Brainwashed isn't just a success, it's one of the finest records Harrison ever made.

His strongest album since he delved into unabashed crossover with Fresh Horses.

It's the Mekons' most accomplished bit of record making in some time.

No matter how you feel about Pixies worship or Star Wars references, if you have an affinity for loud, fast, but brainy, punky pop that is fun and full of hooky jams that'll have you bobbing your head like a maniac, The Late Great Whatever is just what you need to make you happy.

International announces Lust for Youth as one of the finest acts giving synth pop new life in the 2010s.

Summoning Suns is no less ambitious than Blackshaw's more deliberately experimental records. Though it is the first time he has brought his vocal skills so prominently to the forefront, he does so with so much confidence (not to mention aplomb in his arrangements) that he commands the listener's attention through gentle seduction.

While there are a couple other relatively lively passages on the album, the overall effect is decidedly thoughtful and stoned; Living Theatre leaves listeners with the drifting, droning "Distant Episode" and the spare, interlude-like guitar instrumental "Angelino High."

From the puckish refrains of the lovely "Sunday Venus" to the intricate "Arm of Golden Flame," the two characters intertwine amid fascinating compositions that are intellectually challenging but ultimately rewarding.

Whatever the Weather clearly feels more "outdoors" than the music James makes under her own name, but it's just as introspective and personal, and the project's second album is another powerfully expressive work.

You might not find heartache as enchanting as this anywhere else.

On Wake Up!, the funkiest, most flexible band on the planet backs one of the most skilled and accomplished singer/keyboardists in modern R&B.

Toledo isn't the first artist to discover getting what you want isn't the same thing as getting what you were hoping for, and the cooler, more precise, and less cozy surfaces of Making a Door Less Open suit these songs well, the inorganic tone meshing with the alienation that permeates the album. Despite all that, the simple yet effective melodies that buoyed Car Seat Headrest's earlier work are still recognizable, and the sincere, foggy tone of Toledo's voice adds a humanity that makes his uncertainty cut even deeper.

Twenty-five years after their debut, they still retain that power, while finding ways to surprise within their firmly defined style.

"Misstep" is certainly a word too harsh for The Big Doe Rehab, which is more "uneventful" than "wrong."

She sounds every bit the wounded princess, unwilling to let anyone help her pick up the pieces as she delivers these lovely, sad songs from behind a shroud of her own making.

Live from the Ryman doesn't change what you already know about Jason Isbell as a writer or a performer, but as a document of his many strengths, it's powerful and thoroughly entertaining, and is one more reminder that he's as smart and gifted as any songwriter at work today--and he can work the crowd like nobody's business.

Object 47 highlights Wire's pop credentials, but the band hasn't lost its edge.

While it remains almost impossible to dissociate Kelis and early collaborators the Neptunes, it's more difficult imagining a better creative alliance--at this point in her career, at least--than the one that shines here.

One of the most joyously deafening albums of 2015.

Other songs are colored with words and phrases of despair and resignation, like "doubt," "losing my grip," and "let's just break up." If the productions weren't so richly detailed and deceptively varied, Escapements might be a stifling experience.

Compared to SP's conceptual third and fourth LPs, which arrived together in 2017, The Don of Diamond Dreams is unified by its funkier and humanized sonics more than its lyrics.

Though Michael can get overbearing at times, the production is generally stellar, and it's easily the rapper's most honest and emotional work.

The overall effect of the album's variability is less vibey but more emotionally resonant than the debut -- perhaps an even tradeoff given that they both have the quality of feeling like records the band had to make.

Beck never lingers upon either his melancholy or his celestial flights of fantasy: they exist simultaneously, resulting in a tremulous and pretty soundtrack for moments of fleeting introspection.

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.

As Darnielle's first release on his new label, Merge, opening a new chapter in his career, Undercard may not be a total knockout, but it's an eminently worthy diversion from (or preface to) the main event.

Bless Off is a single-minded beast of an album that seeks only to inspire the listener to hit the streets and take some risks, making a case for the idea that a life that isn't lived dangerously is a life that's barely lived at all.

On LP.8, Owens draws from different, seemingly contradictory mystical energies, creating music that challenges and shocks as much as it soothes.