With a more engaging set of songs, Barnett might easily transpose herself into the mode of introspective singer/songwriter, but alas, Things Take Time, Take Time just feels a little too dull.

The sacred has always sat comfortably with the profane in Rod Stewart's art, and he's holding true to that on The Tears of Hercules, an album that's alternately baffling, absurd, sweet, and endearing.

The polish and punch of latter-day Dan remain, but things are indeed different. Becker's tart presence is missed, Fagen's voice is wispy, and the smooth professionalism does indeed seem as if it was designed to feel at home at venues like the Mohegan Sun casino.

Even when the bagpipes show up on "Welcome Tae Glasgae," Motorheart is all riffs and falsetto screams designed to forget reality and dream of crowds packed with headbanging, beer-soaked hedonists singing along to the same songs.

It's too relaxed, too casual to be considered major. Its low-key nature is also the appeal of Willie Nelson Family -- it's the sound of an informal jam session by one of the best musical families in America, so it's easy to enjoy even if it feels decidedly minor.

Windflowers is a wonder of detailed production and easy elegance, though it also suffers from a sameness in tone that dulls its overall impact. It's certainly comfortable, and maybe that was Efterklang's intent, but they are at their best when throwing in the occasional left-turn or sonic shake-up.

Like nearly all of Calix's music, absent origin is complex and challenging, but it reflects an unmistakably unique perspective on the world.

Disc one is essentially a standard Alicia Keys LP, while the second disc is an album of remixes plus two more new songs. ... The latter half's new songs are two of the album's higher-profile collaborations: a tentative-sounding missed opportunity with Khalid and Lucky Daye, and an intoxicated duet with Swae Lee where Tyrone Davis' coasting 1979 hit "In the Mood" does most of the work.

This is a perfectly adequate Ross LP differentiated by its mix of collaborators more than anything else.

While tracks like the hard-hitting "How You King?" and "Fraud" do a decent job at showcasing his New York City-honed flow, unfortunately, for Montana's cause, the real draws on the album still include a famous friend or two.

Sees the group shift away from the more anthemic direction of their major hits ("Love Killa," "Gambler") to an airier, more vocally driven set of songs: strummed-funk tracks like "Tied to Your Body" and "Blow Your Mind" pull heavily from Justin Timberlake's early-2000s run, while others like "About Last Night" and "Better" slide toward the nostalgic disco yearnings expressed by their 2010s contemporaries.

It's honestly admirable that the Melvins were willing to take a big risk with an album like Five Legged Dog, but the finished product fails more than it succeeds.

A mellow blend of low-key, late-night, left-field pop and yearning R&B, the release boasts a number of intriguing high-profile collaborator.

Still in command of strong technical skills and now rapping over instrumentals crafted with bigger budgets, Cordae falls short when he starts sounding a little too comfortably at home in the mainstream.

If Good to Be... sometimes is a little too cozy -- it's executed well and its unifying spirit is evident, but a cover of "Lean on Me" still feels a little overly familiar -- it's nevertheless a warm, welcoming album that's every bit as soothing and comforting as Keb' Mo' intended it to be.

Although lovingly written and tightly arranged, Havasu's consistently midtempo plod and the bittersweet nature of its subject makes for a somewhat dreary listen.

If formulaic in approach, cosmopolitan rhythms and trippy hooks vary, and any track or combination of tracks on the album is well-suited for front-of-house play or for a soundtrack to get the party started.

The sense of low-key but heightened melodrama can be alluring thanks to the open-ended arrangements, yet much of Manticore unfolds at a crawl, so it feels much less visceral than previous Shovels & Rope albums even if it has a greater emotional range.

Bulat's melodic, folk-leaning tendencies as a songwriter lend themselves well to this kind of makeover, one that adds a touch of elegance to nuanced vocal performances, if rarely improving upon the original recordings.

It's all in good fun, and there are some definite highlights, but Magazine 1 is more of a nostalgia exercise than a genuinely remarkable album.

Alienating and cathartic at once, Island Family ends on the collage-like tech satire "Remote Control" for a shared cabin fever experience.

The energy and inspiration are there, but as the band attempt to write more accessible material, some of the uniqueness of their past work is compromised. Still, you can't say that the album is predictable, and even if not every song hits, the band's exuberance is undeniable.

The overall effect is mercurial and uneven, but also fun and hooky as well as potentially cathartic -- especially for anyone who is over it.

Like his other albums, the music is all very beautiful, if somewhat ephemeral. It's hard to pick out a memorable melody among these ten poignant missives, which tend to run together in a bittersweet blur.

The Wizrd proved that Future can still make career highlights after over a decade of releases yet the formulaic, playlist-packing INLY joins High Off Life as a mediocre interlude in the rapper’s career.

The lack of variance in tempo across the hour-long sequence makes Heart on My Sleeve downright torpid at points. All upticks are welcome -- the one with an incongruous Kirk Franklin appearance included -- but slow and low is undeniably the singer's forte.

The overall impression of Parks' second solo album is less a collection of tightly crafted songs than of a willowy chunk of music captured during its slow passage on the timeline. How appealing this is depends on one's proclivities, but there is enough ear candy here to hold the attention, at least for a little while.

Brought up on a steady diet of singles, Templeman has some trouble stringing together a substantive 14-track set and a number of the cuts simply coast along on groove and tone without much else to recommend them. Minus the filler and occasional bouts of clumsy wordplay, Mellow Moon does little to damage the young singer/songwriter's reputation and adds a clutch of well-made tracks to his growing canon.