Weller sounds looser and lighter on 66 than he did in the recent past, a shift that adds warmth and playfulness to his wisdom.

Though its songs about a world falling apart were difficult for DIIV to make, Frog in Boiling Water is their most cohesive work. It's a true slow burn of an album, capturing listeners by degrees and echoing the band's subtle yet dramatic growth since Oshin.

Staples is in top form on Dark Times. It's another chapter of his uniquely smoke-colored narratives, form-fitting production, and perfectly balanced expressions of heaviness and acceptance.

Stylistically, Kravitz may not be trying anything new, but his decision to prioritize good vibes above all else generates an unusually satisfying record from the rocker.

Twenty One Pilots tie a bow on a fascinating narrative that has captured the imagination of a legion of fans around the globe. Fortunately for listeners unaware of the backstory, the songs are reliably catchy and intriguing enough to grab their attention, too.

This is one of the most rewarding and indulgent releases in Bring Me the Horizon's post-Sempiternal era, a big payoff for fans willing to delve into the lore and a pure thrill for anyone who likes to feel heavy music both in spirit and body.

If it ["Ballon de Peut-Etre"] stands out from the other tracks, it shows Bird is in touch with the improvisational heart of post-war jazz, and it's a bold but satisfying conclusion to an LP that reminds us just how quietly brilliant Andrew Bird can be.

The Moon Is in the Wrong Place doesn't feel like an out-of-the-box banger like the Clams' best LPs, but it aims for something different than their previous work, and on its own terms it's a deeply affecting success.

Gravity Stairs may feel cozy, but it never feels lazy. Some of that surely lies in how the band chooses to camouflage its strong melodic core with fluid, shifting surfaces -- a decision that winds up emphasizing sound over song while also directing focus to the familial chemistry of the band.

Ship to Shore is one of the tightest collections he's made in the past quarter-century, exhibiting a wide tonal palette and a vitality belying his 75 years.

The album teeters eloquently between introspective folk, twangy roots pop, and bashing psych-rockabilly numbers. Musically, the album is a nice balance of the sounds and influences he's pursued throughout his career.

All Aftab's earlier recordings are captivating. That said, Night Reign is a powerful, sensuous, and commanding illustration of the artist's mature vision. It reveals just how receptive, and even vulnerable she is to the spirits of creative inquiry, possibility, and revelation.

This is the best and most satisfying album Buffalo Tom has made since they returned to recording with 2007's Three Easy Pieces, and if it sounds different than these men did when they were in their twenties, it sounds just like who they are, and in this context, that's a gift.

The debut full-length album from Brisbane, Australia's Girl and Girl, 2024's Call a Doctor, crackles with a youthful enthusiasm that finds the quartet ably balancing a mix of late-'70s and early-'80s post-punk and jangle pop influences.

While Big Swimmer isn't especially hooky or melodic or cathartic, it is mesmerizing, and performed with an actor's command of an audience, a playwright's turn of phrase, and an expert sense of guitar tones -- as well as an enviable, intangible coolness.

While Umbilical is still a nightmarish depiction of destroyed emotions and blind rage, its combination of production subtleties and light nods to '90s influences peel away just enough intensity to make the album Thou's most coherent and engaging work yet.

Blackgrass shows he can make a memorable bluegrass album as easily as he can craft a potent soul groove. The surroundings are unexpected, the quality is not.

The album features a smart balance between serious, inward-looking ballads and dance tracks, and Starr writes from a personal perspective about the mix of emotions and circumstances brought about by early adulthood and stardom.

This is a very strong debut of well-built songwriting and captivating vocals.

A welcome standout in Eels' body of work.

Full of dark-hued emotions that speak to the self-examination and deconstruction Garcia went through, Gemelo is also bright with passion and artful musical experimentation.

It may not be especially optimistic, but it's certainly powerful and inspiring, and we probably need that more from Cale than forced cheeriness, a skill he need not acquire this far into his career.

An album where the energy is intrinsic and impossible to miss, but deeper complexities hide in the details that keep changing.

Although Wings are augmented by an orchestra on occasion, One Hand Clapping feels rough, free, and immediate, lacking the polish that gave Wings Over America its sheen. The loose feel isn't limited to the performances themselves. McCartney punctuates the rockers with vaudevillian throwaways, alternating between classics like "Baby Face" and originals like "I'll Give You a Ring," not so much concentrating on smooth transitions as indulging his every whim.

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.

The preponderance of previous Ziggy Stardust reissues and Bowie at the Beeb collections does rob this set of some of its surprise because so much of this music has been in circulation. That said, this set does indeed contain some excavated rarities, highlighted by "So Long 60s" -- Bowie would rewrite this folky number into the bracingly modernist "Moonage Daydream" -- and two unheard songs from the album's early days.

Placenta's sound, while immediately recognizable as a work of Niño's, goes very deep and very wide due to his familiarity, respect for, and reliance on the gifts of his studio cast.

We Have Dozens of Titles offers a sense that their state of perpetual metamorphosis actually went even deeper than what was shown on their widely adored studio records.

Sonido Cósmico is gorgeous. This music retains Hermanos Gutiérrez's core musical fingerprint. That said, its collaborative strategy extends the brothers' reach in exploring genres, rhythms, colors, textures, and production techniques.

MESTIZX is unlike any other album. It is where the historic cultural past meets present-day conflict and jingoism. Undaunted, this duo chart a direction and unfettered hope for the future, holism, and acceptance.

She clearly wanted an audience to hear these songs, but she also wanted a chance to create with artists she loves and respects, and the joy of creation is matched by the joy of hearing these musicians at work.

More than just a standards or tribute album, Sweet Whispers reveals just how stylistically broad-minded Vaughan was, a compelling trait McFarlane carries forward with passionate aplomb.

Unprecedented Sh!t easily marks a new phase recording by DiFranco. She and Burton present her work in an illuminating context that invites close listening, without a hint of compromise.

Grush clearly finds µ-Ziq in comfortable territory, but he's still trying new things, and his work is still highly enjoyable.

Though it comes a decade after the last entry to Dirty Three's ongoing story, Love Changes Everything picks up, as each new chapter of the group's story does, as if no time has passed at all, and the trio keeps flowing naturally forward.

Rateliff leads his crew through a panoply of '70s-touched roots rock, delivered with warmth, sincerity, and occasional bursts of grit. Even amid its themes of anxiety and overcoming trauma, South of Here manages to stay buoyant, and at times playful.

While still haunted and yearning in nature, tracks like "How It Starts" and the especially Halloween-y "A Steady Mind" are driving, melodic, playlist-friendly offerings that provide rhythmic pick-me-ups without stepping outside the confines of the album's blue-tinted universe.

Songwriter works well as an important document of a previously underrepresented era for Cash, whose career was about to enter a transformational new phase.

Bad Cameo is a compelling picture of two collaborators inspiring each other to try things they might not have on their own.

While Peyroux expertly commands the styles and forms she always has, her wonderful, songwriting elevates Let's Walk to an entirely different level. Essential.

On Oath, Mono's seemingly disparate, trademark elements create a universe of sound and emotion to completely immerse oneself in for a moment, an hour, or a lifetime.

There is a wealth of emotions in the material -- some of which is self-critical -- along with some abrupt changes in style, such as the transition from the scruffy ballad "Spite" to the speedy electro-disco track "Less of You," two of many highlights. Even so, there's a flow to God Said No that rewards start-to-finish play.

While Mercury kept their hit streak going and matured the band with a welcome vulnerability, longtime fans of their aggressive empowerment anthems will delight in this pseudo-"return to form" from the Vegas quartet, one of their most satisfying and immediate sets to date.

SML lay down some heavy grooves, but their music is less about making people dance than it is about exploring space through communal joy.

Passing through the Valley of Abandoned Songs, it seems, is a little like visiting the Lost & Found, and there's definite value in these reclaimed works of art.

While the title track is ostensibly a song about a couple falling in love, the track, as with much of Good Together, could just as easily work as a love letter penned by the members of Lake Street Dive to each other.

Thanks to the always sympathetic production, Cottrill's dedication, and the overall strength of the songs, it's a living, breathing sound that end sup as Clairo's most inviting and easy to love record yet.

Dig beneath the surface, the lyrics make plain Healy's claim of the album being a personal record but the trick that Travis pulls off with L.A. Times is that it is engaging on the surface thanks to colorful melodies and shifting arrangements--the very things that beg for subsequent listens, the ones where themes reveal themselves.

While Big Ideas could be accused of being uneven, filler is a matter of personal genre preference here, left turns that are fun or even funny dominate, and with a closer like the helium-voiced disco entry "Slay Bitch," any remaining scolds should be few and far between.

While Brijean's music is rooted in bossa nova, AM pop, and funk influences, Macro is one of their most stylistically well-rounded productions.

It can just as easily function as music for quiet reflection, nature exploration, travel, studying, or most other activities. II is their most distinctive, sophisticated, and emotionally rich work yet.

The stage show in this form is a perfect distillation of all the themes and feelings the book digs into, boiling them down to the truest, most intense nuggets, and Pastel and Thompson's music is a big part of why it works so well both in the show and as a stand-alone album.

As on each of Fussell's albums, he moves the songs into his own special, nuanced space, creating a vibe that is unmistakably his own. This sense of personality feels increasingly rare in folk music which often errs in either self-congratulatory retro-ism or indulgent innovation. In avoiding many of the traditional avenues to authenticity, he achieves it naturally.

Orquesta Akokan aren't merely revivalists -- they create their own 21st century jazzy, polyrhythmic innovations, proving that mambo remains relevant musically, culturally, and spiritually.

Cohen uses Paint a Room to circle through a deceptively wide spectrum of ideas and arrangements, organizing his various strange and beautiful sounds in a way that keeps drawing the listener's attention back, like trying to focus your eyes on something just out of view and figure out exactly what you're looking at.

Alternating between imaginative reinterpretations and faithful renditions of familiar hits, offering a testament to the resilience of the songbook of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

Bando Stone & the New World may not be his best album - it was always going to be impossible to dislodge “Awaken, My Love!” -- but it serves as a fitting summation of all the good-to-great music that has been released under the Gambino banner and might even give some clues as to where he's headed next.

All Hell stands as one of their most consistent albums while simultaneously being bolder and more unrestrained than usual.

The highlights are many, but "Black Flag Freestyle" with That Mexican OT sounds like a direct homage to Memphis greats Three 6ix Mafia.

Dreamland may have been the album that made Glass Animals big, but song for song, I Love You So F***ing Much's thoughtful, anxious pop might be more rewarding.

Even without its publicity stunt release, No Name would doubtless clicked with an awful lot of Jack White's fans, and it's the sort of idiosyncratic but lean and mean rock album he's needed to make for a while.

In its moments of both catharsis and ambience, Vertigo maintains a consistent balance. It's a quietly adventurous album that never feels like it's pushing too hard in any one direction, even when the sounds are swinging from blown amplifiers to bubbly flutes.

While 2016's Two Vines had its merits, Ask That God is a welcome return to the blissful, body-moving spirit of Empire of the Sun's first two classics.

It's at times caught between escaping into nostalgic juvenilia and dialing in perfectly manicured indie rock productions, but ultimately, Crack Cloud joyfully exploring that incongruity is the entire point.

It's a lovely record with a lot of personality and passion that showcases a rarely heard instrumental combo.

While there's plenty of dreamy heartache, it's the often bewildering beauty Chrystabell and Lynch achieve on this album that makes it an artistic milestone for both of them.

If Smoke & Fiction proves to be X's final musical statement, they go out as they came in – unique, ferociously talented, and with plenty to say that's worth hearing, and they've stayed that way as the curtain falls.

If you appreciate Metheny's acoustic guitar recordings, MoonDial will undoubtedly delight, and its elegance folds seamlessly into its predecessors'.

Beabadoobee refuses to be boxed in as she grows as a woman and artist, and on This Is How Tomorrow Moves, she dares her listeners to keep up with her changes.

Bird's Eye is more of a grower than Hypnos, but it gradually reveals itself to be another marvelous, multifaceted record.

A Dancefloor in Ndola provides a valuable history lesson, but it also functions as a collection of great, uplifting dance music.

Devil Rides In is lovingly curated and offers surprises even for listeners who think they know the era's music well.

This does not add up to a Great Lost Justin Townes Earle Album. Instead, these bits and pieces he left behind testify to his gifts as a writer and performer, and remind us of just how much was lost when Earle died, as well as demonstrating that someone should have convinced him to do a solo acoustic album.

When all is said and done, they remain fantastic songwriters, able to convey a variety of emotions without relying on the trappings of punk. The corners may have been sanded off, but it has only revealed new and interesting textures underneath.

It's an album that one can't help but to imagine making for impactful concert moments.

The format [just over 20 minutes long] proves again to be well-suited for the singer, providing another highly concentrated shot of material that shows her moving with ease -- sometimes blurring the line -- between sensual slow jams and pop-flavored dance tracks.

With Paradise State of Mind, Foster the People have made an end-of-summer album full of cathartic grooves.

Belong rides the line between dreamy songs and noisy nightmares expertly throughout the album. Most of the band's records are best experienced in full, front to back, and Realistic IX is the same but in a different way.

While it might be nice to see a little more focus on something nearer to a composite sound, Wishy have already got a good thing going on an auspicious debut LP.

By probing the heart's most vulnerable places on Meditations on Love, Susanna uncovers new angles on well-worn feelings and her music alike.

Oyster Cuts is a softly triumphant album, one that replaces the noncommittal vagueness that plagues so much indie rock with songs that tackle difficult feelings directly. It's a sound as beautiful as it is weary, and one that gets better the more involved you become with it.

It's a potent celebration of life amidst chaos and cruel fate, and while it still doesn't sound exactly happy, in its way it is the most optimistic LP Cave has ever made.

With Imaginal Disk, Magdalena Bay straddle pop worlds, bringing together a maximalist dance club atmosphere and ecstasy-laced, burning Wicker Man euphoria, all filtered through a dial-up computer dream of the pop future.

Woodland continues their mastery of earthy country-folk songwriting that nods to tradition but is ultimately timeless and deeply human.

Champion's affecting, thoughtful, occasionally hyperactive songs open up new possibilities for the band and celebrate being true to yourself -- no matter what your age.

Power more than lives up to the high standards Sarah Tudzin established on Let Me Do One More, and if you're in the mood for smart, insightful indie pop that's not afraid to rock, Illuminati Hotties is a band you need to hear.

Stepping up significantly from the sometimes personality-light commercial sounds of her earlier work, Latto cultivates an atmosphere of palpable Deep South humidity and salacious fun on these songs.

The youthful presence of Romany's (as well as his son Gabriel's) vocals are a boon, lending to the largely collaborative feel. Still, it's undeniably a Gilmour album, woven through with the elegant, lyrical guitar playing and haunted vocals that are his signature.

While the record's 11 tunes clock in at a mere 33 minutes, it feels complete, fully formed, and full of great tunes and hard-won wisdom.

Manning Fireworks is his own fusion of the contemplation of Harvest and the release of Zuma, and it's a small triumph of noisy roots rock.

At turns incisive and deeply felt, Ensoulment is more than a welcome return for Johnson and The The.

Hinds pull off their reboot with daring and style, in the process making a record easily good enough to stand proudly alongside their best work.

Rest assured, there's plenty of rappity rap-rap on Alligator Bites as Doechii lays bare her paradoxical qualities -- declarations of dominance, examinations of self-doubt, both the pressures and exploits of her fame brought to light -- in vivid style.

More grounded and yet more transporting than many of their later albums, Born Horses is ample proof that Mercury Rev are still making moving, thoughtful, exciting music -- and like most of their best albums, there's nothing else quite like it.

Much like Sinephro's debut, Endlessness is refreshing, enlightening, and awe-inspiring all at once.

While the Heavy Heavy do seem to lift the occasional riff, the songs here sound like recordings lost in time for the most part, and the songcraft exceeds "lost outtake" status, with songs instead demanding headline standing of their own.

It's a powerful and often unpredictable set that reminds us that even though it's been a while since his last album, LL Cool J's track record has far more hits than misses.

Hole Erth is definitely something of a departure for Toro y Moi and Bundick as he's never sounded quite as modern and rap friendly as this. Unsurprisingly to anyone who has been following him since the beginning, Bundick handles the shift with sure-handed aplomb, and everything he tries works out perfectly. As usual.