Older, wiser, and still passionate, Phoenix is a worthy continuation of Pedro the Lion's legacy with just enough spirit to set it apart from his 2010s solo work.

While Ma isn't the most eclectic chapter of Banhart's work, it's an inspired and wide-reaching collection that goes all over the place without ever losing track of his restless creative vision.

More than just a remix album, Heavy Rain stands out on its own merit, demonstrating that Perry's inspiration and creative drive haven't dulled in his advanced age.

While just about everything here is darkly anxious yet engaging, highlights include the line “Life’s just time chasing your mind with the body you get" (from "In the Red") and the bouncy, utterly infectious "Big Air," which, in keeping with the rest of the album, adds injury to elation: "I got big air/Flew and landed strange."

While arguably Sam Evian's strongest set of songs yet, he's nothing if not consistent, and Plunge sits well alongside project debut Premium (2016) while at the same time offering something a little "more so" thanks to a live-in-studio recording philosophy that shunned headphones and playback and kept overdubs to a minimum.

It may not match See Through You's consistent brilliance, but at its best, Synthesizer delivers the noise for which A Place to Bury Strangers is known and quite a bit more.

In Our Heads is some of their finest and most accessible music.

It's not only her biggest and most ambitious production to date, but also the album that best showcases her gift for communicating complex emotional entanglements so simply and clearly they become almost weightless.

It carefully builds--creatively and emotionally--on everything Baird had accomplished so far and ascends to another level entirely.

It makes for an utterly compelling, even obsessive listen.

The density of the Twilight Sad's sound evokes wide open spaces, yet the louder they are, the more intimate they sound.

Dear Catastrophe Waitress [is] the richest musical offering yet from Belle & Sebastian.

As fine as those nearly 16 minutes of controlled chaos are, it's the first half of Popular Songs that you're more likely to come back to, where by thinking in a small space Yo La Tengo have challenged themselves a bit and beautifully risen to the occasion.

Ultimately, Get Up! earns its titular exclamation point as a successful combination of two talented veterans feeding off each other's dusky, creative spirit.

Kin (<-->) proves that the Unity Band is the next evolution of what Metheny -- and Lyle Mays--began with PMG. Musically, this unit's musicality derives as much from feel and freedom as it does sophisticated form and function.

Throughout its shifting emotions and sounds, The Age of Anxiety is a consistently thoughtful, playful reflection of hyper-stimulating times.

The album manages to sound detached yet intimate as dal Forno's fragile voice and glowing melodies reach toward something intangible.

Unrelentingly harsh and moving deliberately away from previously charted territory, Head Cage might disappoint fans looking for a rehash of former styles and statements, but those excited by Pig Destroyer's journey through new forms of despair and hostility will enjoy hearing their hybrid sound continue to mutate.

Their debut record doubles down--or triples, if we're talking about actual time--on those sentiments [of youthful fun and young defiance] and exposes a deeper level of honesty, although that same honesty might make it hard for anyone over a certain age to relate.

The resulting record is a shiny, dreamy affair that retains all the hooks and feel of the first album but adds some energy and pop immediacy.

This is the folky, bluesy, jangly-guitar-slinging sound of somebody who has made a practice of walking in boots three sizes too big for so long that they finally fit, and it delivers enough promise to inspire big ideas about what could happen when he outgrows them.

Silver Bullets fits together as a whole and doesn't need a pop hit, heavenly or otherwise, to be interesting or worthwhile. It's enough that The Chills are back and just as good as they were when they left off.

With a more engaging set of songs, Barnett might easily transpose herself into the mode of introspective singer/songwriter, but alas, Things Take Time, Take Time just feels a little too dull.

Owens' album seems a bit scattered and all over the place, but its sense of dream logic is intriguing, and its best moments are captivating.

Compared to the grander constructs of their latter-day Oh Sees albums, A Foul Form is a hit and run job where the music jumps in, leaves everyone stunned, and splits before the cops can show up. It's a manic blast of pure energy with lots of smarts if you're looking for them, and demonstrates Osees are never short on daring, ideas, and the skills to make them work.

Growing up is working out well for Chastity Belt, and I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone is clever, satisfying proof.

It's packed with stuff, but there's enough space here, and wonderfully warm atmospheres, to bring the listener right into the deeper sonic dimensions that Black Mountain is trying to create.

Highly desirable for Currensy fans who like his material at its most loose and free, just don't start here.