With Desire, I Want to Turn into You, Polachek breaks free from outside expectations and transforms her inner anxieties into an intoxicating pop euphoria.

More of an experience than a set of songs, Shook's stunning, often harrowing journey of surviving and resisting is well worth taking.

DeMent's acute sense of humanity remains her greatest asset, and it has rarely sounded so graceful as on this wonderful set of songs.

Travel is very much a Necks album and lines up seamlessly with the trio's vast catalogue. It blossoms with new ideas, fluid spontaneity and fresh ideas. For newcomers curious about the longstanding trio's music, Travel is a truly excellent place to begin.

Few bands of their day, and especially those of the post-punk '80s, are as consistent as the Church at writing songs that sound like more sophisticated and mature versions of their classic material.

Afterpoem is surprisingly thrilling and wholly original.

It’s vital and authentic, confident yet emotive, refined in its simplicity; Karol has produced her best work yet.

A copy of Soul'd Out should be in every public library. Stax fanatics will find that it superbly complements the four Complete Stax/Volt Singles boxed sets.

The lush synths and bubbling beats carry the same wild dreaminess she achieved on songs where she was covering D.I.Y. rock songs in sheets of reverb, and it's more Rose's exacting and specific songwriting design than the instrumentation that makes Love as Projection feel so wonderfully strange, secret-keeping, and exciting.

It both makes the listener feel warmly good and tearfully bad at the same time. That's a satisfying dichotomy and one that's hard to pull off. With Le Bon and his band's help, Evans has done it and in the process made the best H. Hawkline record to date.

Gore and Gahan transform tragedy into something profound and universally relatable. Though not their most immediate offering, Memento Mori is their most heartfelt, thoughtful, and moving statement in decades.

Altogether, Ben feels like the first time Macklemore has truly let listeners into his inner world, showcasing his underrated lyrical skills and enough varied production to keep the album moving forward toward a hopeful finish.

While 93696 will take several listens to entirely comprehend the wealth of ideas and techniques on offer here, it is more than worth the effort and time. When absorbed, it results in all-encompassing, immersive, aesthetically and musically sensorial experience, and Liturgy's crowning achievement to date.

A difficult, but defining statement, made at the height of their powers.

It's crowded, confusing, ridiculous music, but despite its scary intentions, the album's renegade production and impressive performances make it more exciting than frightening.

Together they wander the landscape like a band of joyous nomads, relishing the journey over the destination.

Whether it's with the themes of romantic heartbreak and bodily autonomy, or the global boundary-pushing musicality at play on Mélusine, Salvant's work is transcendent.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Multitudes is that virtually any of its 12 songs would be showstoppers in less consummate company.

These final four compositions on The Forest in Me invite listeners to eavesdrop on a creative process, in the process of emerging, from musicians undaunted by physical separation. They always find a compelling way of establishing a collective voice.

Vocally, Ware has somehow found another gear, turning in her most commanding performances while having what sounds like a ball with her background singers.

Despite its arcane references and philosophical nature, Blómi remains approachable and is often quite moving. That Sundfør continues to make such consistently challenging music and be justly rewarded for it is its own small miracle, and with Blómi she reaches yet another career high.

This album moves further afield musically and sonically than Mettavolution. The duo embrace complex Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms and sophisticated harmonic ideas from jazz and classical music while integrating the additional resources with imagination, taste, and powerful articulation.

Brandy Clark benefits from her songs being heard without the pleasing Nashville accouterments that decorated Big Day in a Small Town and Your Life Is a Record: in these spare settings, the emotional pull of her songs is undeniable.

But Here We Are keeps its focus on human connection, a distinction that separates it from other Foo Fighters albums.

The way these splashes of color and invention intertwine with the carefully sculpted ballads result in a testament to Gallagher's enduring craft that's unusually satisfying.

Parts Daniel Johnston and avant-cabaret show, it demands attention from the opening clatter of a cassette recorder and ensuing dinked-out piano and spoke-sung rhymes of the one-minute "recognized."

Most of the album carries a definite rhythmic punch, a weight that's evident even in softer numbers like "The Ocean and the Butterfly" and "Monsters." A similar sense of gravel has carried over to Matthews' voice, an evolution that softens and deepens his phrasing eccentricities, another element of earthiness that gives Walk Around the Moon a sense of weight and immediacy that's rare in the Dave Matthews Band catalog.

This LP is a triumph, an outstanding set of songs and performances from someone who has already proved they're one of the strongest, truest voices in American roots rock.