The paucity of any full-on rockers may drive some listeners back to the group's more propulsive, earlier works, but the sullen, sweet, and soulful Away rewards a patient ear.

Even by Cave's dour standards, Skeleton Tree is a tough listen, but it's also a powerful and revealing one, and a singular work from a one-of-a-kind artist.

Wild World proves that Bastille can build on their success with style. They're the kind of band that sounds better as they get bigger, and their thoughtful lyrics, jaunty melodies, and huge choruses could fill a Coldplay-shaped hole in listeners' hearts.

Decades later, it's still thrilling to hear the band and the crowd feed off the excitement of the other.

The balance between these quiet, thoughtful songs, the needle-bouncing rockers, and the jumping Monkees-ish pop of tracks like "Stick Your Hand Up if You're Louche" makes for a thrill ride of an album, and a better example of modern guitar pop than Cosmonaut is pretty hard to find no matter where one might look.

Goodbye to Language is a powerful, intoxicating album and one of Lanois' best works in at least a decade.

It's one full of warmth and engaging words and melodies, though, all guided by a voice that alone would prompt repeat listens.

If Soundwalk Collective's music is often lovely but understated, Patti Smith's vocals give Killer Road the pale fire that makes it come alive; she never sounds like Nico, but she ably brings forth the voice of a poet facing her final crisis, and Smith understands that just well enough to communicate it to the audience.

Many of the songs are free of artifice, boiled down to voice and guitar or left nearly naked to let the emotional impact of the melodies and words cut more deeply.

While in the process of embracing more electronics they lose a bit of their organic warmth, particularly compared to their debut, Local Natives hang on to a significant amount of their quirkiness and rhythmic flair.

Cosmetic is a strong step forward for Nots that builds on their strengths and gives their weirdness some new and interesting places to go.

What gives KIN its weight is Tunstall's craft. Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon proved that she could turn inward and be gripping but by turning that aesthetic inside out—this is an album about embracing the outside world--she's every bit as compelling.

What impresses is the consistency. Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 not only is a strong set of songs but it makes it plain that White has been mining the same territory, finding something new within it for nearly two decades.

The album might not stand with their all-time best work, like Seamonsters or Watusi, but it's hard to deny the brilliance of a band that, so late in its career, can crank out an album as passionate, hook-filled, and flat-out fiery as this. That's the true surprise of Going, Going....

Here is a ruminative, inward-looking album of folk-inflected beauty.

Schmilco is clearly music for autumn, meant for cool nights, crunching through the leaves, and the occasional dark night of the soul. And it speaks volumes about Wilco that they could make two albums so different within such a short space of time, and both times giving us music that sounds like no one else.

The record captures Dwyer and the group at their peak powers, and while maybe it's not as good as seeing the band on-stage, where Dwyer's gleefully wild antics take it right to the edge of being a spectacle, it's pretty spectacular.

They've always existed in their own space, and Trouble is yet another fine example of their fascinating art.

Young Thug presents his best case for inclusion in the pantheon of hip-hop influencers with JEFFERY, a release as inspired as it is inspiring.

A dark, turbulent, and welcome entry in Walker's catalog.

Coomes knows he's not for everyone, and that lack of self-consciousness is one of the album's biggest strengths, but listeners with short attention spans and a low tolerance for eccentricity might want to stick with a more commercial brand of sonic weirdness.

This may be Cline's quietest recording, but it is one of his finest.

It's chock-full seductive, attractive melodies and sweet singing, but its lyrics are searing enough in their emotional and spiritual honesty, that they cut to the bone. Great.

How to Be a Human Being's sense of wonder and joie de vivre feels as instructive to Glass Animals as their listeners, and their willingness to try anything results in some truly great moments.

Even if Amnesty lacks some of the intensity of Crystal Castles' earlier work, it accomplishes the tricky task of providing common ground and a fresh start.

Some of the album's more delicate tracks still feel a little formless, and there are a lot of other bands mining similar musical territory, but The Hanging Valley's best moments suggest Cold Pumas are just tapping into their potential.

Worship the Sun was pretty great garage rock revivalism filtered through a gently psychedelic filter; Calico Review might be even better.

Devastating yet optimistic, Splendor & Misery is a stunning leap forward for clipping., and one of the most impressive albums of the year.