Five Dice, All Threes is so rich, in cross references, in musical allusions and callbacks to prior Bright Eyes songs, in ideas and notions and statements that it’s impossible to grasp them all.

Krivchenia stretches and molds the organic fervor of The Mirror like Play-Doh, often accomplishing a sense of something that is raw, new, and exciting. All the while Buck’s crooning slices through the production like a butter knife, shifting the sound into something that feels less like Big Thief and more towards something distinctly Meekian.

The artistic flair of The Center Won’t Hold and the tightness of Path of Wellness are still present, but they find a comfortable position between the two that feels somewhat familiar and certainly natural for Sleater-Kinney.

He may do all of this DIY, but it comes across with more heart than a lot of the tourists of the scene, and it shows in his powerful lyrics just how far he’s come in this world.

With Valtari, the band has returned in some ways to the sounds it made its name with.

Mike Kinsella has made not only one of his sincerest works to date, but also one of the most brutally honest albums of the year.

Though his shouty, communal sound now operates as a fever dream reminder of days when sweaty bodies toppled on one another without the worry of infectious disease, his topical dissection of society on the mend has never felt more thrilling than it is now.

Each track very much lives and breathes in a world of its own, all while coming together to present a cohesive feeling.

After 11 tracks, this return feels well-earned, but it’s equally refreshing to know the next song we hear from Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever might not be so predictable.

Their voice is more supple and sensual than we’ve heard before, even as they present themselves as anhedonic, numbed by “meaningless space”.

It's sharp songwriting, strong, emotive vocals, and unostentatious attitude lead to three of the most unassumingly replayable pop songs of the year.

Though academic in its tone, and impenetrable at points due to it's uncompromising focus on experimentation, Movement looks inward, probing the possibility of humanity even through an album centered on electronic instrumentation

Here is an album that's neither forgettable nor empty.

Era Extraña does not flow as smoothly as Psychic Chasms but the influences are in all the right places and it seems that Alan Palomo is wearing them proudly on his sleeve.

Sudden Elevation is her first album entirely in English, and is the result of an escape to a seaside cottage to focus herself on her songs and the concept of the album itself, detailing the way tracks would ebb and flow. As a result she’s created arguably her best work to date.

The sonic corruption and disquieting sense of dread are accomplished with pure muscle alone. But instead of keeping this mindset out in the open, Metz just sweat it out over thirty jarring minutes.

CHAI see no line whatsoever between taking on whatever issues get to them and being able to completely bliss out, and it’s this very energy that continues to make them absolutely essential. WINK is simply the warmest, most open way they’ve chosen to engage in that battle yet.

One often loses a sense of location and chronological time, transported into a sublime realm, Blunt reveling in understated craft, melancholic freedom, and undiluted authenticity.

Even the addition of pop icons to the Rome album can't allow it to rise above its previously stated goals. There is little, if nothing, wrong with Rome, but rather, it is limited by the confines it sets up for itself.

A work of tightly-focused determination.

Yeah, sometimes you can't even hear the lyrics, and when you do they don't make sense (although that's improving by album). But the music is endearing, and most of the time spectacular and that's a great feature to have in any rock band.

It's the beginning of something that is very promising--a surprise reinvention from an artist many had assumed they'd already figured out.

For as many as will be impressed by it, there will be plenty for whom it’s just a headache. If you’re willing to stick with it though, you’ll be rewarded with many sonic gems – and some thought-provoking ideas thematically.

Outrun is exactly what it aspires to be: a fun retro-pop-dance album for those who like to drive fast through cities at night, perhaps behind a pair of sunglasses.

It's as if you chucked the lot into a tumble dry and waited to see what came out, ultimately ending up with something completely different.

With bops and tearjerkers aplenty, Rina’s sincerity in how she confronts her past demons cannot help but warm even the iciest heart.

It's All True still has the most in common with its predecessor: the clean production, the attention to detail, the instrumental experimentation (those Eastern flourishes on the first two tracks are strangely easy to miss like the live instruments on Begone) and careful arrangements are all traits that have been carried forward, but many of those (if not all) are core ingredients in what makes up the music of Junior Boys, and they'll likely feature on their future releases for many years to come.

It has everything one could want from a shoegaze album in 2020, without sounding like their last album that much.