Tere are precious few singer/songwriters with Patty Griffin's level of craft, empathy, and wisdom, and nearly every album she gives us is a gift. That's absolutely the case with Crown of Roses, and it demands to be heard.

Night Moves still know how to spark your emotions, and cuts like the opening "Trying to Steal a Smile" and "Almost Perfect," as with all Double Life, have a bittersweet romanticism about them that pairs nicely with the band's clubby, strut-ready attitude.

The 13-song set, which includes the streaming hits "Oneida" and "Nose on the Grindstone," combines Childers' alchemical blend of country, bluegrass, and folk with rich gospel harmonies and immersing ambient field recordings.

Like so much of Hanson's music, these songs come on strong from one direction while hiding deeper peculiarities and weirdnesses below the surface.

Throughout BITE ME, Rapp serves up plenty of wry pop charisma, which is more than enough to sink your teeth into.

If Not Winter is the work of an artist who thinks and dreams big, and it secures Wisp's place as one of the acts defining the sound of shoegaze in the 2020s.

With The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed, the Armed gleefully close the door on whatever shreds of accessibility they dallied with on their last few albums before it, but this unrelenting barrage of excitement and glorious confusion is a welcome replacement.

The producer expertly incorporates space and silence, with dramatic pauses capturing the listener's attention, and when he does go full throttle with intense beat patterns and distortion, the impact is maximal.

While it's highlighted by evocative tracks like "Fuck Me Eyes" and its mix of smooth synths and dissonant fuzz, and the more intimate "Dust Bowl" ("I knew it was love/When I rode home crying"), like any concept album worth its salt, Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You is best heard in its (73-minute) entirety.

As a whole, it extends not only Younger's musical reach, but also readily reflects the influence of her mentors in this, a music that could only be born in the 21st century, and as such, it's a gamechanger.

The album may not offer the radical reinventions of Goldfrapp's duo work, but it doesn't need to -- Alison Goldfrapp pioneered these sounds, and on Flux, she's still doing them with effortless elegance.

Star Line is vibrant and energetic, with his signature blend of mellow, friendly hip-hop, gospel, neo-soul, and jazz gracing the instrumentals and his voice as high-spirited and charismatic as ever.

ABOMINATION isn't only textbook Osees, it's a bracing reminder to wake up and rock out, channel anger into riffs and drumrolls, and be as punk as punk can be.

"Bad Dreams Summertime" is a standout among a truly immersive set, thanks largely to ghostly girl group-type backing vocals, shifting tonal centers, and lyrics that confuse time, imagination, and reality ("False recollections, the wrong soundtrack").

Molly Tuttle has always had smarts and talent to spare, and on So Long Little Miss Sunshine, she's using her gifts in ways that are new to her, and the risks pay off handsomely; this may not make her into the next Taylor Swift, but by all rights it should win her the larger audience she certainly deserves.

Without losing any of their crisp, rock-infused edge, they explore a more nuanced sonic atmosphere, even coating Goodwyne's vocals in moody, Imogen Heap-esque vocoder on the title track.

Together, the ten pieces combine to create a surprisingly cohesive whole.

A lush and finely rendered follow-up to her Grammy-winning breakthrough album, 2023's Bewitched.

Given the multitudes within It's a Beautiful Place, it's not surprising that it can take a while for all of its pieces to click together. Nor is it a surprise that this album is more of a grower than Everyone's Crushed -- Water from Your Eyes aren't interested in smoothing out their edges or repeating themselves. They're compelled to imagine it different

Love Is Like is a return to the core soul and R&B influences that marked the band's early albums, a change that finds singer Adam Levine and bassist Sam Farrar largely taking the productions reins, along with contributions by JKash, Federico Vindver, Elof Loelv, Bobby Love, and Rio Root. The group also wrote a handful of the songs together for the first time in many album cycles. All of this lends the record a unified vibe.

Songs in the Key of Yikes is proof that Superchunk hasn't lost a step and remains a one-of-a-kind band.

As a major development from Duffy's early, solitary bedroom recordings, it might be reasonable to expect a bit less of that meticulous complexity here, but they manage to retain that sensibility and arguably bring it to new levels by including the participation of instrumentalists like Blake Mills; Daniel Aged (Frank Ocean, FKA twigs); Tim Carr (Perfume Genius); and Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, and Anna Butterss from the improvisatory supergroup SML.

Though there's an element of dark humor to the album -- note "Gamma (need the <3)"'s lyrical reference to Michael Haneke's home invasion satire Funny Games -- there's still a lot of sincere joy expressed in these songs, even if it isn't always obvious on the surface.

The Collapse of Everything is a powerful, sometimes harrowing work that lives up to Sherwood's lofty standards.

Like most of Yorkston's best work, Songs for Nina and Johanna succeeds not only because of his talents as a songwriter, but by his choices as a collaborator. He knows when to step back and let others shine.

Ultimately, Carpenter feels like she's writing from her own relatable experience on Man's Best Friend and while her tongue remains firmly planted in her cheek, the album has plenty of pop bite.

While this album isn't quite as adventurous as The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, it's among the Hives' most consistent. Like its title suggests, The Hives Forever Forever the Hives is a potent reflection of their blunt force, sharp wit, and refusal to sit still.

A relaxed and hooky sophomore album with 2025's Hickey.

Despite its frequently overcast tone, Straight Line Was a Lie is, in typical Beths fashion, dependably catchy and sweetly harmonic.

This set reveals their mature, fully developed musical language expanded by sonic and harmonic invention.

On Hard Headed Woman, Price might be a stubborn artist who doesn't feel like she owes "the bastards" anything, but she feels like she's keeping a promise, both to her fans and to herself.

With Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, Williams has crafted an album about letting go and finding a way to move forward honestly, and perhaps most importantly on her own terms.

Everest never strays far from the hard rock and heavy metal foundation that has propelled Halestorm to the upper echelons of the modern rock scene. Instead, it expands their sonic palette, proving that evolution doesn't have to mean compromise.

The opening trilogy of "Disintegrate," "Dancing with the Europeans," and the title track alone are some of the most thrilling moments in Suede's discography, especially since their 2013 reunion on Bloodsports.

International is beautiful and painful in equal amounts. Beautiful because one of the great pop bands of the modern era has left such a moving, inspired, and special artifact, painful because it's not fair for them to quit when they can still make records like this.

These songs are so fun, so triumphant, so full of life that it's easy to feel reassured by them, even when they investigate difficult realities.

No Hard Feelings holds together perhaps even better than Blame My Ex, and there's a sense that the Beaches, who were in their early teens when they started out, are maturing into themselves and gaining a road-tested swagger. Yet they still know how to have fun.

If Departures and Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt has flaws, they don't change the fact it's an audacious bit of record-making that succeeds far more often than it fails, and once again confirms Harding is a major artist whose talents deserve a far wider audience.

This record plays like his shot for glory, and with tracks as hooky and well-constructed as "Mockingjay" or the title track, there's no reason he shouldn't hit the big time.

Dim Probs is vintage Gruff Rhys and the very simplicity and directness of the album sets it off from the many concepts and schemes of his other, bigger records. Sometimes less truly is more.

Cuts like the opening "Relentless Love," "Vertigo," and "Stay On Me" are utterly scrumptious anthems, showcasing Ellis-Bextor's wry brand of dancefloor elan, her cooly posh accent set against pulsing disco grooves.

Tyler's parents worked as songwriters in Nashville. 41 Longfield Street Late '80s is informed by this nostalgia, but it's also a forward-thinking record that pushes its influences into another realm.

For any critics who complained that Hail to the Thief was just too long, bloated, and disjointed, this is the course correction that'll give that album the justice it has always deserved.

The world will always need songs about heartache, revenge, and bidding good riddance to someone; though Young delivers them with style, there's a sense that she's got more to offer.

Visceral, engaging, and potent enough to warrant the Nine Inch Nails name, Tron: Ares is one of the standout soundtracks in the Reznor/Ross catalog, one that mirrors its subject by taking something digital and transforming it into something very human and emotional.

Confidently bookended by two of their most compelling tracks, "A Little Love" and "Two People in Love," Futique is a gloriously straightforward and pop-oriented production, even as it retains all of the kinetic riffs and stadium rock enthusiasm of their best work.

On I Barely Know Her, the 20-year-old star takes a magnetic first step.

Better Broken is an ideal late-era set that warrants the term "comeback" and adds an unexpectedly beautiful installment in her catalog when fans thought there might not be another.

["Jealous Type" is] a savvy throwback banger, thrillingly evoking Janet Jackson at her most physical. Yet, as with all of Vie, it underscores Doja Cat's power as the diva who's in control here.

While these songs rarely sound like they're brimming with joy, they act as an affirmation of life and hope even as they acknowledge the shadows, and it's his best and most rewarding solo album to date.

It's a more subtle record with a comfortable, stripped-down feel that adds new shades to Plant's global folk fusion.

It continues the deepening specificity of Le Bon’s creative personality, with these songs representing the next notch of all of her various and unlikely components gelling into something that’s simply hers alone.

Between the quality of the album and Nation of Language's new label home, the project is on course to continue its upward climb.

Neon Grey Midnight Green finds her challenging herself and adding enough new elements to make it a genuine standout, and is a reminder she's one of the most gifted singers and songwriters of her generation. Each of her albums is a gift, and this is no exception.

Geese at their most chaotic, delivering an assured yet jarring set of no wave-tinged art-rock missives -- "Trinidad," "Cobra," and "Taxes" -- that are as unnerving as they are affecting.

A representative mix of personal and political atrocities, All That Is Over is far from a grim headbanger, rather offering a cathartic, frustrated call to action that seems timely as ever in its blunt demands for care and safe spaces in a world on fire.

This is a couple cuts above her promising debut.

It's a record that doesn't just offer warmth -- it invites you to enthusiastically participate in it and find comfort in the quiet spaces.

It's a clearer-than-usual sonic landscape from the band, one that invites the listeners to get lost in the details, where they can see how truly separate this chapter is from the rest.

While its backstory is conspicuous in its lyrics and title, the album doesn't play like an accommodation or something that's lacking, even if its quietly haunting, dramatic character was born of necessity.

2025's Based on the Best Seller is Sloan's 14th album, and it has everything you could ask for from a pop-leaning rock band – killer tunes, plenty of swagger and spirit, guitar crunch for days, expert harmonies, a first rate rhythm section, and production that captures their many virtues with clean concision and no excess treacle.

Nobody's Girl is sometimes tough to listen to as Shires pulls no lyrical punches, but it's never less than compelling, fearless, and brilliantly crafted. As an act of musical exorcism, it's breathtaking.

With its artful use of nostalgia and fantasy, not to escape reality but to inspire a better one, Purity Ring is an undeniable level-up.

Pushing the quartet onto yet another exciting path of artistic and creative evolution, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun is a fully committed, thematic foray into the darker corners of the AFI experience.

Snooper might not be having fun on Worldwide, but they make alienation served with an absurdist wink sound more entertaining than it has in some time.

Songbird doesn't tell us much new about Waylon Jennings, but it reaffirms that he was one of the strongest and most compelling country singers of his generation, and this is a welcome gift for fans who wish there was another fine 1970s Waylon Jennings album they'd never heard.

Not for Lack of Trying is a gorgeously subtle, often transfixing album.

Throughout its first ten tracks, Fatal Optimist offers occasional philosophical gems, like "Sometimes a good thing can break you/Sometimes a bad thing can save you" from "Good Lair," a song that also wonders, "Is it really that bad to cover up the sad?"

Even at over three hours, Disquiet holds together exceptionally well, from idea to execution, in a spontaneous, otherworldly flow.

Wasner's music has always felt reflective, but these songs take introspection to a new level and showcase her voice both as a writer and singer. Good art doesn't have to come from darkness, but songs like "Not Yet Free" and "River in My Arms" are proof that riches await on the other side of a crucible.

Where Revealer occasionally spilled into showy musical prowess, Ace finds balance and takes Cunningham's art to the next level.

These are all big-hearted songs dreamed up in small rooms, and painted in bold Broadway strokes.

Virtually every element, whether played or programmed, is in service to Parks' sybaritic visions, and they all stimulate movement free from restraint.

As always, Pollock's rich and deeply resonant songwriting is elevated by sweeping chamber pop arrangements and the emotionally attuned production of her husband and ex-Delgados drummer, Paul Savage.

He delivers a modern jazz recording constructed from sounds, strategies, and sonorities collected across his decades-long career and uses them to create something bracingly different.

Equally poised and unpredictable, Some Like It Hot's poetic, mischievous, raucous, and heartbroken songs come close to a definitive statement from a band in constant motion.

The whole record is a wonderfully triumphant moment for Lawrence, and if it gains him some new fans -- as it just might -- that's great because the world needs odd-duck pop stars, and he certainly fits that bill.

In addition to the standouts "Fast" and "Here All Night," the horny "Kiss" is a euphoric house escape that really solidifies this set as one of Lovato's best works.

All of Touch reflects the curiosity that has driven Tortoise since the beginning -- and still drives them all these years later.

It's like the two musicians are navigating their way through the wilderness without knowing where they're headed, yet once they finally get there, they backtrack and trace a logical path so that it seems like they knew what they were doing the entire time.

With its comparatively restrained approach only reasserting Carlile's gifts as a confident, compassionate, and sympathetic communicator, Returning to Myself offers an equally compelling edition of the musician that may appeal to new, less country-inclined fans.

Not too many other bands working this side of the guitar rock street are able to bundle together hooks and heart, noise, and melody quite as well as White Reaper do on Only Slightly Empty.

While nothing can compete with catalog classics Lungs or Ceremonials, Everybody Scream does come close, channeling the same energy and offering similar delights and thrills for the first time in a while.

The result is an album full of songs like "For the Girls" and "Many A Day A Heartache" that come across like best case scenarios for what one have hoped that the band might sound like someday, blending together elements of all their eras to end up with a powerful rock & roll sound, while the ballads, especially the album ending "Everything Now", have an emotional depth that feels earned.

Like any of rousay's other releases, a little death is a homemade portrait, incorporating sounds from her life and her friends into earnest, personal work.

While some listeners may prefer one singer or type of song over the other, the tracks are all short and strong, sounding less like a side project and more like an album deep into the discography of a beloved indie pop band. And in a way, that's what it is.

While each of these EPs stand on their own in quality, they create a rhythm orgy that is wildly musical and presented as a near symbiotic whole when combined.

The deliberately pursued contemplative aesthetic might be too gentle or slow for some, but this saxophonist and his sidemen deliver a jazz masterclass for trios.

With Tremor, Avery establishes a singular form of distortion-doused electronic rock which dwells in a nocturnal landscape, letting deep-seated emotions rise to the surface.

It's no surprise that Staples puts as much of herself into the rest of the songs. The selections span over 60 years, and in most cases suit Staples as much as those who first recorded them.

Their lushest and most spontaneous-feeling album yet, it takes a firmer step toward the dreamy rock side.

On an artistic level, at least, she is flourishing.

Filled with highs, lows, and surprises, Liquorice eloquently expresses young love's volatility -- and makes for Hatchie's most consistent music since Keepsake.

Cosplay ranks among Sorry's most vivid and exciting works, masterfully keeping all of its seething vocal lines, clashing instrumentation, and shattered glass melodies from imploding, just barely, but by perfect design.

Mercy inventively illustrates grim situations and addresses serious, sometimes brutal subject matter in an engaging and intellectually stimulating way.

This music confirms the Mountain Goats have talent that's on par with their ambitions, and this album is a thoughtful, dramatically satisfying experience.

Equally appropriate for heartbroken solitude, low-key hangouts, or peaceful Sunday afternoons, even at its most conflicted Small Talk feels like a warm embrace.