Silicon Tare is an exciting warm-up for the epic conclusion to the Com Truise story.

A few adornments like horns, cello, and piano add additional color to some of the tracks, but by and large, Bent Shapes are a ripping guitar band with pop smarts and punk sensibility.

However they adapt, it's always on their own terms, and #N/A is some of their most radical music yet.

On an album that, from a musical perspective, seems incongruously loaded with self-doubt ("I'm 20, washed up already," "I don't know what I'm cut out for") the material is consistently hooky, endearing, elegant, and uncommonly candid.

As it stands, Metal Resistance is still worth hearing, if only for the half of the record that captures the insanely silly balancing act that their debut managed so well.

This combining of the human-organic and the quirky-mechanical not only rewards repeat listens, but ultimately fascinates with warm alienation.

Ultimately, Everything You've Come to Expect plays like a west coast film noir fever dream, scored by Ennio Morricone, with Kane and Turner the doomed protagonists, chasing icy blondes and lollipop Lolitas down their own debauched Hitchcock-ian spiral.

As ever, indisposed listeners with little patience will hear Willner's tracks as distended and routine. Those who can't get enough of the stuff have another reliably durable set of techno that draws from dream pop, dub, and Krautrock. It has the potential to stupefy, if in very familiar fashion.

As spare and gently satisfying as a warm spring afternoon, Upland Stories is a reminder that the brilliance of Gone Away Backward was no fluke, and that in his mid-fifties, Robbie Fulks is only getting better, both as a songwriter and as a recording artist. Highly recommended.

Changes shows Bradley still has plenty of new ground to explore at the age of 68.

Cheap Trick can still make a solid and entertaining hard rock record. If that doesn't sound like much, compare Bang, Zoom, Crazy... Hello with the current work of their late-'70s peers and you'll see what a fine surprise that is.

Azel is essential, not just for Bombino's growing legion of fans or even those of music from the Sahara region. It is a remarkable example of 21st century popular music.

At their best, Black Mountain approach '70s rock with a 21st century mindset, and that's the sort of sound and feel that make IV so effective.

Though more than a few of Wilkinson's contemporaries are working in similar territory, A Mineral Love goes beyond mere re-creation. For Bibio, these are the good old days.

As a whole, the album plays out a bit unevenly, with some distinctive artistic peaks and a few mis-plays made in the name of experimentation. Still, with the long gaps (six years) between each of their releases, it's hard to fault Autolux for making a worthy stab at reinvention.

A lifelong troubadour whose wandering ways have seemingly found some respite as a Los Angeles family man, the native Chicagoan cracks open the door and reveals himself in a way that manages to strike an elegant balance with his more cryptic tendencies.

The unpretentious nature of the music and Graham's laid-back attitude give each song an everyman quality, presented by a youthful, wide-eyed raconteur who has just enough life experience to speak to a wide audience.

While Adventure isn't as raw and uninhibited as some of their past work, it continues the enduring legacy of their peppy garage sound with effortless confidence and nostalgic winks to the past.

There's that sense of uncertainty on the entire album, which serves as both an extended trip down memory lane and, perhaps, a goodbye. But whether this is simply a bookend before a new phase or a complete finish is up in the air. Either way, Stories for Monday is a total celebration.

Adding more noise and toughness to their sound on Lost Time was a genius move, taking an already very good band and pointing it toward greatness, or at the very least helping Tacocat make one of the most fun punk-pop albums around.

This is a mature, introspective work from a man looking for answers to the questions of life and love, and it's a brave and genuinely impressive return to the spotlight from a major talent.

On The Wilderness, Explosions in the Sky deconstruct and rebuild their sound from the ground up, giving it a revitalized sense of urgency and resulting in some of their most dynamic work yet.

After a listen or two, Black Stone Cherry's back-to-the-cradle approach proves that track for track, Kentucky is not only more consistent, but more satisfying than previous albums.

While it's not all good, there are some sublime moments within the album's ramshackle bulk, and its blast of free-range creativity is in itself something to celebrate.

It's an intense and trippy odyssey, one that should make fans old and new appreciative of Jurado's depth while mulling along.

It's certainly not an upbeat listen, nor are its myriad regional allusions easy to parse for non-Australians, but it engages enough on a cerebral level that it's consistently intoxicating, even at its most lethal.

Toher's music has become more powerful as he's made it more delicate, and Wuthering Drum is a compelling debut that casts a lingering spell.

It's an impressive debut, one that should easily win over fans of simple and true indie pop, and also one that promises great things in the future.