Gravity Stairs may feel cozy, but it never feels lazy. Some of that surely lies in how the band chooses to camouflage its strong melodic core with fluid, shifting surfaces -- a decision that winds up emphasizing sound over song while also directing focus to the familial chemistry of the band.

Ship to Shore is one of the tightest collections he's made in the past quarter-century, exhibiting a wide tonal palette and a vitality belying his 75 years.

The album teeters eloquently between introspective folk, twangy roots pop, and bashing psych-rockabilly numbers. Musically, the album is a nice balance of the sounds and influences he's pursued throughout his career.

All Aftab's earlier recordings are captivating. That said, Night Reign is a powerful, sensuous, and commanding illustration of the artist's mature vision. It reveals just how receptive, and even vulnerable she is to the spirits of creative inquiry, possibility, and revelation.

This is the best and most satisfying album Buffalo Tom has made since they returned to recording with 2007's Three Easy Pieces, and if it sounds different than these men did when they were in their twenties, it sounds just like who they are, and in this context, that's a gift.

The debut full-length album from Brisbane, Australia's Girl and Girl, 2024's Call a Doctor, crackles with a youthful enthusiasm that finds the quartet ably balancing a mix of late-'70s and early-'80s post-punk and jangle pop influences.

While Big Swimmer isn't especially hooky or melodic or cathartic, it is mesmerizing, and performed with an actor's command of an audience, a playwright's turn of phrase, and an expert sense of guitar tones -- as well as an enviable, intangible coolness.

While Umbilical is still a nightmarish depiction of destroyed emotions and blind rage, its combination of production subtleties and light nods to '90s influences peel away just enough intensity to make the album Thou's most coherent and engaging work yet.

Blackgrass shows he can make a memorable bluegrass album as easily as he can craft a potent soul groove. The surroundings are unexpected, the quality is not.

The album features a smart balance between serious, inward-looking ballads and dance tracks, and Starr writes from a personal perspective about the mix of emotions and circumstances brought about by early adulthood and stardom.

This is a very strong debut of well-built songwriting and captivating vocals.

A welcome standout in Eels' body of work.

Full of dark-hued emotions that speak to the self-examination and deconstruction Garcia went through, Gemelo is also bright with passion and artful musical experimentation.

It may not be especially optimistic, but it's certainly powerful and inspiring, and we probably need that more from Cale than forced cheeriness, a skill he need not acquire this far into his career.

An album where the energy is intrinsic and impossible to miss, but deeper complexities hide in the details that keep changing.

Although Wings are augmented by an orchestra on occasion, One Hand Clapping feels rough, free, and immediate, lacking the polish that gave Wings Over America its sheen. The loose feel isn't limited to the performances themselves. McCartney punctuates the rockers with vaudevillian throwaways, alternating between classics like "Baby Face" and originals like "I'll Give You a Ring," not so much concentrating on smooth transitions as indulging his every whim.

Why Lawd? is neither crowded nor compromised by the extra voices. Like the debut, this is primarily an R&B record with Paak's variably frisky and lovelorn singing voice and Knxwledge's warped sample-based productions as the basis.

The preponderance of previous Ziggy Stardust reissues and Bowie at the Beeb collections does rob this set of some of its surprise because so much of this music has been in circulation. That said, this set does indeed contain some excavated rarities, highlighted by "So Long 60s" -- Bowie would rewrite this folky number into the bracingly modernist "Moonage Daydream" -- and two unheard songs from the album's early days.

Placenta's sound, while immediately recognizable as a work of Niño's, goes very deep and very wide due to his familiarity, respect for, and reliance on the gifts of his studio cast.

We Have Dozens of Titles offers a sense that their state of perpetual metamorphosis actually went even deeper than what was shown on their widely adored studio records.

Sonido Cósmico is gorgeous. This music retains Hermanos Gutiérrez's core musical fingerprint. That said, its collaborative strategy extends the brothers' reach in exploring genres, rhythms, colors, textures, and production techniques.

MESTIZX is unlike any other album. It is where the historic cultural past meets present-day conflict and jingoism. Undaunted, this duo chart a direction and unfettered hope for the future, holism, and acceptance.

She clearly wanted an audience to hear these songs, but she also wanted a chance to create with artists she loves and respects, and the joy of creation is matched by the joy of hearing these musicians at work.

More than just a standards or tribute album, Sweet Whispers reveals just how stylistically broad-minded Vaughan was, a compelling trait McFarlane carries forward with passionate aplomb.

Unprecedented Sh!t easily marks a new phase recording by DiFranco. She and Burton present her work in an illuminating context that invites close listening, without a hint of compromise.

Grush clearly finds µ-Ziq in comfortable territory, but he's still trying new things, and his work is still highly enjoyable.

Though it comes a decade after the last entry to Dirty Three's ongoing story, Love Changes Everything picks up, as each new chapter of the group's story does, as if no time has passed at all, and the trio keeps flowing naturally forward.

Rateliff leads his crew through a panoply of '70s-touched roots rock, delivered with warmth, sincerity, and occasional bursts of grit. Even amid its themes of anxiety and overcoming trauma, South of Here manages to stay buoyant, and at times playful.