Like its three predecessors, Warm Chris blazes its own trail, and following along can sometimes feel like grasping at the last vestiges of a late morning dream. It's both compelling and confounding, like Harding herself.

An album that's trying to move forward and ultimately relieved things are ending, Tell Me That It's Over may not find Wallows any luckier at love, but they're a little older, a little wiser, just as catchy, and more sonically adventurous.

The creeping lurch and distressed fuzz damage of final track "Aurora" bring the likenesses and differences of previous phases of the band into clear focus, closing out Sonancy with a sound that could fit anywhere in the Loop discography but feels especially visceral, more dynamic than ever, and somehow new.

Humble Quest is a mature record in its approach in addition to its theme, a record that offers warm consolation in hours of trouble as well as breezy relaxation during the good times.

Ibibio Sound Machine have always sought to get listeners onto the dancefloor. Electricity reveals that they won't have to coax. Here, they have taken their songcraft, production, and rhythm science to an entirely different level without sacrificing their Afrocentric roots.

Jordan's willingness to allow us inside his head and witness his insecurities and inner dialogue alongside his rage gives this a depth few hardcore bands will ever reach. If you want your ears kicked, Soul Glo can do that like few others, but Diaspora Problems confirms that's hardly the beginning and end of their talents.

Benny's storytelling lyrics are hardened and aggressive as ever, but he balances out his tales of street dominance and underworld dealings with moments of honest self-reflection.

This band have maintained a creative vision that's served them beautifully, and their commitment to the power of dynamics and finding the details of a song by leaving room to ponder the details and textures has led them to write some great material and also find unexplored landscapes in the work of other tunesmiths. Songs of the Recollection captures them doing the latter with grace and intelligence.

Mainstream Sellout feels mostly like a middling attempt to further cross over into pop-punk, this time lighter on ideas and cohesion.

Labyrinthitis is another exciting step forward in Destroyer's never-ending evolution, delivering pleasant confusion and unexpected choices along with the kind of fractured but magical songwriting of which only Bejar is capable.

The overall downplaying of Camp Cope's more emo tendencies plays like a natural occurrence as they age into this satisfying new phase.

At a sleek 33-minutes long, Crash lets songs like "Lightning" -- an unlikely but winning collision of freestyle beats, giddy orchestral synth stabs, and processed vocals -- claim the spotlight they deserve. It may not be quite as striking as how i'm feeling now, but on Crash, Charli XCX once again finds endless freedom in pop's constraints.

Despite the overwhelming emotions, Never Let Me Go is an exercise in control and expert execution that finds Placebo on another level of songwriting and point of view, a welcome surprise at this stage in their careers.

The good news is they're clearly getting better at this, and there are plenty of compelling places the Districts could go next from this vantage point.

While some listeners are bound to mourn the loss of Mattiel's most retro-minded garage qualities, these latter songs attain a stylistic sweet spot between their most accessible and rebellious material, while still -- refreshingly -- completely defying contemporary pop.

Only Love From Now On is a beautiful and satisfying culmination of everything she's done so far.

"Teeth Out, Pt. II" is even more purgatorial, proving that Miller and Kuperus don't need beats to sound formidable. It all makes Becoming Undone one of Adult.'s most harrowing albums -- and all the more impressive because of it.

This is the kind of music only a tiny handful of people are ever fortunate enough to witness, and Forever on My Mind allows us to share that rare privilege.

The Cactus Blossoms remain a proudly low-key affair -- the focus remains on the harmonies of brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey -- but the small, telling details help turn One Day into a warm, enveloping listen.

It'll take at least a full listen or two to adjust to the album's structure and arrangement. Once it clicks, it's a truly unique, engrossing experience that plays with one's perception of memory in relation to music, somewhat reminiscent of the Caretaker's work, but far from its sense of romanticized nostalgia.

Not unlike the late Emitt Rhodes, there's some of the cult classic singer/songwriter in Ivey's overall vibe, which seems built for a smaller but deeply devoted arena.

Their formula hasn't coagulated yet, and the subtle changes to their sound mark a well-timed soft progression for the group.

Although Jacob's Ladder is one of the more idiosyncratic albums in Mehldau's discography, there's enough sophisticated and delicately rendered piano work here to appeal to his longtime fans.

Re-emerging after a nine-year gap, their fifth album, For the Sake of Bethel Woods, retains some of the progressive experimentation of its predecessor without losing sight of its sturdy core of songs. In producer John Congleton, Midlake has found a worthy foil and he helps imbue highlights like the gorgeous "Feast of Carrion" and "Meanwhile…" with a sense of elegance and mystique.

The next best thing to sitting in on a Sonic Youth jam session, In/Out/In distills the band's essence so brilliantly that fans will fall in love all over again.

Motomami is as provocative and risky as it is creative. It showcases Rosalía as a master, twisting together the contradictory strands of Latin and Anglo pop with traditional and vanguard forms and fresh sounds into a gloriously articulated radical approach that makes for obsessive listening.

The Alchemist's instrumentals are fluid and bubbling over with unexpected sound combinations, and the inspired nature of Curren$y's performances comes through even when he's at his most laid-back.

Though known for her Ella Fitzgerald-esque skill at interpreting songbook standards and French chanson, Salvant has proven herself a literate and nuanced songwriter in her own right. She brings all of these aspects together yet again on Ghost Song, this time adding in more contemporary cover tunes and other folk traditions she hadn't yet explored.