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.

With this album, Neale manages to translate existential torment into strange and beautiful sounds, yet again progressing with the chimerical vision of rock & roll that's uniquely her own.

Lonely People with Power finds Deafheaven incorporating the most successful parts of that album into their usual sound, resulting in one of their strongest works.

Headlights is his most unassuming, back-to-basics (Neil Young, Elliott Smith) record in years.

The slightly dubby and distorted "What We Are and What We Are Meant to Be" is the band's own acknowledgement that they're challenging themselves and pushing themselves forward.

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.

Stylistically, Friday remains as hard to pin down as ever, but in terms of ambition and drive, she's never been more focused.

The eclectic set is built around the concept of a convergence of multiple realities administered by a mystical jukebox.

Seemingly willing to dip a toe in every genre. It's certainly interesting, and often successful, though a sense of continuity is missing from the album as a whole, which feels almost like an anthology. Still, there are plenty of highlights.

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.

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.

These recordings are not just charming, but along with the other studio out-takes, portray a young artist who’s excited about an opportunity to realize his songs to their highest potential, and motivated to do some homework in preparation. Famously, Drake’s music was gloriously, beautifully sad, but The Making of Five Leaves Left helps show that the experience of creating it was a thing of great joy.

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

Digging its claws in after repeated listens, the result is a more nourishing experience that could have longer legs as time goes on.

This may be somewhat of a disappointment for expecting more from the vault: regardless of how good these selections may be, there's only seven remixes and just one demo of a "new" song that wasn't on the original Ray of Light. For more forgiving fans, however, this release offers a fascinating peek into the era, providing more intense, trance-y forays for some much beloved tracks.

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.

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.

Going Down To The River … To Blow My Mind works well enough that one hopes they'll change their minds about this being the end of their trilogy.

With Find El Dorado, Weller celebrates the passion for finding a good tune and the feeling of having discovered a lost treasure when you do.

All told, Precipice is enjoyably hooky, but taking the edge off of her sound and, ultimately, songs doesn't do their emotional weight any favors, even if -- or rather because -- it makes them go down easier.

While the group's sound is timeless, their lyrics are often distinctly modern.

50 years later, these demented rock & roll outsiders pick right back up as if no time had passed at all, and they have a blast doing it.

Whatever was involved, the sound of the cello is ravishing. Listeners interested in microtones and their possibilities in a close-up focused environment are advised to hear Blue Veil.

Adventure is another chapter in what has become an improbably delightful late-career renaissance for these pioneering underground heroes.

The First Family: Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967 offers a fascinating and exciting glimpse of them in their embryonic stage.

Admittedly, all of Yungblud's sonic borrowing can get a bit maddening. Nonetheless, you feel his passion, and the album takes on layers of meta-self-reflection, as if he's trying to work through his influences as a way to suss out his own musical identity and legacy.

Different Rooms is a nebulous haze of semi-familiar melodies and half-heard voices, forming an abstract dreamscape.