Weed Garden is a nice little diversion, and finds both Beam and the band he oversees at the top of their long-running game.

More a headphones-type album than a radio-friendly one, what emerges are still songs before compositions or productions, though they may appeal to the more explorative indie rockers.

Dissolution is the album The Pineapple Thief have been promising since 2012's All the Wars: it's poetic, erudite, emotionally powerful, and chock-full of musical imagination.

Where Mogwai's other scores pushed their boundaries, KIN simply restates their strengths--which, fortunately, are as formidable as ever.

Indigo is another block in the impressive body of work Tatum has built over the decade, and it's some of the best retro '80s (but not stuck in the past) music anyone is making in the 2010s.

Carefully considered and uniquely transportive, The Giant Who Ate Himself is yet another sterling example of Jones' guitar mastery.

Landes is ready and willing to create her own spin on classic country, winding up with a generous and clever gem.

While Book of Travelers may be a less-immediate collection than some of his previous work, its contemplative nature is worth investing a significant amount of time in.

The tributes come across as affectionate rather than rote. That's due in large part to a distinctive, emphatic voice and lyrics concerned with their own troubles and colorful characters.

There's enough variety to excite and warrant repeat listens; however, pacing suffers when the momentum is cut by otherwise pleasant tracks like "Fractured and Dazed" and "Picture Frame." These issues aside, Let's Go Sunshine is a mature progression for the Kooks, one that points in the right direction for the band's evolution.

Like contemporaries AFI and Rise Against, age and experience have smoothed out the band's delivery (Skiba's stint with blink-182 could also be a contributing factor), resulting in less danger and gloom. However, Cursed is ultimately an enjoyable ride, packed with rousing anthems.

At a taut ten tracks, Bloom is an unambiguous statement from Sivan, clear in its intent to celebrate the highs and lows of queer love through the eyes of a proud pop star in the making.

Hunter is the record where, more than any other, Calvi's talents have fully crystallized. The true character of her music has been unleashed and will likely see all those PJ Harvey comparisons finally fade, eclipsed by the radiance of this tough yet open-hearted work.

Negro Swan sonically is as fluid as it is fragmented, synthesizing and bounding between bedsit post-punk, desolate dream pop, chillwave-coated quiet storm, and low-profile hip-hop soul.

KEN mode are masters of their craft, and this is easily the equal of anything from the heyday of the genre on labels like AmRep and Hydra Head. While the more casual listener will find this heavy going, fans of the band, and of noise rock in general, are going to be stoked.

While the songs on Basic Volume explore similar sounds and themes as his previous work, they're sharper and more focused.

An album that coheres in a way other Ariana Grande albums don't, which means Sweetener is something of a double triumph: she's come through a tough time stronger and better than before.

The modulation and echo treatments on the vocals, combined with the frequently torpid tempos, nonetheless make Astroworld ideal for being pumped through an (18 and over) amusement park's sound system near closing time, when the challenge of hitting all the rides has started to turn into an overindulgent, overheated chore.

Exploring both their known, time-honored chemistry and new inspirations, the vibe that stretches across Songs You Make at Night feels positive and renewed. Always caught in a dream, this is one of the brighter and more hopeful dreamscapes in the Tunng catalog.

Lemon Twigs commit wholeheartedly to the bizarre narrative that Go to School is built on. Leaving no ridiculous tangent or exaggerated flourish unexplored, the result is a larger-than-life spectacle grown from strange but excellent songwriting.

Love Me/Love Me Not is a conceptual step forward for Honne and a compact journey through the highs and lows of love, instantly relatable to anyone who's ever experienced such a human journey.

Ohmme are clearly not adverse to inspired noise, but they know how to put it in a context where it doesn't grate so much as it adds zest, like a good pepper sauce, and on Parts they've made an album that's smart, sweet, and full of potent flavor.

Once the shock of the bigger, bolder sound fades, Chains Are Broken reveals itself as a perhaps inevitable maturation for the Devil Makes Three, one that broadens their horizons while retaining their vigor, humor, and heart.

Lightsleeper never quite coalesces. Instead, it drifts, floating from point to point, thought to thought, offering some memorable sounds along the way but never quite coming into focus.

For Interpol, embracing their veteran status doesn't mean a slide into complacency; if anything, it's the opposite. Marauder doesn't need to be qualified in terms of the band's former successes--on its own terms, it's one of the richest albums of Interpol's career.

With Deportation Blues, Brian Christinzio has created his own Big Star 3rd, less druggy but just as much a musical voyage through one man's psyche that travels through darkness while searching for some gleam of healing light. Let's hope he finds it before he makes his next album.

Performance may be lacking in progress, but the effortlessness of their experiments is still very much present, and nine albums in, White Denim remain as playful as ever. Overall, longtime fans of the band are likely to be satisfied, if not dazzled, by their latest effort.

Maintaining a healthy balance of sunshine and rain, Don't Look Away is the best example yet of Tucker's singular approach to music.