There's nothing sensationalist about the album's most brutal lyrics, and they're balanced out by the record's sly sense of humor and casually innovative production.

The Film is a powerful work from two unstoppable creative forces on the same wavelength.

While hardcore fans may argue--a bit--over the sum total, even they will ultimately agree that this is the only truly representative portrait of Was (Not Was) in all their incarnations; and besides, it’s a stone killer of a party record.

It's a solidly good album, and if taken as part of a trio of albums with Sonic Nurse and Murray Street, it shows that Sonic Youth is still in a comfortable yet creative groove, not a rut.

Great Spans of Muddy Time makes for an immersive, profound experience that will reward repeat listens.

True Love Cast Out All Evil is more than just a comeback, it's the best and most deeply moving album of his solo career.

Between its violently happy songs and its softer ones, It's Blitz! ends up being some of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' most balanced and cohesive music.

Even though Midnight Sun feels like a creative milestone for the band, it's clear that it's just another step in Lennon and Muhl's creative evolution, and while fans might miss it when it's gone, it's exciting to think about what these two might be seeing on the horizon.

From front to back, Blank Project is riveting uneasy listening.

American Love Call is the first album this band has recorded in a proper studio, and though the production is cleaner and the arrangements are more ambitious than those on their self-titled 2016 debut, the addition of strings and horns don't clutter the surroundings and instead refine and focus the sound of a band that already had a good thing going.

The startling thing about Absolute Zero isn't that he's chosen to venture to the outer limits of his tastes, but that he's found the common ground between roots music, jazz, avant-garde, pop, and experimentation. It's this blend -- which is seamless, but quite dense, demanding the listener's attention -- that makes Absolute Zero seem to have depths that aren't easily fathomed.

It's a dense volume of street storytelling and especially reflective lyricism from this rap MVP, and even at its extensive running time, Born 2 Rap delivers lots of highlights.

As dense as the mix gets, it never suffocates, and all of the instruments are allowed to breathe easily. Shebang is an inventive, vibrant work that constantly surprises and uplifts.

Condors is an impressive mini-debut that's just long enough to show what the band can do, and suggest that they're well on the way to making all of their ideas gel into a cohesive whole.

Again, it's easy to name great songs that are missing, but what's here is sublime, some of the best rock & roll ever made, and the best overall Stones comp to date.

Dig Thy Savage Soul is everything a Barrence Whitfield & the Savages fan could hope for and more; it may even reel in followers of the Dirtbombs, Andre Williams, and the Detroit Cobras.

Expertly arranged and produced, and written and performed with smarts and compassion, No Way There from Here demonstrates that Laura Cantrell remains one of the best and most thoughtful singer/songwriters working in roots music today.

It's another dense, thrilling journey into the daunting catalog of the most intergalactic musician of all time.

It's an impressive debut, one that should easily win over fans of simple and true indie pop, and also one that promises great things in the future.

A splendid work from a wildly underrated artist, Tara Jane O'Neil is an ideal album for the end of the day, or anytime you need to immerse yourself in something that's clear and beautiful.

In between "Confession" and "Float" is the sharply contrasting "The Hour," whose haunted, fingerpicked folk and mournful vocal draw on troubadour tradition. Everything else falls somewhere in between, and somehow, from its pastoral opening title track to its glistening rock closer ("Willow's Song"), Sound of the Morning makes sense, through acknowledging struggle and uplifting with a gumption and determination that's reflected in its design.

Working Men's Club dig even deeper into their black disco ball aesthetic, crafting an album full of acidic electronica that straddles the line between atonally robotic industrial music and dancefloor-friendly post-punk.

It will please fans of the hybrid jazz scene in England and draw in many new listeners internationally who will be deeply attracted to its apocalyptic energy, innovative beats, and rowdy abundance.

The Ones Ahead gets too saccharine at times, and it's not anywhere near as engaging as Glenn-Copeland's visionary folk-jazz records from the early '70s, or his soothing ambient classic Keyboard Fantasies. Nevertheless, it's impossible to find fault with his optimism, and the songs' messages clearly resonate.

The result is indie rock, and Omni, at their 100% best and most exhilarating.

Overall, There Is Love in You has the spartan precision of Phillip Glass but also, surprisingly, the warmth and vitality of classic Cluster as well.

With Being Funny in a Foreign Language, Healy and the 1975 do seem to have matured, confidently jumping off the ropes and back into the center of the pop music ring.

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