With a reflective outlook worthy of Bragg’s now venerable stature, this weathered perspective serves him well.

In sum, The Best Day is the Sonic Youth album that Sonic Youth fans feared would never happen in the wake of the band’s split in 2011.

Not all the songs on Hardly Electronic are as affecting--and some of them are just good bubbly pop fun. There are some misses--the country-ish “Bye Bye Crow” isn’t very good--but most are at least solid and surprisingly fresh, and a few are much better than that.

Subtlety and finesse are the watchwords here, two elements that deliver artistic intrigue.

If this is his starting point, his future seems limitless.

A progressive dance-pop album that, maybe because of her background, feels a heck of a lot hipper than what her new genre counterparts can offer.

Wildlife has the feel of both a consolidation and an introduction, as the band runs every permutation of the underground guitar rock it loves through the ringer of singer Joe Cardamone's singular vision.

In crafting an album that’s filled with largess, they give their fans a work that genuinely seems destined for the ages.

If you’re looking for that next hooky, guitar-pop record you could do a lot worse than this.

Gallon Drunk’s whiskey goes down rough on The Soul of the Hour, but the lingering after-burn is the best part.

While Davenport and his crew aren’t doing anything here completely out of the ordinary (for them, anyway) with a batch of songs this strong it might stand as his best.

Chock full of affirmation and illumination, Bright Side of Down is just the perfect pick-me-up for these frequently turbulent times.

Museum of Love is a nonformulaic, hard to pin down, quirky and danceable album.

Willie Nile, at 67, can still paint a picture with words and burn the house down from the stage. Savor it.

If you’ve heard their main/prior bands then the sound of this won’t surprise you, but it’ll still feel like an old friend that you always pick up right where you left off.

Along The Way sounds remarkably fresh and vital, in fact, the mark of a gifted musician trying to incorporate his philosophical yearnings into a concrete manifestation that can be shared at will.

Tales of Us unveils yet again how talented Goldfrapp truly is as together Alison and Gregory continue to craft music that does not pigeonhole them into a set genre; they simply make exceptional music.

Unfortunately, while the singers add some variety to the down-tempo dance stew that Green comes up with, they also fade into his lounge-like, bare-bones background all too well without adding much flavor, not to mention bite, to the proceedings.

The album teems with strong songs and performances.

Non-converts won’t miss anything, but psych rock fans will eat this up and belch happily.

Establishing her forceful new identity from the start, Goodman makes music with an infectious enthusiasm.

These salad days have been solid days for the Salad Boys, no matter how you toss it, making them a sterling addition to their musically rich NZ heritage. Pleasurable neural sensations are guaranteed.

Smith matches oddball narratives with clever, catchy tunes; he’s a really good songwriter. If he were a little happier or a little less prone to baroque eccentricity, he’s probably have a bigger following--but he wouldn’t be Sonny Smith, and that would be a shame.

It’s as if the quartet decided to pay tribute to one of O’Malley’s chief inspirations: Earth. That sounds dull, but there’s something hypnotic about these songs.

Lovesick Blues is simply a beauty.

The words are as smart as they come, full of sudden puzzle-twists and casual apercus, the showy part of this musical enterprise. Yet the music is just as polished and fine, even if it takes a supporting role.

Some listeners might run screaming but the band's tenacity is admirable, which keeps it exciting.

All of Mess has an enjoyably menacing feel that will prove inviting to Liars fans and new listeners alike.

Returns to Valley of Rain, then, is a start-to-finish delight. It’s technically a re-do of the original UK cassette version of Valley of Rain, which had 11 tunes compared to the 10-song US LP.

Hospitality's debut is a sugar-rush of an album, albeit one given acerbic snap by Papini's delivery.

The one thing missing from Dude, The Obscure, are a few more raucous, upbeat tracks, but that can easily be rectified with a new Diamond Rugs record.

The change-up [writing exclusively on the keyboard] proved to be the best thing to happen for the duo, especially for Boeckner, a guitarist by trade whose embrace of the analog synth helped open a whole new world of expression for him as a songwriter.

If this album doesn’t bowl you over, it doesn’t disappoint either and rest assured that their next record will be something different that you didn’t expect either.

Aside from the nine-minute rambling of “Everything Has to Be Just-so,” (coming at the end of the first disc, making it easy to skip), McCombs pulls off the rare feat of a double-disc that never runs short on inspiration or steam.

A Wasteland Companion belies its foreboding title, largely eschewing the hushed introspection that's cast a pall over previous efforts in favor of, well, a sound that's at least marginally more hopeful.

Meat and Bone stands as quite possibly the band's best album to date. The Explosion breaks everything down to its root and reconstructs it all in a perfect way; it should show a generation of cool kids that may have missed him the first time around that Jon Spencer is among garage rock's main guitar slingers.

File Provider with the best of Damien Jurado and Mark Kozelek, fellow travelers in the world of darkly compelling, unassumingly poetic acoustic ballads that are quiet but never soft.

The ferocity in their delivery and the sheer sweep of their eager entreaties create an anthemic exposition, resulting in a series of songs that make it impossible to sit still.

Among the Grey is still mired in... well... several shades of gray, so that when certain songs dissipate as a casual drift, it becomes all the more difficult to glean a more emphatic impression.

You won’t be able to resist this delightful album’s charms, either. Don’t even try. Gabba gabba hey.

Shadow of the Sun sounds like Moon Duo is still working its way out of a corner, trying to find a way to expand its limited-palette sound without leaving it behind entirely.

He’s brought the whole Destroyer vibe to an entirely non-Destroyer set of material, and you can feel the waves of cool detachment, of stylish artifice wafting off these tunes just the same as always.

The fifteen tracks that make up the record are soul shaking, dark, emotive and moving in a way that would have Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits sipping their whiskeys in agreement.

This is not a return to form, or a wild new approach, just another Steve Forbert album, which means a very good thing to have in the world.

Like a reincarnated Big Star, complete with sweet melodies that last for days and hooks sharp enough to piece flesh, the band's latest Foolish Blood (their seventh if you loop in EPs), is one of their strongest efforts to date.

The result is an album that’s unfailingly engaging, and, unsurprisingly, wholly exceptional at that.

Carolina is a gorgeous record, enticing and attractive, giving you its heart to hold and trusting you to treasure the experience.

Their self-titled debut was a good record, the follow up is a great one.

The band’s pretty much stuck in nuevo Nirvanaland.

If you like drawling guitars and the springy thud of basslines, if you prefer sunny melodies dredged in fog and dissonance, Cool Ghouls is as good a bet as any.

Contraband pushes Taylor's music forward, if by short, measured steps, and the qualities that make him the 21st century's classic bluesman keep his sound deep and true.

I Wake Up Screaming is an absolute delight, a rhythmically exhilarating, lyrically humorous, melodically intoxicating collection of thirteen terrific songs.

Ivan & Alyosha offer an emphatic combination of allure and affirmation that all but assures instant appreciation.

These are lonely outposts in a landscape without distinction, where the most depressing aspect isn’t what happened to Landes and Ritter, but what happened to Landes’ songwriting.

Suffice it to say those looking for an album on the order of early Squeeze classics like Argybargy or East Side Story won’t be disappointed. Packed with winsome melodies, joy and jubilation (made all the more expressive by titles like “Nirvana,” “Beautiful Game,” “Sunny” and the all too appropriate “Top of the Form”), Cradle to the Grave is a stunning example of the brilliance Difford and Tilbrook seemingly command at their fingertips.

The production values are practically negligible due to the archival effect. Still, Stoneking’s intents are obviously pure and prone to imperfection. A curious listen, Gon’ Booglaloo goes all out.

King Khan is, so far, pursuing a sound that is more huge than slick, and it sounds great.

The second half of the album finds the foursome relenting and mostly mellowing out.

Their return is certainly great news to the diehards out there. For everyone else, at least the bar hasn’t been set too high for the follow up.

There’s a lot here, all of it sounding exquisite.

Old Yellow Moon will be well worth remembering.

A tripped-out masterpiece of transcendental space fuzz that pays tribute to the ruins of Italy that goes beyond the headiest moments of Pink Floyd's legendary performance inside of that coliseum in Pompeii.

The band, seemingly surfacing out of nowhere has turned in an impressive dozen tracks with their first offering.

Needing to prove nothing, Goat have created one of the most definitive musical statements of 2016.

The 5 songs in 16 minutes breeze by, barely after you've had a chance to absorb them, leave you hungering for more.

Heads Up could easily pick things up right where the band left off, as it elaborates upon the Warpaint dreampop while bringing in purposeful elements of dance-pop and post-rock.

Club 8 may have just made their best record yet (no mean feat in a band with a catalog of great records). It’s true.... this is one of 2015’s best.

Club 8 exist in their own bubble and continue to make music for themselves. You can’t fault them for that, on the contrary, they deserve your deeper respect for it.

Given the earthier sonic aesthetic of the band’s previous LP, the gauzy mist of Warpaint may be hard to accept at first, but given time, the record’s sensuality becomes clear, making it more of a next step than a radical rethink.

Long Vacations isn't a bad album per se (Rouse is too gifted a songwriter to make a genuinely bad album), but it has the sound of an uninspired one.

For while Costa Blanca superficially suggests a trip to some Euro-trash mall outlet, listen closer and you hear a dark, subversive critique.

It all sounds like the best kind of disco, but warmer and funkier and rougher around the edges.

Individ challenges its listeners to discover the elusive melodies that reside below the surface, even though the clattering arrangements and oddly oblique atmospherics might prove to be a distraction.

Though hardly the type of platter meant to accompany any sort of festive gathering, Little Heater still manages to stir the senses.

Campbell is at the top of his game even at closing time. If there's no more to come then this is as good a spot as any to ring down the curtain.

Shovels & Rope displays a firm grip on its craft on Swimmin’ Time, and a willingness to use it in service of any stylistic boulevard it chooses to walk.

Citizen Zombie resurrects a band that’s still evolving, rather than a nostalgia act, and is all the better for it.

[Raitt] mostly returns to the quality soft-rock she perfected in her early solo career, but juices it up with hot guitar solos on almost every song.

You have an album that on balance is worth the effort it took to produce. But it's a precarious balance.

While the band was hardly in a rut before, it nonetheless sounds revitalized here, reveling in big melodies and even bigger riffs.

It has a good sound to it, but as a whole, the misty quality in many of the songs doesn’t have much of a lasting impact.

Stinson doesn’t try to be profound--he simply knocks out one greasy gem after another with an ease and grace that only comes from a combo of talent and experience.

Though not as great as their last few albums of all original songs, Play The Hits is still a fun holdover until the band comes back with another record.

A breezy, but challenging mix of pop and folk rock songs.

Ministry of Love may wax gloomy but proves to be an enjoyable album that fans of IO Echo just may happily play repeatedly.

Give Me All You Got is as seductive and enticing as its name implies because clearly, Rodriguez is giving all she has as well.

Slippery, shimmery, beautiful songs.

It’s a cerebral, sometimes sinewy sound, but one which leaves a lasting impression regardless.

The contrast between the style and the subject matter is so arresting that you kind of wonder what will happen on the next record when Nelson is, perhaps, not mad anymore.

Silver Eye is moving forward in that Goldfrapp did not resolve to focus solely on one style, they effortlessly melded several influences, leaving us with a fine album to introduce 2017.

Isaak has somehow managed to make the homage almost as enjoyable as the originals. Almost.

By definition, they're not as classic as his first three albums but because of the amazing guitar plus the soulful grooves and songwriting (and thankfully no overdubbing), there's still some good quality material found here for fans and even some agnostics.

Freeclouds balances strummy, acoustic campfire sensitivity with sweeping, anthemic rock a la sometime tour mates in the War on Drugs, tipping both styles into wild, mildly psychotropic territories.

The name of this project might be 7 Days of Funk, but there’s enough groove in this mofo to last a lifetime.

Out of View already channels a good bit of chaos in with its summer afternoon melodies, now after only a couple of years of experimentation.

Howl is an unequivocal roots recording, an evocative combination of Bluegrass celebration, deep bottom Blues and total allegiance to authentic Americana.

You have to go back to 1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion to find a more consistently flawless record from the band. Lyrically the trio is in top form.

These days lots of different bands/songs are called noise pop, but these folks are doing it right.