c rhymes. Best experienced end to end, Evermore: The Art of Duality is a dense journey worth taking, but one decidedly filled with more questions and ideas than answers.

It's a daring album, and in its best moments, the listener gets a sense of how fulfilling and soul-cleansing its production must have been.

Instinct is a vivid and varied debut, and ultimately a more rewarding listen than if Niki and the Dove had just explored one facet of their sound.

Well worth the wait, Blood, Looms and Blooms offers more proof of why Leila has been hailed by Gilles Peterson, Aphex Twin, and Björk since she started making music.

By owning her mistakes, she turns them into strengths--and delivers a winning first album in the process.

Heroes & Villains is the worthy and meticulously assembled sequel to Not All Heroes Wear Capes.

On Lightning Bolt, they've grown into that classic rock mantle, accentuating the big riffs and bigger emotions, crafting songs without a worry as to whether they're hip or not and, most importantly, enjoying the deep-rooted, nervy arena rock that is uniquely their own.

It's their most glossy, most consistent, most calm, and surprisingly, their most socially relevant album, despite their approach toward middle age on a teen-oriented punk playground.

You Can Have What You Want falls a little short of the last record, Can't Go Back, just because it isn't as jaunty or light-hearted, but it is still an impressive work that should go a ways in providing some proof that the band has more depth and power than one might have thought if they just stuck to the surface

Perkins has always carried the torch of vintage Americana, and he covers all his bases here.

All these nods to the past make Invitation seem cozy even when its words are defiant, and if that seems dissonant it also seems appropriate for 2017: outrage can be exhausting, so it's good to find solace in old friends.

The anthemic, celebratory songs that made Riot! so appealing were largely absent, but the band found a new way to rock during those sessions, prizing catharsis and nuanced arrangements above the hooks of albums past.

An enjoyable creation that, despite its clear roots, has its own logic and general aesthetic.

Harmonium gets tiresome toward the end. However, fans of light, clean, crisp and non-threatening psychedelia--as in '60s children's TV music, library music, groovy instrumentals with a flute lead, etc.--will be delighted, and rightfully so.

A big part of the energy of Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women comes from the musicians, and while some might think Alvin might be aiming for novelty factor by recording with five women, one listen will wipe those thoughts from your mind.

Despite a heavy focus on repetition and a stripped-down sound, Neverendless is seldom predictable, showing the talents of a group who know that sometimes less is more.

Temple is very good at indie rock, and his indie folk was always pleasant, but he seems to have found his true niche on Good Mood Fool, and it's his first album to carve out territory that is unique and truly interesting.

While Sugarland's alien rawness is missed occasionally, Sunshine reveals a Talk Normal that is a little more immediate and a lot more assured.

As it is, Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-Blooey! works perfectly well both as a tribute to one of the most underrated musical styles ever, and as an album that's fun from beginning to end, Dirtbombs-style.

Clocking in at over an hour, The Prophet Speaks breezes through its run-time with memorable performances and joyous vibes. This is a late-career surge that is all the more remarkable because Morrison really seems to be enjoying himself--he continues to hunger after the music that inspired his vocation in the first place.

His knack for hooks and his skill at construction may mirror that of his father, but Liam Finn is his own man, displaying a keen fondness for psychedelia, and spending as much time crafting sound as song, resulting in a record that has enough hooks to pull a listener in on first spin, yet is dense enough to warrant decoding on subsequent plays.

It's business as unusual and for the BMSR, their business has always been making challenging, inventive. and above all, hilariously fun, music. Fucked Up Friends represents no change in the status quo whatsoever.

Welcome Oblivion is not an album that comes on forcefully, and by many measures, it's the most measured record of Reznor's career, yet it's also his most melodic, showing that this former angry young man has a design to grow old gracefully.

Even if Shulamith isn't as strikingly original as Give You the Ghost, the growth in its songwriting and emotional complexity suggests Poliça are in it for the long haul.

Just a set of productions that prove, once again, Bell is the most imaginative producer in British techno.

Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia might still be the band's most accomplished album, but by embracing their emptiness and stylishness on Welcome to the Monkey House, they've crafted an album that is no less enjoyable because of its disposability.

It's this prolific, homegrown vibe paired with a knack for downright catchy pop that makes Lone Pigeon Scotland's answer to Ween.

Even though Half Smiles of the Decomposed sounds great, the band plays with impressive skill, and it represents one of Pollard's most successful attempts to balance his low-fi musical impulses against the demands of proper record production, it lacks the ineffable fire and energy that has always set their best work apart.