The Dock of the Bay Sessions is hardly essential for loyal Otis Redding fans, but as a compact summation of his final recordings, it's a fine collection that flows with the coherence of a "real" LP, and if you're looking for an album with "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," this is a good way to go.

An especially poignant return for Waterson, who endured a harrowing illness that left her in a coma after their last release as a duo, Anchor is a powerful performance arriving late in her career and is a testament to both her strength of will and creative voice. ... For her part, Eliza nearly matches her mother's earthen elegance as a singer while turning in some of the most natural and sympathetic fiddle work of her care.

Mien's experiments are sometimes a little too formless, but the album's standouts prove they weren't keeping all their best ideas for their main bands.

Acutely personal--almost to the point of discomfort--and exceedingly fragile, Seedlings All somehow manages to remain resilient, which is a tough balance to pull off.

With What Heaven Is Like, Wussy have made it clear they're not giving up their status as one of America's greatest indie bands just yet, and this is another dark but compelling album that deserves your attention.

It's an aural lava lamp, kicking up slow-bursting explosions of texture and sound.

Kanye West grants taut, grimace-inducing beats, assisted infrequently by Mike Dean and Andrew Dawson, enabling Pusha to pack each one of the seven tracks with characteristically trenchant and terse rhymes. The lyrical focus is similarly laser-sharp.

If Tomorrow's Daughter isn't a great Matthew Sweet album, it's most certainly a good one, featuring a batch of strong songs played with genuine skill and commitment by one of the most distinctive artists in contemporary power pop. If you liked Tomorrow Forever, you'll enjoy the sequel, and even if you missed the first installment, this is well worth a spin for pop obsessives.

The resulting Violet Psalms is more measured, but no less distinctive (and destructive) than previous outings, delivering all of the architectural twists and turns, fragmented rhythms, and surreal narratives that have come to define the group over the years.

A musical getaway, Rebound finds Friedberger freed from expectations, and with a spring in her music's step that hasn't been heard in some time.

While in some ways Testing is more musical than anything we've heard from A$AP Rocky before, it's also more confused, with ideas and musical shifts colliding at times to the point of randomness.

Equally soothing and exciting, heartfelt and innovative, Ecstatic Arrow is Virginia Wing's finest work yet.

Every track on this album is densely constructed, colorful, and unpredictable, and while it may seem lighthearted at first, it manages to cover a wide range of emotions. One of the most inventive debut albums of 2018, for sure.

Shannon in Nashville demonstrates she's capable of more than she's shown us in the past, and this is an experiment that succeeds with flying colors.

Soil captures a passionate, complex artist coming into his own.

The epic length of Our Raw Heart requires patience. While it unfolds slowly, the reward is big. It's shot through with musical invention and a clarity that makes it the new high-water mark in this trio's oeuvre.

On Prequelle, Ghost deliver fully on the promises of earlier records. Their strengths--including one for imitation--are fully assembled and focused in an exercise of irresistible arena rock excess without sounding like a pastiche.

Li's defeat and grief are palpable, yet she delivers with such grace and control, which offers a glimmer of hope for the fellow romantically downtrodden. With production to match, so sad so sexy succeeds in providing a relatable therapy session for love's final gasps.

Flasher appear to have arrived fully formed, with a deeply satisfying debut that's both coherent and imaginative.

Collectively, the songs play like movements of a single work, making for a consistent set of low-light, David Lynch-ian ambience.

Without Tinsley nor the late LeRoi Moore, Dave Matthews Band doesn't seem as loopy or rangy as it did in its prime, yet this leaner sound suits a middle-aged Matthews who is comfortable in his skin yet restless in his mind.

The Alligator Bride is louder and prouder than Mansion Songs, but it's also somehow more relaxed, as if there is nothing to prove. Hopefully, Miller will keep this rocking line-up together for the foreseeable future.

It's an impressive formula for a debut, and one that succeeds whether listeners are tuning in more for the soundscape or more for the sentiment.

With Hell-On, Case has once again given herself an ideal showcase for her talents as a vocalist, songwriter, and producer; it's lush but intimate, and one of the strongest and most satisfying records she's delivered to date. Which, given her catalog, says a great deal.

The EP is classic Mazzy Star, showing none of the ravages of time one might expect and still making beautiful music that weaves a spell that's hard to break.

It doubles down on his distinctively mellow, '60s- and '70s-vintage sound. This time around, after demoing the songs with a four-track tape machine, he borrowed an eight-track reel-to-reel recorder to capture the official takes with his band.

The extensively detailed liner notes feature interviews with the musicians as well as plenty of gorgeous photos, but the music itself is the main attraction, and it all sounds uniformly incredible.

To dive into Whale City is to immerse yourself in the stranger side of rock & roll, but it's worth losing your mind over.