A frequently lovely album born out of introspection and loss, Love Drips and Gathers captures the complex ways life and music change while upholding Piroshka's musical legacy.

Where Chorusing excels, however, is on experimental-leaning tracks best represented here by "Watching the Beams" and "Billowing," which affect with a distorted mix of organic and inorganic textures alongside more of the album's melancholic folk song.

This would be an impressive first salvo from a new artist, and coming from a seasoned veteran, it's a truly welcome sign that her creative well isn't about to run dry.

This matured focus on concept and mood saves the album from becoming an odd catalog misstep, serving instead as a dignified artistic exercise that rewards the band's bravery by becoming the most heartfelt and poignant statement of their careers.

Not only has she written an engaging set of songs, but they are played and captured with gusto.

Detour de Force is a thoughtfully constructed album with songs that reveal the group's continued knack for balancing intimate, often humorous personal sentiments with more anthemic feel-good moments.

While THIB is a back-to-front vibe and an intriguing experiment for Zay's mellowed-out sound, it's one that's still negotiating its own limits.

A reinvigorated return, The Apple Drop shows that Liars can still reinvent their music and surprise listeners as they close out their second decade.

Presenting raw emotion and over-the-top braggadocio with such exacting balance is part of IDK's talent, and he delivers on USEE4YOURSELF like never before.

Delivering on the promise of her industry-shaking debut with confidence and grace, Happier Than Ever has the markings of a big career moment, one that signals artistic growth and hints at even more greatness to come.

It's not a buried gem or a return to form but a snapshot of an excellent musician having a pretty good run in the studio.

With Heart-Shaped Scars, she's found a home in sparse and spooky folk. Possibly not something one could have predicted when she first arrived on the scene with One Dove, but something that is satisfying and true all the same.

Aptly named, Ultrapop administers a constant barrage of sonic information that shows no delineation between discomfort, reassurance, pain, or pleasure.

Dave makes a potent second statement. His first steps outside of PSYCHODRAMA's concrete sphere of influence continue to cement his generational talent.

Native Sons is a tribute that manages to be more than a set of covers -- it shows what the band learned from these songs, as well as showing us where their long musical journey has taken them. It's essential listening from one of America's greatest bands.

Thirstier's confidence and optimism arrived when listeners in the early 2020s were hungry for both. If making her music as big and loud as it is here is what it takes to get people to realize what they've been missing with her music, then Thirstier is a wild success.

Stand for Myself is a stunner with plenty of emotional firepower, but it can also feel soft as a wool blanket.

As on Union, Electro Melodier sounds more like the work of a commentator than an activist, but he has something to say and he says it with intelligence and eloquence, and as his hero Woody Guthrie proved ages ago, that's no small thing.

More mature than either Strange Desire or Gone Now but just as life-affirming, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night is a refreshingly different perspective on Bleachers and a heartfelt soundtrack to millennial midlife crises.

None of the Indications' contemporaries have put together a set as distinctly purpose-built and delightful as this one.

Only on a couple occasions does Bridges let loose a touch while in the moment. ... Even in those moments, there is never an indication that Bridges could possibly lose his composure. The unswerving self-control he has demonstrated across three albums both impresses and mystifies.

Triage finds Rodney Crowell wearing his heart on his sleeve, and it's a heart that's open and unafraid of life and its challenges. It's a compelling and absorbing work from one of America's best working songwriters.

With friends and collaborators surgically removed, Faith is littered with jarring voices, avaricious creative decisions, and a fundamental sidelining of its visionary figurehead.

While this is a loving tribute to Frank Navetta (who died in 2008), if you were hoping for more of the subtle but genuine forward growth the band has shown on later-day albums like Cool to Be You and Hypercaffium Spazzinate, what you get instead is a journey into the past, with all the good and bad that phrase implies.

"Moonstar" has a country-rock air in its nearly spoken word verse not to mention its harmonica break, "Look What You've Done" is given a sleek New Wave gloss, and "Sound of My Voice" bops along on a rhythm reminiscent of the Strokes' "Last Night." These mild departures are highlights, but Texas deliver their signature pop-soul with precision and style on the rest of Hi, offering the familiar while never quite sounding stiff.

It's exceedingly rare for a band to come back after decades away and make something that measures up to what they were doing when they left off. Scientists have done that on Negativity, and that's something to celebrate.

Sob Rock is a pleasant album whose thematic '80s affections add some stylistic flair to Mayer's laid-back songs.

While coming off somewhat like a late-period album by a vocal-era star, the performances and material on Romantic Images still have the goods.