Seductive, poetic, and uplifting, Desire Marea's music is powerful in so many ways.

Legacy, Vol. 2 rounds up key tracks that weren't included on Boo's previous albums, along with plenty of gleeful surprises.

At once intricate and tossed-off, passionate and aloof, Tracey Denim's seeming contradictions and haunting mood elevate bar italia amongst their post-punk reviving peers. It's an album that's complex enough for fans of the band's previous work, and just welcoming enough for a wider audience.

In its still-life reflections, Seven Psalms doesn't play like a summation as much as an epilogue to a major artist's career, music that doesn't deepens appreciation for his lasting achievements, of which this mini-suite is certainly one.

Like all Tinariwen releases, Amatssou is compelling and strange. They are a musical entity like no other, translating the essence of their culture through creative exploration and complementary collaborations, yet always attuned to their inner compass.

Jadagu's songs are memorable, creative, and highly relatable, and Aperture is an impressive first album.

Like so much of Cooper's work, these songs present raw depictions of hope at odds with sadness, only this time underscored with a palpable concern about how quickly the future is arriving and how little control human beings might have over it.

It's a concise debut album that, with the exception of a few tracks aided by either Biako or Andrew Lappin, McFerrin produced herself, and it also exhibits her range as a singer and lyricist.

Only Ron and Russell Mael could have made this album, and while they've always done what they needed and wanted to do as artists, it's extra satisfying that this peak in their popularity coincides with music this vibrantly engaging.

My Soft Machine hits differently than Collapsed in Sunbeams, but it's still a powerful effort that packs more emotional weight while expanding the singer/songwriter's stylistic range.

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

Some of Water from Your Eyes' most consistently gripping music, the cohesion of Everyone's Crushed lends a new vantage point on their music -- and it's an exciting one.

After several years' worth of darker and more obviously thematic work like Playground in a Lake, Kiri Variations, and Daniel Isn't Real, it makes sense that he'd want to make something more eclectic and exploratory, and Sus Dog's exhilarating creativity is a testament to trusting the process.

Archangel Hill documents a singular artist with a tremendous command of her gifts – no small accomplishment for someone who was 87 years of age when this was released.

Who knows where they might go next, but right here and right now in the year 2023, one would be hard-pressed to find a better rock & roll album on the shelves.

The moderate pacing and more personally derived songwriting make the album one that demands closer attention to fully understand and enjoy, but it rewards that attention with some of the band's most nuanced and subtly detailed pop constructions to date, ultimately revealing new depths both musical and emotive.

The result is surprising and singular, revealing new twists in songs that seemed to be set in stone decades ago.

There might not be an album big enough to contain all the facets of Shears' talent, but Last Man Dancing's abundance of style and imagination should keep fans guessing -- and of course, dancing.

Formal Growth in the Desert plays like another State of the Union essay from this band of intelligent malcontents, and what they have to say is strikingly effective as editorial commentary and as music.

While observing the spaces between, Marshall's songs, reflective, consumptive, instructive and compelling, simultaneously create and destroy spaces between worlds he observes, so he might remake the world he lives in with restaint, grace, a broken heart, and brutal honesty.

All of this adds up to another well-made record that evolved from Squid's origins.

There's joy in every moment.

Social Lubrication is the work of a band that believes music can actually make a difference, and in Dream Wife's hands, it's a feeling that's contagious.

It's a well-crafted and often moving album that mixes a bit of Cat Stevens' sound with Yusuf's heart and soul, and it honors both with skill and sincerity.

The stricter members of the metal community might see King Gizzard as interlopers with no real metal cred, but after Rats Nest and now this thrillingly massive album, there's no reason the band shouldn't be considered one of the best practitioners of the genre around.

Where Mr. Money with the Vibe charted his rise, Work of Art firmly cements Asake's place as a Nigerian star with global appeal.

Taken together, the album is an engaging and rousing affair with more than enough down-to-earth awareness and poignancy to keep it grounded.

At once more serious and more playful than Mr. Dynamite, Yawning Abyss homes in on what Creep Show do best, and the ways they skewer corruption and indifference are a treat for fans of any of the artists involved and for anyone else who enjoys eloquent, darkly humorous electronic pop.