More enjoyable overall than Gang Signs, Heavy Is the Head is a well-rounded mix of toughness and sentimentality, and another rightful triumph.

Brutus sound more focused, more visceral, and more locked in with each other throughout. The songs are heavy and ominous but also tap into a sense of passion and vulnerability. The combination is powerful and sophisticated, and the beast that Brutus is becoming on Nest feels unstoppable.

It's a modernization of his sound but not a bowdlerization; if anything, it's perhaps the finest realization of Holmes' blues. At the very least, it's certainly the liveliest and boldest album he's made.

Ballet Slippers excels at capturing the conflict that must have existed for Animal Collective after turning in their most successful and adored work. It might be too challenging for the casual listener, but that particular challenge is intrinsic to most of Animal Collective's work.

Stott's music is disorienting and sickly, but it's also undeniably full of life, and It Should Be Us is just as fascinating as one would expect.

The makeshift album drags, even with its stylistic diversions. Bad Vibes Forever is less a testament to how XXXTentacion helped shape the wave of rap during his brief career and more a bottom-of-the-barrel-scraping of partially cooked ideas he left behind.

It's still Duster to the core -- as sad, exhilarating, and powerful as ever -- but it's colored by 20 years of life experience and dipped even more deeply in melancholy. At a time when almost every band ever has reunited to make disappointing, derivative music, Duster have come back to make their most sonically challenging and emotionally invested record yet.

For an album that hinges on frantic idea swapping, Birthday manages to consistently surprise, making it something of a celebration of kooky guitar-driven pop, all the while maintaining momentum and a sense of unbridled joy.

Production-wise, this roams around with some abrupt switches, supplying slow-motion and spaced-out grooves, low-profile boom-bap, and wayward guitar scrawl with highest frequency. Hynes' downcast disposition and the return of several Negro Swan collaborators -- Lu, Isiah, Pat, and Porches -- provide the continuity.

He certainly talks like he wants to make music that stands the test of time and really matters to people; if that's ever going to happen, he'll need to make records go beyond pleasant and enjoyable. Despite the handful of songs that touch of his potential for greatness, Fine Line isn't quite there yet.

Strange and exciting as ever, So Much Fun touches on the various elements of Young Thug's unconventional appeal and also turns in some of his best material to date.

While earlier recordings like Sonno and Risveglio seemed fragile and distant, this one is far more upfront, with haunting melodies leading most of the pieces, and a steady sense of progression throughout.

PSYCHODRAMA has all the makings of a generational classic. Packing dense lyricism, poignant introspection, and resonant production into a neatly compiled concept, Dave's debut album is the product of a MC beyond his years, standing firmly among the Godfathers and Made in the Manors as one of the strongest British rap albums of the decade.

All of these pieces have aged incredibly well since they originally appeared, and in some cases they're actually more engaging in retrospect -- they're so packed with details that even obsessive fans might have missed something before.

The repetition is noticeable but ultimately minor for the box's target audience of dedicated Floyd fans, who will surely appreciate the care given to both the remastering and the packaging. On that level alone, The Later Years is something of a wonder, which means it's certainly worthwhile for those who have the interest and the cash to partake.

Like its predecessors, Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis isn't "easy" to listen to, nor should it be, given the nature of what it explores and explicates. That said, it is a necessary, engaged art that bears repeated listening for its revelation to unfold and hopefully open a gateway to understanding. Arguably, it is the strongest and most compelling of the Coin Coin releases thus far.

Strictly speaking, there aren't many unheard tracks here. Everything from the Spying Through a Keyhole, Clareville Grove Demos, and The "Mercury" Demos sets are here, along with a brand-new mix of the Space Oddity album by Tony Visconti, one that restores "Conversation Piece" as part of its sequence. Setting aside the new mix of Space Oddity, that leaves 11 tracks out of 75 that are making their debut here, including several that have never been bootlegged and a couple that weren't even known to exist.

The collection's 70-odd tracks can be a little daunting, but appreciated one song (or album) at a time, the creaky magic of the group becomes apparent. Beat Happening existed in a rare and singular space, unmoved by anything outside of the excitement of creating art on their own terms.

While some of the musicians play with the frameworks of Allison's music -- most notably Robbie Fulks' fractured reading of "My Brain" and the electro-processed New Orleans vibe of Iggy Pop's "If You're Going to the City" -- most are content to find a middle ground between their own signature approach and Allison's laid-back but emphatic groove.

Dusty is another winning set of pointed observations from Sandman, who effortlessly unloads his thoughts without seeming like a burden on the listener.

The mix superbly demonstrates how the contemporary jazz scene and club culture have cross-pollinated and influenced each other.

Opening piece "Disappearance / Reappearance" recalls the second part of 1994's Treetop Drive, with stark blasts of electronic noise repeatedly shooting out and dissipating into empty space, providing a consistent series of electrifying jolts that are as brutal as they are mesmerizing. Most of the remaining pieces are a series of numerically titled "Occultations," and while they usually aren't nearly as harsh, they're just as striking.

Balances the adventurous and traditional sides of Tiersen's music in a way that honors the sense of wonder and beauty in his work since the beginning.

Front-loaded with mostly forgettable trifles, the album is saved by this bountiful back-end, which plays like an early prediction of a potential greatest-hits collection.

The set moves from strength to strength, but honestly, this is to be expected, as they made very few missteps on their first two records. Although this doesn't paint a complete picture, the recording does capture the added layers of dissonance and Talbot's erratic on-stage persona, as he switches from a snarling, sardonic showman to a political advocate to a humble bastion of the people.

More than just a remix album, Heavy Rain stands out on its own merit, demonstrating that Perry's inspiration and creative drive haven't dulled in his advanced age.

Who feels like a Who album: The two still bring out the best in each other.

If Romance is an album about Cabello feeling loved and seen by someone else, it's just as much about her seeing and understanding herself as an artist.