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.

At its best, C,XOXO is a vibes album, musical perfume -- a spritz of Cabello's "meteor shower" pop moment.

SML lay down some heavy grooves, but their music is less about making people dance than it is about exploring space through communal joy.

While Mercury kept their hit streak going and matured the band with a welcome vulnerability, longtime fans of their aggressive empowerment anthems will delight in this pseudo-"return to form" from the Vegas quartet, one of their most satisfying and immediate sets to date.

On Oath, Mono's seemingly disparate, trademark elements create a universe of sound and emotion to completely immerse oneself in for a moment, an hour, or a lifetime.

The laid-back "Time Will Tell" is bound to prompt comparisons to certain late-'70s soft rock hits but has a lonesome if sanguine character all its own. Even lighter in touch, "Dime" ("tell me") is a lush, Tropicália-inspired duet with Chilean singer/drummer Cancamusa that flashes back to when Frazer's romance was blossoming.

While Peyroux expertly commands the styles and forms she always has, her wonderful, songwriting elevates Let's Walk to an entirely different level. Essential.

As Guided by Voices approach their fourth decade as a band, Strut of Kings reminds us that they're not only at the top of their game, but they're still growing and trying new things, and succeeding admirably.

This is rock music at it's most exciting and meaningful from a band that's doing their level best to keep the form alive and thriving.

While still haunted and yearning in nature, tracks like "How It Starts" and the especially Halloween-y "A Steady Mind" are driving, melodic, playlist-friendly offerings that provide rhythmic pick-me-ups without stepping outside the confines of the album's blue-tinted universe.

The band finishes off the album by following "Cinnamon Temple" with a raucous remake of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" that shoves the acid rock classic in front of a fun house mirror. Increased chaos and whimsy only heightens Hiatus Kaiyote's ability to enchant and exhilarate.

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

Still tuned in to an aesthetic of translating disparate ideas into fine-tuned songs, the Folk Implosion sound at home on Walk Thru Me, taking their music to new, strange places, as always, regardless of the years that have passed since the last time we heard from them.

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.

The Healer is an emotionally draining experience, like all of SUMAC's other releases, but it reaches transcendence in a unique and powerful way.

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

Though most of What Happened to the Heart? lands in a dance-pop middle ground stylistically, ballads like the Brazilian-flavored "The Essence" and synth-enhanced "Dreams" offer room to breathe with their drum-less or drum-light arrangements.

More than a reductive "Zayn goes country" album, the beautiful Room Under the Stairs is the sound of an artist trying something brave and new, tapping into his soul and coming out on the other side with the strongest album of his career to date.

Heartfelt and well-built songs like "Cheap Coffee" and "We Are Loved" help anchor the set, but there's an underlying banality that keeps it from greatness. Still, it's an improvement on its predecessor.

By the orchestral, Chelsea Girl-evoking beauty of final track "Why Worry," Campbell has spent the album flitting from idea to idea, ending up with a sampler pack of different stylizations of her always lovely (if not always simple) songcraft.

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.

Far from limited and much more than a gimmick, O.'s approach on WeirdOs is undeniably strange -- and a lot of invigorating fun for anyone who loves music that's as unpretentious as it is inventive.

Alvin and Gilmore are two great tastes who taste great together, with Alvin's salt and Gilmore's sweetness accenting one another very well indeed, and Texicali is strong enough to suggest this collaboration should have gas in the tank for at least one more album.

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.

Rest assured, songs including the opening "Millions of Heartbeats" make clear that Nash hasn't lost her impudent flair; however, by the end of the record, any cheekiness is easily outweighed by disarming earnestness.

Staples is in top form on Dark Times. It's another chapter of his uniquely smoke-colored narratives, form-fitting production, and perfectly balanced expressions of heaviness and acceptance.

We Sang, Therefore We Were may have been born out of restlessness and anger, but it's also a remarkably fun dispatch from one of indie music's most inventive musical minds.

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.