From its unconventional treatment of electronic music to its emotionally raw songwriting, visiting The Sea of Memories is well worth the journey.

The tracks do an excellent job at establishing a mood, but a lot of them don't particularly go anywhere. Leaving meaning. is a decent album, but ultimately it sounds like a sort of reset or palate cleanser that will hopefully lead up to something greater.

Swirlings is another prime example of his brand of gorgeous, multi-dimensional sonic-shaping. Both lush and interstellar, his compositions contain drifting, spacy melodies that unfold at a natural, leisurely pace.

Fortunately, Air learned from their mistakes -- or, at least, their limitations -- leading up to the recording of third album Talkie Walkie, and the happy result is a solid middle ground between both of their previous records.

Woke Myself Up captures the wide range of sounds and emotions of her music, and all the nuances of them as well.

My Morning Jacket is MMJ's most satisfying work since 2008's Evil Urges, and a splendid example of what can happen when their group mind is in sync.

Hardcore fans will be down with every cold hard minute, everybody else gets a B+ effort, and the hip-hop game as a whole gets a really good reason to save Prodigy's place at the table for the next three-and-a-half years.

Mixing and matching funk, rock, and soul with a little jazz and blues, and enhanced on occasion by some seamlessly incorporated electronics, Boo! delivers robust party material with plenty of straight-faced, sidesplitting/head-scratching humor...precisely what you'd expect from them, then.

While there are melodies and hooks that certainly dig into the skull, what impresses is chemistry, how the three play together, how they instigate each other, and how they spur each other on, to the point where their familiar tropes sound fresh.

Producer Carson Chamberlain's new penny polish and Corbin's traditional twang balance each other out nicely. Corbin's debut is jam-packed with the sounds of yesterday.

The quietest moments tend to be as tense as the loudest, and the contrasts -- lambent, sparsely played guitar offset by skittering and rattling cymbals and transitory electronic thrums, for instance -- are deeply affecting with close listening.

Ultimately, what is so great about this release is how well Mariachi El Bronx balance their love of traditional mariachi music with their desire to write utterly catchy, contemporary pop songs.

Clementine will no doubt be polarizing for many listeners. There is no question, however, of his raw talent, poeticism, and knack for beguiling melodies, and in this oversaturated market, the true mavericks will always rise above the din.

A streamlined ten-song effort that, at the outset, feels like a very meat-and-potatoes, suburban pop-punk affair. But simple suburban pop-punk is Spraynard's bailiwick and their unpretentiousness is part of their charm.

Hardly a late-career masterpiece, Evil Spirits at least shows that the Damned are still smart and witty while paying attention to the global chaos of the era of Brexit and Trump, and they haven't lost their touch in the recording studio.

Generally, Egoli bends toward joyous exuberance, music that sustains itself through its spontaneity and its open heart. The immediacy makes Egoli an instantly inviting listen but it's the camaraderie that makes it a nourishing one.

Inside Problems deals with weighty themes in a modest, manageable way, and that's one of its greatest virtues; here, Andrew Bird is a mildly quirky regular guy with some thoughts to share and a fiddle to help carry them across, and self-analysis is rarely as fun and rewarding as this.

Even considering its modest ambitions, it's probably not a surprise that Songs of Silence showcases instincts and inventiveness well beyond that of your typical synth-instrumentals diversion.

Clever, eerie, and beautiful, Berberian Sound Studio is the perfect accompaniment to a film that examines the nature of fear and sound's part in it, and it's wonderful to hear Cargill continue Broadcast's legacy with a project so tailored to their strengths.

Andersson brings a real sense of songcraft to the project, and many of her melodies are appealingly ethereal.

Invisible Girl is no-frills rhythm & blues and rock & roll done right, and the King Khan and BBQ Show get on the good foot with a mixture of sincerity and wailing abandon most of their contemporaries can't match.

PSB B-sides are larks and experiments of the highest order, so while Super scores as high as the crossover-ish Electric, it's built more for the fan who puts "Paninaro" at the top of their list, well ahead of "West End Girls."

Yellowcard never feels treacly or forced. It's emo for grownups and a proper close for a band that wanted to go out on its own terms.

The project's new direction is unexpected, and it works quite well. Woolford is still more of a master of dubplate pressure than cinematic soundscapes, but this is a promising direction for him.

K-Os doesn't necessarily pursue Rebellion's themes far enough. But give him a break -- it's only the cat's second album.

Even if this is familiar ground, an album so tight in theme and feel is refreshing in an era where most lyricists invite anybody and everybody.

Brand New may not be completely comfortable with the slow stuff, but Daisy's willingness to experiment is what makes the album so interesting, even as its furious rock songs continue to pack a punch.

If it isn't both the most purposeful and moving album to come out of dubstep, it's got to be at least one of the two.