Thrashing Thru The Passion feels mature but not stuffy or settled; it's the sound of a group that cherishes their own peculiar chemistry and choose to bask within the righteous noise they make.

Recorded in just two days, the excitement coursing through Mourn's entire 24 minutes (including the bonus track "Boys Are Cunts") makes its funny, scary, pissed-off punk that much more irresistible.

The Scene Between isn't the Go! Team's best, but it is an impressive new start that consolidates most of their strengths in a bright shiny ball and sends the band shooting off in a brilliant new-ish direction.

The album feels like a departure: with its soft orchestral balm and sweet melancholic undertow, OK Human offers a singular, complete listening experience unlike anything else in their catalog.

Given its length and glacial pacing, Ensemble Pearl may not resonate for all fans of O'Malley's--or his collaborators--other projects, but it is a singular work that offers considerable rewards for those who will engage with it on its own terms.

The collection ultimately ends up feeling like a tribute as well as a remix album, serving to highlight Sakamoto's considerable influence on generations of forward-thinking electronic musicians.

That Rilo Kiley jump around so much stylistically could slow down More Adventurous' heat-seeker status.

For anyone sifting through a broken relationship and self-letdown, this could all be therapeutic. Otherwise, no matter its commendable fearlessness, the album is a listless, bleary trudge along West's permafrost.

Through it all, Tennant and Lowe feel as confident and progressive as ever, honoring their signature sound while continuing to push it into the future.

Stronger with Each Tear is a very good Blige album, if not quite a classic.

In somebody else's hands, the introspection of Lovesick Blues could turn solipsistic or sodden, but he strikes precisely the right notes, creating an album that serves as a suitable soundtrack for long, lonely nights.

It may be no different than what came before, but Rock or Bust is by many measures stronger than most latter-day AC/DC albums, serving as a testament to why their good-humored raunch and industrial-strength riffs made them a rock & roll institution.

While there's a small but significant gap between Honeyblood's outstanding songs and the rest of the album, it's still a debut full of moments of depth and moments of instant gratification--as well as lots of potential.

Slow Summits is an unhurried, understated masterpiece that should make fans of the band, and of music in general, glad that the Pastels have not only stuck with it for so long, but grown into the kind of group that could release something this warm and beautiful.

The album was co-produced by the band and Grammy winner Graham Marsh, who's engineered for the likes of Bruno Mars and Cee Lo Green, and they draw focus to the group's star vocalist without skimping on rhythm and atmosphere. That atmosphere is light reverb, heartache, summer vacation, nostalgia, and Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

It's another page in Vile's ongoing catalog of daydreams and stoned musings, in its best moments reaching the same levels of quality as his fully considered albums.

Ultimately, Heza is a nuanced work that flirts with the experimental, but always remains intimate, atmospheric, and endlessly listenable.

The effects-heavy guitar constructions of Arrow are the most emotionally intense Noveller material from Lipstate yet, making it easily one of her most expressive and fully formed statements to date.

Unlike their first two albums, which landed high on the breeziness scale, Mirror II is a tougher listen. It's clear that the band want to grow and expand their musical horizons but less clear that they are able to do that successfully. That being said, ultimately there is enough craft to the songwriting, energetic verve in the performances, and painful truth in the lyrics that the album is worth listening to, and the band is worth sticking with if only to see where they go from here.

With the exception of a few clunkers, this disjointed flow becomes a defining characteristic of Love Chant. There’s a sense throughout that Dando is now comfortable enough with himself to take all the time he needs to explore weird ideas and decide where they start and end. That embrace of his own artistic whims is admirable, as is his choice to tread new ground rather than try to re-create his most successful work from the past.

If State Hospital is an indication of things to come, then Frightened Rabbit should have 2013's unremittingly bleak indie rock scene sewn up.

Joanna Gruesome make music that's at once breath-catchingly exciting and heartwarmingly pretty at its core, and their first album is one that noise pop fans will treasure, crummy name and all.

Even at high volume and off-the-charts speeds, Quarterbacks' main attribute is the wistful beauty that defines Engle's lyrics and attaches itself to the smartly composed tunes.

There's little ambiguity here and, compared to their earlier work, it's a refreshing evolution and maturation. That a group of Canadian punks would be the voices of reason in 2019 is a wonder in itself; that they've delivered one of the most accomplished albums in their catalog this late in their careers is another.

In Hatfield's hands, the songs of Sting and the Police don't necessarily sound like hits -- nor are they performed with the technical proficiency of Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland -- but they sound fresh and alive, once again feeling like punk-inspired pop.

Goldblum sounds good, and his fans probably wouldn't mind hearing more of him and less of his friends.

Thirstier's anthems of devotion might be more immediately gratifying, but the eloquent expressions of love's uncomfortable and uncertain parts that fill What an Enormous Room are a testament to Torres' insatiable need to seek out emotional truths.

The Blue Depths is an album first and foremost and is assembled as one. Therefore, it should be listened to that way; because the aura it creates around the listener--particularly through headphones--is nothing short of spectacular.