not.

Duppy Writer ably serves either of two purposes, an alternate career retrospective or a remix record of taste and distinction.

The album is a lush, somewhat orchestral album that finds Gardot delving into various Brazilian, Spanish, and African-influenced sounds -- including bits of samba, tango, bossa nova, and calypso -- that evince her global journey.