This music declares that Clark is one artist who will see to it that the blues does indeed have a future, which is what makes him important and Sonny Boy Slim a serious leap forward from Blak and Blu.

It's that tension between the good and the bad, the yin and yang of Duran Duran, that makes Paper Gods absorbing.

She's always been a sweet, pleasant crooner and Male plays to those very strengths.

Alone & Unreal: The Best of the Clientele is a well-chosen, emotionally powerful selection of songs that works well as an introduction to any poor soul who may have missed out on the group the first time around, but it also works perfectly as a summation of one of the most enriching musical experiences of the guitar pop era.

No No No is a feel-good mean of the band's prior releases that should appeal to the Beirut loyal as well as serve as a fine representative for any potential admirers who've simply managed to miss them along the way.

So There is both ambitious and down-to-earth, impeccably constructed, and utterly accessible.

With every album, Souljazz Orchestra bring provocative surprise and musical delight. Resistance is no exception; it's chock-full of vitality and adventure.

A well-rounded effort with plenty of promise, the posthumous Welcome to JFK is one bittersweet victory.

With Rodeo, Travis Scott becomes a designer drug.

If Lydon's decision to revive Public Image Ltd. seemed curious at first, with What the World Needs Now, the group has a firmly established new personality that suits its leader well, and finds him making strong and engaging music again after many fans wrote him off as a spent force.

So Brace the Wave reveals that Lou Barlow hasn't changed all that much in the past quarter-century--he's just better at this stuff, and has finally grown more comfortable with it.

Like Wright's previous albums, Freedom & Surrender is graceful and exacting, yet those qualities come across in a fashion that does not seem deliberate--remarkable for material that draws from folk, blues, jazz, soul, and gospel and often fuses two or more of those genres.

Empire is hardly an ideal introduction to Unwound's singular musical world-view, but for fans looking for a writ-large celebration of this band's remarkable final act, this set is a luxury and a necessity at once.

The dancefloor-friendly tracks seem to have a classy tech-house shuffle rather than an overblown EDM pomposity, giving weight to her lyrics rather than distracting from them.

Howard makes beautiful pop that rocks and that combination of momentum and craft turns John Howard & the Night Mail into one of his very best albums.

This busy collection is really just more free.

If you're a fan, you need to grab this one.

While parts of Too show FIDLAR trying to find their footing, it's all part of their evolution and is not without its charms.

Discreet Desires is a fascinating debut album, demonstrating the right way to transition from an underground, 12"-only electronic producer to a full-scale album artist, greatly expanding upon previous ideas while avoiding sounding overblown and remaining rough and exhilarating.

This excitement can be exhausting over the course of nearly 90 minutes, but that's also an attribute: this version of Against Me! throws everything it has into a performance and while that passion may be overwhelming, it's also potent and thrilling.

Fleming may have lost some of the outsider charm that bubbled through the first Diane Coffee record by going big, but he went big in such a sure-handed and spectacular way, it's hard to complain too much. In fact, an album this crazy and good deserves nothing but praise and adulation.

"Girls" illustrates the dance between jealousy and affection simply and brilliantly. Moments like these make All Yours Widowspeak's most self-assured and vulnerable album yet.

Substantial enough to require three pieces of vinyl (the CD version is a single disc with three fewer tracks), it's more outward-looking than Toeachizown, not only through its dizzying and multigenerational list of collaborators, but also through Riddick's increased ability and confidence as a vocalist who promotes positivity, whether it's blissful escape or strong-willed perseverance.

While the songs are good--there's canny craftsmanship behind the Stylistics salute "Stay in My Corner" and the steady crawling "Put a Flower in Your Pocket"--it's this immersive, trippy atmosphere that distinguishes the Arcs and makes Yours, Dreamily live up to its name.

With repeated listening it earns shelf space with their finest records.

In trying to re-create the music he's long admired--all at once--through The Last Hurrah!!'s kaleidoscopic persona, he's moved beyond the trappings of mere nostalgia. Via the music of Mudflowers, the historical past is vital and ever present.

These aren't quite the track listings from 2008 but they're close enough and, more importantly, they offer a bunch of songs that were not on Five Guys.... That's good bang for the buck and a good enough reason for the die-hard fans to pony up for this music one more time.

If Lemmy croaks or wheezes more often on Bad Magic than he has before, it suits his tales of foul-minded bastards and their despicable deeds, and it's a fine fit with the bloody-minded attitude that has always been Motörhead's stock in trade.