All of this adds up to another well-made record that evolved from Squid's origins.

There's joy in every moment.

Purge is heavier on breaks and electronics than Pure, and it feels more sudden and immediate, forgoing the older album's dark ambient experimentation and extended track lengths.

With each subsequent album, Horan just gets better and better. The Show is his most immediate and engaging set to date, endlessly listenable and full of heart and charm.

After three or four of these hard-to-follow stylistic roadmaps, however, the excitement quickly becomes exhaustion, and Sleep Token's overly-polished sound starts to feel more overwrought than enjoyable.

Archangel Hill documents a singular artist with a tremendous command of her gifts – no small accomplishment for someone who was 87 years of age when this was released.

Baxter Dury deserves to be considered fully free of his father's shadow. Maybe after releasing this subtly brilliant and pleasingly scathing album, he'll finally believe it too.

They may or may not ever release anything as genre defining as ...And Out Come the Wolves or as hell-bent on destruction as that afore-mentioned 2000 album, but as far as punk in 2023 goes there aren't many bands making music as convincing or powerful as Rancid do here.

Formal Growth in the Desert plays like another State of the Union essay from this band of intelligent malcontents, and what they have to say is strikingly effective as editorial commentary and as music.

There might not be an album big enough to contain all the facets of Shears' talent, but Last Man Dancing's abundance of style and imagination should keep fans guessing -- and of course, dancing.

While this mix of vulnerability, anxiety, and resentment can feel uneven, Folds' melodies are engaging as ever, and he finds balance again on highlights like "Moments" (featuring Tall Heights) and the pandemic-isolation-themed "Winslow Gardens."

Fans who have developed a taste for the sweet sadness of the Cowboy Junkies' best work may find Such Ferocious Beauty a bit strong and confrontational for their taste, but that's very much the point of this music; this isn't rooted in solace, but in exorcising the demons that come from losing loved ones, and it's a difficult but eloquent act of public mourning.

While the album does delve into unusually -- for Wainwright -- rustic traditional fare, selections keep listeners on their toes by not only broadly defining folk, but with a slew of diverse guest singers and arrangements that, at least occasionally, stray into lush orchestral territory.

The way these splashes of color and invention intertwine with the carefully sculpted ballads result in a testament to Gallagher's enduring craft that's unusually satisfying.

But Here We Are keeps its focus on human connection, a distinction that separates it from other Foo Fighters albums.

Most of the album carries a definite rhythmic punch, a weight that's evident even in softer numbers like "The Ocean and the Butterfly" and "Monsters." A similar sense of gravel has carried over to Matthews' voice, an evolution that softens and deepens his phrasing eccentricities, another element of earthiness that gives Walk Around the Moon a sense of weight and immediacy that's rare in the Dave Matthews Band catalog.

Parts Daniel Johnston and avant-cabaret show, it demands attention from the opening clatter of a cassette recorder and ensuing dinked-out piano and spoke-sung rhymes of the one-minute "recognized."

The moderate pacing and more personally derived songwriting make the album one that demands closer attention to fully understand and enjoy, but it rewards that attention with some of the band's most nuanced and subtly detailed pop constructions to date, ultimately revealing new depths both musical and emotive.

Who knows where they might go next, but right here and right now in the year 2023, one would be hard-pressed to find a better rock & roll album on the shelves.

While Of Tomorrow might not seem too wildly removed from the rest of the band's body of work on first listen, the space it carves out for subtle details and bleary emotional expressions makes it an album that requires closer inspection to grasp its full scope.

Trouble on Big Beat Street sometimes meanders, and not all of its detours are rewarding. Nevertheless, this is some of Pere Ubu's most rawly experimental music in some time; for fans who want to feel like they're listening in on the band working out these songs instead of being presented a perfected product, there's a lot to love.

Ultimately, Animals is a compelling conversation between the creator and his psyche, his musicians, and listeners.

The performances are universally lively, often with dramatic shifts inside each piece.

After several years' worth of darker and more obviously thematic work like Playground in a Lake, Kiri Variations, and Daniel Isn't Real, it makes sense that he'd want to make something more eclectic and exploratory, and Sus Dog's exhilarating creativity is a testament to trusting the process.

Only Ron and Russell Mael could have made this album, and while they've always done what they needed and wanted to do as artists, it's extra satisfying that this peak in their popularity coincides with music this vibrantly engaging.

Some of Water from Your Eyes' most consistently gripping music, the cohesion of Everyone's Crushed lends a new vantage point on their music -- and it's an exciting one.

With guest spots from Margo Price, Billy Strings, Old Crow Medicine Show, Sierra Hull, Dan Tyminski, and Gillian Welch, Crooked Tree can feel a little busy, but the playing is reliably top-notch, and the songs, which approach trad-bluegrass themes from a female perspective, are both potent and timely.

Cave World is a world away from the band that recorded "Research Chemicals" or "Sports," and they've added some brain power without losing their strength.