Socks is a durable holiday gift, but one that's immensely more fun and enjoyable than its wry title implies.

This can result in highly intriguing experiences, such as the industrial drift of opening track "One on One" and the riveting "My Body," which matches its physical lyrics with muscular, glitchy drumming. Other tracks seem to meander a bit, however, and are hard to grasp at first. Still, the duo's haunting blend of challenging electronics and introspective, sometimes cathartic lyrics sounds unmistakably unique.

Supremely joyous and creative, Ens feels like the beginning of a new chapter for Holtkamp, and it's one of his most enjoyable works.

Those who expected Blow. to be McCaslin's return to jazz will likely be disappointed. That said, those who enjoy adventurous rock--indie, prog, and otherwise--will likely find the album to be greatly enjoyable and perhaps even revelatory.

The spacious nature of Sequence makes it a challenging listen even for those versed in experimental approaches. At times the band's long-winded emptiness is as easy to lose focus on as it is to be mesmerized by. Patient listening, however, reveals a tightly focused and deliberately crafted work by a band pushing their art forward at an aggressive pace.

While simple and often musically somnolent, its heart-wrenching effect is ultimately hard to shake.

For all its entertaining art-pop feats, Isolation is just as remarkable for serious moments like "Killer," in which Uchis reaches a high degree of anguish that only real-life experience can arouse.

With eight tracks and a playing time of 30 minutes, it's an efficient debut without a weak song in the bunch, one noteworthy for its poise as well as its engaging eccentricity.

It's a lovely and deeply creative record that came so late in his career that it appeared to have already been relegated to history.

He's mined this territory before, notably in Gorillaz's Demon Days, yet the very fact that the Good, The Bad & The Queen function as a band, drawing strength from their own interplay, gives Merrie Land a human resonance that echoes long after the final song ends.

Despite the often bleak themes at play on the album, there's also a refreshing hopefulness on many of the tracks that speaks to Healy's own recovery and willingness to say yes to even the most frothy pop trend. However, taken as a whole, the album is often as disparate and difficult to wade through as the social-media landscape it hopes to comment on.

In its own quiet way, Warm is one of the most powerful works of Tweedy's career, and it's the sort of music too many of us need today.

Writing with a sentimental gaze was a dominant trait of MacIntyre's even as a young man, and now in middle age, he does so with the authority of a nearly two-decade career and accumulated personal history behind him on this excellent release.

Universal Beings is unique from any other jazz recording in 2018: It marries virtuoso musicianship, technological savvy, a keen editor's ear for creative inspiration, and a plethora of almighty grooves.

One of the many impressive aspects of the Capitol Studio Sessions is just how balanced Goldblum's skills are as he deftly moves his audience from perky vocal standards to swinging instrumental numbers--each transition aided, of course, with some very charming stage banter.

These tracks are vibrantly cross-pollinated, touching upon lush a cappella ("The National Manthem"), R&B flamenco ("Love a Girl Right"), and buzzy, exotic club bangers ("Wasabi"). No question, Little Mix are in charge here.

Hood's DJ-Kicks isn't quite as wild or personality-driven as his Fabric 39 mix from a decade earlier, but it's undeniably focused, and it clearly reaches its intended goal.

The first side is GospelbeacH at their best and the flip is, while admittedly not vital, still a lot of fun. Certainly anyone who liked the first two albums, and especially Another Summer of Love, needs to seriously consider adding this set to their collection.

Through it all, Krgovich applies his years of clever pop acumen to the situation at hand, sounding reliably like himself, but allowing his present circumstances to propel him somewhere new in life and song.

Christmas Everywhere won't replace that Mantovani Christmas album your grandfather has been playing for decades at family gatherings, but if you're tired of putting Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas from the Family" on a loop for that party with your friends, Crowell and his pals will fill the bill with style.

The LP is joyously nostalgic, decked with strings, horns, and a trio of background vocalists including secret weapon Sy Smith.

"Jingle Bells (In Memory of Avicii)" doesn't fit the vibe and it carries only trace elements of the titular holiday standard, so it stops the party cold halfway through. Cut this track out and Happy Xmas delivers some cheery Christmas vibes.

Heartache, triumph, anger, and resolution all feel reported on from behind a melting wall of ice, drowned out ever so slightly by the sound of a late-night party raging somewhere in the distance.

The album doesn't seek any big answers to make sense of a pointless death, but profoundly chronicles Saba's jagged path through the heartache as life continues.

Days after the album was released, she turned 27, yet she already sounds like a seasoned professional, and the immaculately crafted Room 25 is highly mature and immensely enjoyable. Simply remarkable.

It seems that Gardner has found his calling as a psychedelic spaceman, and Somnium is a laid-back delight that's a perfect soundtrack for inner flights and star-filled nights alike.

Ora delivered a confident pop gem that stands tall on its own.

Essentially, the album is business as usual for Laibach, which means that if you're in on their grand scheme, it's another exquisitely orchestrated laugh riot.