Each track has its own kind of burning intensity. The album's front, back, and inner photos are in black-and-white, but the music evokes rich shades of yellow, orange, and red.

Before the Dawn is an album just as special as she is, a remarkable and expansive creative statement full of wonder and magic that rivals the best of her LPs.

It's artistically satisfying because it's the Rolling Stones allowing themselves to simply lay back and play for sheer enjoyment. It's a rare thing that will likely seem all the more valuable over the years.

Highly Suspect show potential but they're still in the throes of some serious growing pangs here.

For a group whose members are spread far and wide geographically, not to mention busy with their own principal projects, they've funneled a great deal of stamina and confidence into these 13 tracks, making for an impressive debut.

Future Standards isn't quite "Howe Gelb, the Moonlight, and You," but it's closer than anyone might expect, and he plays lounge lizard here entirely on his own terms, and it's a thoroughly enjoyable detour for a multi-faceted artist.

The result is an unpredictable, captivating listening experience.

The productions--the majority of which involve Doc McKinney and/or Cirkut, low-lighted by maneater dance-punk dud "False Alarm"--are roughly as variable in style as they are in quality. When pared down to its ten best songs, Starboy sounds like Tesfaye's most accomplished work.

Following 2014's similarly impressive Do Not Engage, the Pack A.D. are on a roll, producing some of the strongest material of their ten-year career.

For a string band album titled Autumn, they deliver exactly what you'd want: a nuanced selection of warm, earthy music replete with gentle guitar picking, woody mandolin, muted banjo, occasional piano, and a robust vocal blend to evoke the wistful changing of the season.

Throughout it all, Dr. John remains at the center, occupying attention even when he's offstage because it's clear that this blend of jazz, soul, R&B, rock, and pop is distinctly his.

As with other Mayer studio full-lengths (including the SuperMayer release), & has an anything-goes spirit, jumping from style to style and resisting expectations. It flows well as an album, though, starting out celebratory before getting darker and more sinister and finally ending up sublime and relaxed.

With South London peers Theon Cross Trio, Ezra Collective, and Blue Lab Beats, they reflect a compelling scene rife with exciting ideas in cultural and sonic cross-pollination. Black Focus is a hell of a first effort.

Thirteen years on, that's still who Busted are, just three grown-up lads supplying a soundtrack to a night out on the town, even if their fans are now just as likely to be picking their kids up that night as hitting the clubs.

The Hidden Cameras have finally delivered on that promise with a collection of songs that find the sweet spot between homey and fabulous.

The boldness and hunger in Mandel's playing not only achieves the hallmarks of his best sides from the '60s and '70s, but at times reaches further. Not just a guitar nerd's album, Snake Pit is a stone killer from top to bottom.

No Exit is immediate; even raw in places. It's committed to the truths inside the songs, not an iconic performance (as 1990's Blazing Away was). For that reason, it belongs on every Faithfull fan's shelf.

While the album is technically one of Rumer's most faithfully old-school, it still sounds fresh, and the analog production aesthetic only works to magnify the purity, lyricism, and expressiveness of her voice.

The Notwist blends all of these sounds and eras together organically and with an excitement that suggests they'll never tire of finding different ways to combine their pop and experimental sides in concert as well as the studio.

All of these sounds are familiar, but his light touch means Gunslinger doesn't sound like pandering to the past but rather a cheerful acceptance of the present.

They prove to be naturals at soundtracks, creating something here that works like they said it would. While no doubt the score would work in perfect tandem with the film, it stands alone as a sterling example of the band's mastery of psychedelic music.

Classical Indian music is thoroughly interwoven with '60s psychedelia and pop--and the two are different, with the first emphasizing texture and the second structure--giving Elephant Stone a shimmering, off-kilter quality that's alluring.

Boots No. 1 plays less like an expansion of Revival than a document of a fertile period of creativity in the life of Gillian Welch, and while fans of the original album will revel in it, you don't have to be familiar with it to be dazzled by the subtle passion, intelligence, and eloquence of this music.

Stage is more Operation: Mindcrime-era Queensrÿche than it is Muse, and for all its opining on nanotechnology and interstellar travel, it still feels rooted in heavy metal tradition.

One needn't take in all 90 minutes of America's National Parks at one go; it might work better, for some, to absorb slowly. Either way, it masterfully balances solo and group improvisation, chamber sounds, modern jazz, and avant composition.

Yet another artful and modern amalgamation of machine soul and left-field pop, Redemption is similar to the earlier parts of the trilogy in that it gives the listener a sense of being swept up, though there's little in the way of fantasy or escape here.

With On Dark Silent Off, Radian sharpen their difficult sound into something more urgent and alarming than it ever was before.

While the band's resemblance to its forebears is still strong--especially on the standout "Forget," which Hot Chip would be proud to call their own--Boxed In sound more assured than ever as they expand on that legacy.