Her intricate, folk-inflected indie rock has a more conspicuous, gentle jazz presence here.

They may be channeling Incesticide-era grunge ("Datura"), jagged, Sunny Day Real Estate-inspired indie rock ("F Jam"), and straight-up shoegaze ("CCLL"), but underneath the hood Heaven Is Humming is pure, uncut Goon.

Absolutely astonishing work, and easily up there with Delay's early-2000s masterpieces Multila and Anima.

Familiar yet unpredictable moments like these make Enter the Mirror a confident, dynamic celebration of Maserati's 20th year of reimagining the future of decades past with 20/20 hindsight.

Good Luck with Whatever is dad rock at its finest, unapologetically classicist in tone and full of a hard-won gratitude. But the way that it's also struck through with a wry sense of existential dread speaks to the group's decidedly un-dad-like ability to perfectly capture the climate of the present moment.

Trip doesn't overlap much with Lambchop's original musical vision, but it finds the group picking up on the philosophy behind their early work, and it makes for a satisfying and affecting listening.

While slowthai has always been praised for his honesty, he reveals more of himself on Tyron than before, and it's equally as compelling as the sharp social commentary of his debut.

The Bevis Frond isn't just a band anymore, they are almost a genre of their own making now, and if Nick Saloman keeps cranking out albums as inspired, alive, and joyously gnarly as this, the next few decades should bring many more delights.

The subtle shifts in tempo and arrangement make this brief record feel fully realized: these are renditions that are deep and soulful, carrying the same richness of Cobb's secular material while having a palpable spiritual undercurrent.

Earth Patterns rewards patience with some positively searing moments.

The Work is Gold Panda's most honest, emotionally direct release.

Eye of I showcases the immediacy and range in Lewis' musical imagination in composition, improvisation, and communication with a freer, more immediately instinctive persona on full display. All killer, no filler.

The songs are tough, the performances are rugged and real, and Eddie 9V is clearly on his way to greater acclaim by following the music that initially, and still, inspires him.

Clear Pond Road's mesmerizing sonics and songwriting make it special among her solo albums. Nearly 30 years after Hips and Makers, it offers another chance to savor the intricacies of her music as well as its power.

Goat prove once again on Medicine that they deserve to be in the top echelon where the groups, past or present, who play this style of music with an incalculable amount of imagination and an unquenchable desire to scale new heights of sound are nobly enshrined.

Twenty One Pilots tie a bow on a fascinating narrative that has captured the imagination of a legion of fans around the globe. Fortunately for listeners unaware of the backstory, the songs are reliably catchy and intriguing enough to grab their attention, too.

This sounds like it could be her best album to date, and a strong candidate for "Best of 2025" lists.

It's another subtle outing from a band whose energetic peaks once defined them, but in this later period opt for patience over power.

It's easily their most fully realized project to date and rather than simply a pastiche, they've managed to create something that's completely their own.

Those seeking the wacky thrills of Regions of Light and Sound of God might be surprised--or even put off at first--but closer listening reveals the poignant and provocative Eternally Even as a stronger, deeper album.

It's Cursive at their finest, challenging and smart and absolutely riveting.

While this sounds like it could be an impossibly tall order, or something that requires an encyclopedic knowledge of music just to listen to, the band achieve a remarkably, almost effortlessly cohesive sound, and it goes down much more smoothly than one might expect.

She remains musically mercurial and virtually unclassifiable, even if she is at her most accessible on Devil's Halo.

Ultimately, Animals is a compelling conversation between the creator and his psyche, his musicians, and listeners.

It's deliberately confusing, oddly seductive, and takes no prisoners.

It's every bit as ugly, uncomfortable, and bothered as one would expect from Wolf Eyes, and it feels like the only logical way such an expression of confusion and paranoia could unravel.

Though Cook creates both of Apple's sides ably, juxtaposing them keeps the album engaging and makes it a successful entry point to his music. Happily bridging the gap between synthetic and organic, Apple is one of Cook's most satisfying obliterations of the borders between genres, authenticity, and artifice.

Like many artists who have stripped away the noise and rough edges from their sound, what's left over isn't as interesting as it could be, and it's hard not to imagine that the songs on Cool would be better off with a layer of liberally applied grungy fuzz coating them.