It would be unfair to call Black Hours a missed opportunity; even if its glimpses at fresher musical territory are tantalizing, Leithauser carries on the Walkmen's tradition in ways that fans will welcome.

While the album slowly gathers components and rhythmic complexity as it progresses, it remains cautionary in tone and, for Son Lux, restrained.

These songs are ten of his better solo offerings, and they further refine his particular brand of hazy, half-awake beauty.

With the suggestion of metal even peering through from time to time, it's also his most consistently grunge-centric material to date. As usual, though, Maine makes the sound his own, not only with his distinctively weary and wary baritone vocals but with production touches.

Each song is snappy, playful, and stylish, and that's what makes Dancing with Daggers work so well.

The final product is intelligent and often fascinating, but it doesn't deliver like the Afghan Whigs do at their best, and ultimately comes off as a brave but somewhat unsatisfying experiment.

Here, on Blood and Candle Smoke, he's perfected this method of songwriting and learned to record in a completely new way, to boot.

The Drop Beneath is another strong step toward Eternal Summers being a band like Bettie or Velocity Girl, the kind that other bands will look to for inspiration 20 years later.

They're old-fashioned, but in the best sense: they're in it for the long haul, which the superb Warpaint proves beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The album is a bit too pretty and polished for its own good, with the kind of approach that fades into the background at times, but there's no arguing the quality and thoughtfulness that Calder put into this work, and if you like the notion of indie pop as ambient music, then this may be just the album you've been looking for.

A skillful debut by musicians with notable prior credits, they've settled into something intriguing and distinct out of the gate.

While newer production tricks add some kick to DaBaby's formula, stagnant lyrics and monotonous flows present him as an artist unwilling to change; swamped by slushy imitations of his best work, the gems on Kirk aren't given the platform to shine.

If I Am Only My Thoughts is the work of a band already at the top of their game, and anyone looking for music that wraps them in a warm blanket of intricate sound and a calming embrace of restrained emotion could do a whole lot worse.

Immediate without sounding dumbed-down, Mr. Beast shows the band at the peak of their powers.

A skillful balance of harshness and beauty, Discipline + Desire is a welcome reintroduction to a band that is among the best at keeping this sound not just alive, but vital.

Eagulls' density and intensity sometimes border on exhausting, but the album is an undeniably bracing beginning.

Here Come the Tears is what Coming Up would have been if Butler had stuck around: it's cinematic and bright, lush and passionate, halfway between the incessantly catchy pop that wound up on Coming Up and the sighing romanticism and larger-than-life sweep of Dog Man Star.

Though it's a little perverse for the band to bury its explosive moments, it proves that there's more to Past Lives than rehashing the Blood Brothers' legacy. They're still finding their footing on Tapestry of Webs, but they're going interesting places.

With Collider, Roberts proves himself an essential part of the R&R landscape.

Ultimately, while Frampton is never allowed to settle into one aesthetic sound on Red--moving from electronic pop to dance-rock to folk-pop--her honey-sweet voice and emotionally compelling delivery are enough to carry you along for the ride.

Improvisations is probably easier to enjoy, with the extended format offering a more broadly sympathetic palette for Osborne's forbiddingly austere aesthetic.

What Happened to the La Las kicks off the new partnership with a mix of heady Southern rock and rootsy, festival-friendly funk.

Everything Touching is far more direct, less convoluted, often shamelessly anthemic.

While Breaking Dawn isn't one of the more dynamic Twilight Saga soundtracks, it is one of the more emotive ones, and just may help fans get some closure as one of the biggest film franchises of the 2000s and 2010s comes to a close.

As an entryway into the burgeoning psych scene that's been developing in Chile, you couldn't ask for a more accessible album than Noctuary, and niggling issues aside, the Holydrug Couple's breezy, slow-motion beach party jams are something that psych fans will definitely want to explore for themselves.

To be fair, the band still sounds like they could break into "Breathe" at any moment, but there's a sense of adventure and a vulnerability to Antiphon that suggests that this latest incarnation of the group is more interested in what's beyond the Dark Side of the Moon than it is standing in its shadow.

††† is a solid effort that stands on its own merit rather than simply cruising on the cultural cache of its members.

While Shortwave Nights might not be for everyone, Hiss Tracts have made an album of experimental music that feels like it was made to engage rather than alienate, casting aside inscrutability to create something surprisingly fragile and soulful.