13's strange, frustrating combination of expert musicianship and self-indulgence reveals the sound of a band trying to find itself.

At its best sounds like a suicidal combination of Blur and the Divine Comedy.

There is no band like out there like Le Butcherettes and A Raw Youth proves it.

Anyone willing to make the leap with the band will find that the adventurousness and exploration displayed by all involved pay off with yet another impressive Woods album to add to their collection.

Its six anthems burn with Ilunga's desire to prove himself, and the years he spent refining Noirwave paid off: His vision of a proud pan-African culture is in clearer focus and more relevant than ever.

They seem to become more themselves with each album, and Plum finds them at their most immediate and compelling.

Flasher appear to have arrived fully formed, with a deeply satisfying debut that's both coherent and imaginative.

Thankful N' Thoughtful is a solid outing from an outstanding singer who knows how to growl, croon, grumble, praise, and jump for joy with her vocal phrasing--whatever makes the song live and breathe.

Midlake might be stuck in the '70s, but they make it sound like the best place on earth.

This isn't just a logical follow-up to 2008's excellent The City That Care Forgot, it's close to a career-defining summation from one of America's most important musicians.

Bicep's debut album essentially delivers what fans have come to expect; for newcomers, the duo revisits some of the more open-hearted elements of '90s dance music without succumbing to the period's cheesiest trappings.

As with Cabral's previous album, The Turning Wheel has several standouts along with a handful of other tracks that don't leave as much of an impression. However, this is undeniably her best-produced work yet, and clearly demonstrates her impressive growth as an artist.

Quite simply, Alive & Wired captures a great band on a great night.

Her voice is too sweet and girlish to command, her melodies mellifluous but not grabbing--but Heroes & Thieves flows easily, and it's a nice return to the strengths of her debut.

Rick Ross keeps a very good thing going on Teflon Don, arguably his best album to date.

If you're in the mood for a few laughs and some well-directed anger from a guy with something to say and a knack for saying it well, Todd Snider is just the man you've been looking for.

Book of Bad Decisions is an excellent late-era entry into the band's vast catalog, a natural product of their enduring chemistry and dedication to their legion of fans.

Given that these musicians have been working together for the better part of 25 years, it should come as no surprise that XOXO still feels like a Jayhawks album, but while conventional wisdom in rock history tells us a band is running short on ideas when they start letting the drummer write more songs, in this case it means they're coming up with new ideas that are working well, and that's welcome news.

By the time they close with the fiery Motown vamp "Love Don't," Rateliff and his band have covered a nice range of moods on what is their most diverse release yet.

Black Hole Superette is yet another successful Aesop Rock record which artfully details and comments on the remarkable aspects of everyday life.

Given the strength of this album, it's hard to wait for the second part to arrive.

Sever the Wicked Hand [is] one of the strongest efforts of their career.

Haunting as it may be, A Church That Fits Our Needs succeeds on nearly every level.

They are ruthlessly efficient, unmerciful, redundant, triumphant, and wholly invested in darkness, volume, destruction, and little else.

Cold World is an example of what Daptone and the retro-soul crowd are doing right, and it's an authoritative and affecting piece of work.

Toledo is young enough that it's premature to call The Scholars a masterpiece, though it's unquestionably his finest work to date and one of the best albums of 2025.

Jean Grae continues to improve in every respect, but the negative aspect is that too many of the beats bleed into one another.

The original deserves the top spot, but think of this as the "Godfather Part II" of reckless boom-bap rap and you've got an idea of how well this Blackout! satisfies.