When she gets heavy with either beats or ballads, This Is What The Truth Feels Like slows to a crawl. Cut away these excesses--these moments of emotional bloodletting or thirsty appeals to the top of the charts--and This Is What The Truth Feels Like manages to be as fleet, giddy and charming as Gwen Stefani ever is.

Nothing bores and the album moves through its track list with a purposeful flow, and while electro-trap fiends and "Harlem Shake" lovers may be thrown by all the artful noise, Aa still rocks the house, as Baauer evolves from meme generator to master craftsman.

For the rest of us, Weighted Mind is a poignant, bracing work by an adept singer and songwriter. She openly invites us into her world with real vulnerability and honesty, and reveals her inner strength in doing so.

Liima still recognizably sounds like Efterklang, but it seems like there's less pressure for them to construct a monumental statement here, and the group seem to enjoy their freedom.

Jones covers a lot of musical ground on this album, and it's all of high quality, confirming his place as one of the top-tier American Primitive guitarists.

While enlightenment through disorientation might not be everyone's moment of Zen, Eraser Stargazer suggests that Guerilla Toss is an acquired taste more listeners could develop.

Even with the album's graceful inclinations, it still sounds as bleak its title, but the way the Body combine disparate components into their brand of mutilated "gross pop" is truly fascinating.

Ultimately, Of Desire finds the KVB in transition, moving toward a more inventive approach that delivers some of their finest work along the way.

It's a great record filled with emotion, imagination, and passion that's on par with any album labeled "emo," past or present.

The band sounded just fine before, quite properly psychedelic and dream state-y; on Freaks of Nurture they have made all the right moves to jump themselves out of the pack and up near the front of the line of their fellow time-traveling freaks.

They embrace their essence, how they want to be broader and burlier than the rest, how they want reflection to seem like celebration and parties to be a dark night of the soul. This contradiction means the band remains an uneasy good time, but at least on Us and the Night the reconstituted 3 Doors Down have decided to look on the sunny side of life.

As a whole, Incarnate improves on the creativity and restlessness offered by Disarm the Descent. There is a lot more ambition, confidence and above all, passion here.

For Star Wars freaks, identifying the sources can be amusing, though not many of the cuts are comparable to the artists' best work.

Dedicated fans will want to note that two of the tracks--"Swimming Pool" and "Social Halo"--were taken from her 2015 EP S, though the ten additional tracks more than make up for any duplication.

Fallon has found a way to distill his band's fiery nostalgia into something a little more refined, but no less affecting.

No Manchester is a delight from start to finish, while being the absolute best kind of tribute album. It brings out what's special in the songs while giving them new life in a brand new context.

Busy and engrossing, Arcology marks an exhilarating development in Thug Entrancer's sound.

The biggest constant here is the technical proficiency and complementary blending of the band's lead singers. The pair--who are notably also the album's sole songwriters--make a visual show of this, wearing matching clothes and hairstyles in performance. That quality ultimately overcomes any shifts in style, and also makes them hard to ignore.

Significantly more experimental than Colleran's previous work, Luneworks also feels much more personal, and it continues to establish MMOTHS as a unique voice in the indie electronic scene.

In My Feelings (Goin' Thru It) would be among the MC's best work, but Boosie continues to stun even with these instant, and somewhat sloppy, releases, so leave this for the fans, and then consider becoming a fan.

On his second studio album co-credited to the Solar Motel Band, former Peeesseye guitarist Chris Forsyth sprawls out while penning some of his most melodic, accessible songs.

Like its predecessor, God Don't Never Change reflects the enduring, mercurial influence of the artist, but also the weight the Christian gospel imposes on questions of the human condition as it encounters suffering, joy, mercy, loneliness, death, and resurrection.

Replete with consummate musicianship, Ouroboros is a deliberate work of album rock.

On this record, Yorn seems to master mood more than tune, but that winds up being to his benefit. This tonal elasticity gives ArrangingTime an enveloping warmth, one that is alluring even if it tends to shift concentration away from the songwriting that allegedly was his greatest strength.

Occasionally, there's a slight surprise--Buckley attempts Bukka White's Delta stomp on a slippery, slurred version of "Poor Boy Long Way from Home" -- but usually, You & I feels of piece with the rest of his early work.

Check the excellent singles "Kno One," "Really Really," and "La Familia" for some easy persuasion, and then know that the album is devoid of superstar appearances because the captivating Gates doesn't need them.

Xtreme Now is eclectic to the point of feeling scattered, and its songs don't entirely live up to the outrageous concept.

A smart young band in an increasingly dumbed-down world, Big Ups may have found their voice in the past, but they're clearly swinging for a brighter future.