Like his great aunt, and his great uncle John Coltrane, Ellison has created exceptionally progressive, stirring, and eternal art.

All this means that Playland is superficially more pop with all its style and flair, but it plays more like a rock & roll album, always in a hurry to make its point understood as quickly as possible.

It's a good thing she dug through her back pages and finished these songs, as she's wound up with one of her strongest albums.

Thought-provoking, sonically dazzling, and sometimes bewildering, Let's Dance Raw is a lot to process, but it feels like a wish for honesty and intimacy in a world bent on destroying itself.

In the Orbit of Ra is close to essential for fans and a pretty good place to start for the curious Sun Ra novice. He really was writing music for the 21st century.

Morris is lucky to have such a sympathetic group of musicians to play with, and the well-produced combo of words, vocals, and music make We Come from the Same Place another treat for fans of thoughtful, painfully adult indie pop music.

They're all laced with small details, subtle twists, and gradual intensification.

A World Lit Only by Fire makes it crystal clear that Godflesh have a long, unfailing memory, and that their punishing work has only just begun.

Good chance newcomers will fall for the singles and be frustrated by the perceived filler, but that's the biggest fault with Wonder Where; it could be more persuasive and open.

All told, Our Love stands as the most straightforwardly danceable Caribou album to date, but holds on to both the experimental bent and composition-minded musicality that helped build the project's one-of-a-kind sound world.

A feeling of acceptance underpins Everything Will Be Alright in the End: there's a sense that Weezer made another record of massive, hooky rock not only because that's what the fans want but because they know it's what they do best.

Peaking Lights simply push for greater clarity and articulation on Cosmic Logic, refining their approach but keeping the blurry balance of rhythm and sun-dazed psychedelia.

Not everything sticks. Some of the lazing tracks verge on rudderless meandering, but as a whole, Shaker Notes is a fascinating detour.

They want to be everything to everyone and, in attempting to do so, they've wound up with a record that appeals to a narrow audience: fellow travelers who either thrill at the spectacle or dig for the subtleties buried underneath the digital din.

Kravitz deploys all his considerable sonic skills on songs that are purposefully trashy and unapologetically fun and the result is pure pleasure.

The problem here, though, is that with the exception of the above songs ["Love Ain't a Love Song," "Oh Beautiful!," "Never Give All Your Heart," and "Trouble Town"], and maybe one or two others, the songs on Different Shades of Blue shade toward the generic side of things, and no matter how wonderful and gorgeous the guitar tones may be, it's hard to make a generic song sing memorably.

With so much confidence and gothic swagger, it's hard not to be entertained by this album, and listeners who may have been thrown by their inconsistent early work would do well to dive back into the abyss with this third effort.

Like much of Boratto's previous work, it's all superbly crafted but not much of it leaves a lasting impression.

It nicely blends the spontaneous charm of a homemade record with the professionalism expected from a rock veteran who made something good out of a tough situation.

While Hold on Pain Ends is generally well played and well produced, little new ground has been broken and by and large it comes across as a fairly standard, mainstream pop-oriented metalcore record.

With all the elements in place, the late-era The Violet Flame sits on the top shelf of Erasure albums, and considering all the greatness in the back catalog, that's no easy task.

If his bitterness is unavoidable in the lyrics or in his voice, his music softens his bite, turning these tunes into melancholy laments instead of invective, so there winds up being a bit of a needed cushion to Mellencamp's straight talk on Plain Spoken.

Intriguing but muddled, Tyranny puts plenty of musical distance between Casablancas and the Strokes, but too often it lacks the clarity to be anything but challenging in the wrong ways.

Popular Problems reveals that at 80, Cohen not only has plenty left, but is on top of his game.

The band's laconic, devil-may-care charm is evident throughout the 11-track set, but they seemingly lacked the follow-through to ensure that their deal with the cloven-hoofed and bifurcated-tailed swindler included the ability to conjure up some hooks.

It's hardly fair to wish hard times on songwriters just so their work might sound more real and meaningful, but if they have to suffer, one can at least hope that they are able to turn it into the kind of revelatory art that Lerche has on Please.

Equally bold, vulnerable, concise, and expansive, Too Bright dazzles.

Cheek to Cheek is a record where the music and even the songs take a backseat to the personalities.