Consisting of skillful (mostly) first-person character sketches, the songs seem like intimate Stratton remembrances until the settings crystallize.

It's a shame that a majority of the album suffers from this cookie cutter sameness when at other times SASAMI can craft music that does have some personality and excitement. Just not enough to make Blood on the Silver Screen feel like anything other than a huge misstep.

Jason Isbell is a singer and songwriter who is never afraid to do the work to make his music something special, and even when he's performing in stripped-down fashion, he delivers great songs and the commitment to make them special. Anyone who questions that hasn't heard Foxes in the Snow.

The craft of Here We Go Crazy is superb, and Bob Mould is one of the very, very few musicians who came up in the 1980s hardcore scene and is still making powerful, relevant music in the 2020s. However, if he wanted to make an album that reflects the chaos of the culture that witnessed its creation, he may have hit the bullseye just a bit too close to the center.

A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole stands in a direct line behind the rest of DePlume's catalog and brings his spiritual and creative worlds together. It's a brave record that confronts pain while embraces it with humility, acceptance, and yes, vulnerability.

The steps forward on Cotton Crown are subtle but undeniable, with the Tubs' vision growing clearer through these increasingly enjoyable and well-crafted songs.

Parasomnia is solid. It channels the band's storied past as well as their current more complex, forward-thinking compositional style with only a few rough edges.

A Paradise in the Hold is a masterpiece, a work of tremendous sensitivity and creative insight brought to life by a musical visionary capable of advancing and remaking 21st century jazz.

New Dawn is a powerful work from a celebrated artist who has never stopped exploring new territory.

A bit more low-key than Hecker's other albums, Shards is nevertheless representative of his signature sound, encapsulating the emotional depth and innovative sonic weaving listeners have come to associate with his work.

Channeling technological paranoia, City of Clowns contains some of Davidson's most futuristic work yet, as well as some of her most commanding and personality-driven.

By the time Luminescent Creatures closes on the wind-sampling "惑星の泪 (Wakusei no Namida)" ("Tears of the Planet") -- a fingerpicked guitar song that refers to dreams, the birth of a story, and "a melody of a million light years" -- listeners will likely have felt transported to another world.

Russell converts extemporaneous dialogue from the participants into collage-like pieces across the LP. Other thematically relevant choices for samples and interpolations -- including songs by Shawn Smith, Jackson C. Frank, and Molly Drake, all of whom are deceased -- add even more emotional resonance. Melody is foregrounded by a cross-generational ensemble of 18 featured voices and winds players.

The songs on Microtonic simply aren't as memorable as the highlights of their debut. It sounds impressive, but it exists in a sort of netherworld between expansive sonic exploration and fully engaging songwriting.

The sleek, dramatic title track sets the stage with a lush, grooving indie rock bolstered by shimmery synths, textured guitar effects, and a somewhat oversaturated sound that permeates and distinguishes the album.

Sinister Grift is a significant chapter in the Panda Bear story if only for how it finds Lennox shedding some of the stubborn uneasiness that’s so long been part of his music. While still mainly the product of a solitary mind, the album is perhaps the least lonely Panda Bear has sounded to date.

These may be the same songs in the same sequence as Funeral for Justice, but they have the character of an entirely different album, and that's a tough feat to pull off.

The essence that Bell distills on Pinball Wanderer is one of happy exploration, indeed wandering from one creative idea to the next with very little second guessing or restraint. If there are any unfinished thoughts or untidy loose ends in that approach, they’re easily outshined by the feeling of radiant joy that carries the album.

List of Demands is both archival and of the present -- engrossing and energizing, to be blasted from every boombox.

Far from drab or sentimental, the results are often bright, robust, and admiring.

McRae delivers on the promise of Think Later, levelling up with this set of addictive pop gems and heartfelt confessionals.

It isn't quite the unexpected triumph that Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance was, but it confirms Patterson Hood is capable of more than he's created with the Drive-By Truckers, great as they are, and it's a pleasure to hear him challenge himself with such impressive results.

The Afrobeats-tinged "Happy People" and "We All Win" spread joy to a communal level. A couple other songs, while inviting, are over-sugared, and certain production choices, mainly with regard to vocal effects, don't play to Nao's strengths. Hearing her so assured and exultant is no small consolation.

The 12-song set ends with the dialogue-heavy "Home Movies (1989-1993)," which, like much of the rest of the album, is full of affection. If there's a knock on Rarely Do I Dream (and it's a light rap), it's that Rarely Do I Dream sometimes seems like an album for an audience of one, like a personal collage of photographs and cards on a pinboard behind the laptop monitor in the den.

If Delaware wasn't shoegaze enough for purists, 1991 certainly is. Far from being rough sketches, these demos are full-fledged songs with all the hallmarks of shoegaze 1.0, albeit with an endearingly hissy sound quality that only enhances their nostalgia.

Was anyone asking Lilly Hiatt to make a 1990s alternative album? No, and that's part of why Forever works so well -- here, she's just doing what feels right in the moment, and it sounds every bit as right to the listener.

This is special, timeless music that speaks equally to the heart and the brain and it positions Horsegirl as the keepers of the indie rock flame.

Those willing to meet End of the Middle on its own terms will find a powerfully moving work that turns kitchen-sink realism into something uniquely profound. There's no one who does what Richard Dawson does quite the way he does it, and we should all be glad he shares this gift with us.