A kaleidoscope of wonder, moments tucked inside other moments like Russian nesting dolls.

With a staggering 18 songs, Vessel may appear daunting at first, but quickly proves itself to be a sharp and smooth listen.

Virtue is as fun as it is challenging and is both catchy and complex.

While Barnes is definitely well-versed in musical melancholy, there's also a thoughtful, sensitive part to balance all this pathos.

Power manages to keep Dumb Flesh sounding uniform and digestible, a great feat for an artist hell-bent on dissecting his craft.

True Love is a loving snapshot of what Hovvdy holds dear in the present and their excitement for the future is infectious. Instead of reflecting on the past and easiness of simpler times, they are finding pockets of these hyper-elated feelings in the here and now.

It all taps deeply into different veins of pop, yet it's gloriously synergetic in the incredible world created by Prince Rama.

Joke in the Hole is undoubtedly Eric Copeland's strongest release, a cycle of songs that brazenly possess both structural maturity and childlike weirdness.

They're the kind of songs you pull out once a month as reassurance that the mundanity of normal life can be beautiful, and/or we are all in this together. That's true today and it will be true tomorrow.

Like your favourite beer, Municipal Waste are reliable and will whet your whistle for thrash, a comparison the band would welcome with arms, or mouths, wide open.

Harder, better, faster and stronger than their excellent debut, 2009's Post Nothing.

Cantus, Descant is accessible without ever feeling thoughtless, plays to Davachi's sonic strengths, and provides just enough experimentation and variety to justify its daunting running time. It's a journey worth taking.

The King of Whys is wrought with restless artistry, simultaneously looking for and finding emotional release through musical exploration, lyrical introspection and bits of dry humour.

Dreams Worth More Than Money overflows with sonic effervescence, drawing you into the snake pit that is the mainstream hip-hop industry, with all the opulent trappings therein. Tight production support ingenious raps that continue to push the envelope of the street anthem narrative.

It only takes a few spins to detach oneself from the hype and respect the admirable groundwork laid down here for future greatness.

Built on a fuzzy foundation, II is as classic as a psychedelic-stoner-rock record can be, building on well-loved tropes but never hesitant to colour outside the lines.

As usual, fascinating choices abound when a lost Bob Dylan session is unearthed (and, excitingly, signalling that maybe there's way more of this kind of stuff to come), but this one feels particularly prototypical and casual, and, with good humour, was intended to warm folks up — to each other and the material — more than get its hypothetical audience hot and bothered.

Hell Can Wait succeeds as a reintroduction of sorts, showing Staples as a more focused and forward-moving artist who will surely outlive "them red roses."

This brilliant light on the country's folk music scene has never sounded better.

With each album they add more to their story, and the underlying emotional connection to the band and their songs is what grows in intensity.

Nine albums into their career, Animal Collective continue to deliver records far ahead of their time.

Though highly unlikely to unseat Hometowns or Departing as fan favourites, The Wild follows in the footsteps of the band's previous album, Mended with Gold, as a very strong album that doesn't yet hold the same sentimental value as their earlier material.

A lot of Aphex EPs are marred by fairly forgettable tracks (who's blasting "Nannou" in 2023?), but this latest one is solid tungsten all the way through.

Courageous and passionate, Bada$$ is a well-timed soundtrack to social and political struggle. While the album specifically chronicles the horrors of being a young black man in America, Joey articulates his angst in a way that easily resonates with anyone stumbling under the weight of oppression.

With their traditional sound mixing well with some new elements, Utilitarian marks the next chapter in Napalm Death's impressive career.

Harris is a sage escort to have along for the ride, and with the spare concrete signifiers and evocative open spaces she provides on Grid of Points, she's crafted a map for the full spectrum of human emotions and experiences.

GRIP is more than just a showcase for the return of Black queer spaces. It’s a celebration of the relationships — passionate, platonic, lasting, fleeting, loving, lustful — that these spaces foster.

Throughout Dawn, she exhibits wit and exemplary control and the blurred genre lines on the album are her playground.

Trouble Will Find Me burns slowly, but melds together more seamlessly with each listen.

A powerful return to form.

By KiCK iiiii, we are in truly subdued territory. An avant-classical journey into quieter realms, it privileges instrumental detail and tender lyricism over rhythmic intensity.

Taken as a whole, this is the kind of record that will infect your life, to paraphrase "Sepsis," one of the record's standouts. I, for one, am down to let it kill me.

Monument Building finds Loscil at his most focused, political and meticulous, a bleak but fulfilling listen whether you're aware of the album's brainy themes or not.

This ranks amongst Gelb's most vital albums in an already storied career.

Electric Lady Sessions perhaps best functions as the defining calling card of a post-reunion LCD Soundsystem.

Totally original, completely unselfconscious and wonderfully catchy, WINK is one of those rare albums that you can throw on anytime and let it guide you on the journey it has laid out before you.

A few duds like the repetitive "Glow Up" and the sappy duet with Prince Charlez "Smile" aside, Strength Of A Woman is Blige's finest offering in over a decade.

Steffi's transitions on Panorama Bar 05 sound smooth enough that they turn a mix listener's typical consideration of song blends towards the complementary selection of plunging machine sounds, naturalized in Panorama Bar 05 upon the steps of an ascendant, emotive trajectory.

Lily's clean and refined songwriting on Big Picture has her following in the footsteps of the similarly polished and venerable Laura Marling while sharing an emotionally intuitive sharpness and tongue-in-cheek propensity with fellow contemporaries like Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers.

He shines without any features, standing strong in his delivery and carrying his story to the forefront of the 13-track project.

The Chats say they don't try too hard while writing lyrics, but in this case, the simpler and less ambiguous the better. High Risk Behaviour is a slam to the skull with each stomp of the kick drum.

Despite the abundance of compositional ideas, they are all executed with attention to clarity, cohesion and detail. Thackray's auteurist approach in the studio combined with her peerless precision and control feel like a whole new genre unto itself.

Blais' playing suits very well the pristine and glossy production Silver employed for those recordings, injecting it with a real sense of purpose here.

A daring and decadent series of witch rituals, The Eldritch Dark is one of the finest examples of the doomy occult-rock resurgence.

Think Burial operating on a slower, divergence-filled soundscape.

Short on hooks and obviously memorable moments, Songs You Make At Night is an album that excels in texture and dynamics instead, each thoughtfully composed song an intricate clockwork of whirring percussion and interlocking guitar and synth work.

KICK ii manages symmetry and catchiness despite its descents into the bizarre. ... But for all her experimentation and chaotic tangents, it is clear in KICK ii that she is acutely aware of the balance necessary to build a bop.

At its best, Relatives in Descent makes guitar music feel radical again, capturing both timely and timeless anxieties.

To the Happy Few doesn't feature many standout songs, but as a whole, it's a remarkably cohesive, often unpredictable piece of work.

With this EP, Krug demonstrates that less is more, but that it also doesn't hurt to go big, even if "big" in this case is an expertly timed digital synth here and there.

This is eclectic, bold, inventive, masterfully played music conceived with a refreshing sense of curiosity and wonder at the potential of sound to invigorate the spirit. Fans of BADBADNOTGOOD should cue up to have their minds blown by this profoundly deep fusion of jazz, world music and hip-hop sensibilities.

Rajan successfully bridges vintage influences into the best of modern psychedelia, resulting in the most precise and mature Night Beats album to date. Perhaps the secret ingredient is just a little hot ghee.

Moaning establish their sound while dodging redundancy on their debut.

Unlike some of Will Oldham's previous collaborative albums, this one really works.

The payoffs on Kveikur aren't immediate, but they're no less orchestrated than previous work, coming across like a more focused and fleshed out Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra with sweeter vocals.

Wild Peace is a transcendental album that shows a band reaching for new heights, and achieving blissful music that many of their peers can only dream of making.

KicK iii practically dares listeners to come closer. The opener "Bruja" makes it clear from the get-go: Arca will not cater to those easily spooked out of her turbulent cyborgian utopia.

This is the fifth album in nine years from the still-young Saskatchewan folk duo, and it continues their sustained level of excellence.

Wolf sounds like she's having the time of her life showcasing her range as a vocalist and songwriter.

On The Love Invention, Alison Goldfrapp shows that she's more than just the face of Goldfrapp. In fact, she might still be the face of modern UK sophisti-pop.

What emerges through this permeable landscape is an ecosystem all its own.

With the skilful assistance of his longtime comrades the Dukes and able production from R.S. Field (Webb Wilder, Buddy Guy, John Mayall), he concentrates on the genre here, with impressive results.

Tinged with vintage Afrobeat instrumentation, Fashawn hangs admirably with his label boss, assertively vowing he's in it for the long haul, issuing a forthright missive that confirms The Ecology was definitely worth the wait

They've aged into something more pensive, monumental and vital. The party is over, and we need these empathetic folktales much more than any of us need to dance.

Oshin is remarkably consistent, both in terms of style and quality, and there isn't a dud amongst these 13 tracks.

We then enter the eye of the storm. kick iiii swaps cacophony for the serene comfort of atmospheric subtlety. Songs like "Esuna" grace us with raw orchestral elements which are seldom found in Arca's work.

While the majority of Harmonics was written solely by Goddard himself, he allows his songwriting to be elastic, bending and shaping around these guest vocalists, resulting in one of the most personality-filled albums of the year.

Fresh, crisp drums, creamy keys, luxuriant strings and timely flute and horn flourishes, each held together by a series of mood-defining bass lines, work to soundtrack this production, an inspiring foil that the record's MCs make certain not to waste on this grand testament to Souls' skill and staying power.

Sparhawk's plastic electronics are less invasive but still serve to create a new reality, sublimating the sadness and anger to a degree where they are less raw and more manageable.

On Purge, it feels like the band has finally found a sense of catharsis. In the end, this record does exactly what it says it will; it offers listeners a chance to dwell and stew on the darkness in their lives before inviting them to release those feelings; while the relief might be temporary, sometimes that's all you need.

The extravagant and sensual Prelude to Ecstasy is their wine-stained toast to finding beauty in decadence, its cup runneth over with promise.

These rapid shifts and experimental flourishes can make for a jarring listen, but they also keep Love Songs For Robots unpredictable and exciting.

Midnight Manor is a chooglin' good time. The album holds true to that classic Nude Party sound; there's a direct sense of growth in its tone, without losing that flavor of personality that makes the Nude Party the characters that they are.

The results surge with the crackling, raw power of their notorious live performances.

Gave In Rest isn't just Sarah Davachi's celebration of ritual, it's a temple to her entire practice.

Every track on Texas Moon is a moment of catharsis, delivered with as much swagger as spirituality.

On Are You Alone?, Majical Cloudz are at the height of their powers, opening themselves up fully and inviting the listener in. They sound obsessed, and "okay" be damned--it feels just right

Bestial Burden is immensely captivating and exquisitely structured, another unique offering from an unparalleled artist.

You can't exactly say Sepultura are back. They never went anywhere in the first place. But they've (rather amazingly) broken new ground on Quadra. Make sure to check it out.

Ty Segall is a mixture of boisterous and blissful, and certainly is a great place to start if you're looking to introduce someone to Segall's ever-fattening discography.

The result is a sound that is assured and ebullient, lively as a coiled spring releasing its kinetic energy until it's exhausted.

This record is not a reimagining of the band or a fresh start. Loved is an exercise in moulding what KEN Mode has always been good at into a perfect soundtrack for these times of great political uncertainty.

Wildcard represents courage, strength and vulnerability as Miranda tells her story. The album is a timeless snapshot that measures a moment in this superstar's life.

While previous instalments Muscle Up and School Daze were comprised of early, experimental college compositions, Afternooners is more focused and assured.

Petals for Armor is a musically strong, emotionally vulnerable album that finds her standing confidently as an artist in her own right.

There’s a delicacy to the way Kirby’s voice interplays with these vulnerable arrangements, especially on guitar ballads like the earnest “Party of the Century” (which Kirby co-wrote over FaceTime with ANTI- labelmate Christian Lee Hutson).

They haven't abandoned their political senses, no, but they have moved into a new gentler phase. The elements that stay the same are their intentionality, their honesty and their vulnerability.

She's turned that feeling into an album as glittery as it is gut-wrenching, making Tourist in This Town a point on the musical map that's well worth a long, enriching stay.

Wait for Love shows that Pianos Become the Teeth have a firm grip on a sound and identity that's beautiful, poignant and wholly their own, and it shows that they can keep maturing without having to constantly recreate themselves.

Triplicate proves that his ability to interpret the Great American Songbook is equally worthy of recognition.

This record collects the works of Austrian composer Franz Schubert and morphs them into a gloomy meditation on the sure, comforting absurdity of existence.

If any shoegazers are primed and ready to make the most of this second chance, it's Ride.

This minimal format emphasizes Hungtai's talent for setting a skin-crawling mood.

An impassioned record that feels like their most raw, personal work to date.

It's unfortunate, really, since without any of that baggage [professional separation], The Civil Wars stands as a powerful and haunting collection that exemplifies Nashville's current fixation with slickly updating traditional themes.

Intensely frantic and intimately vulnerable, Girl with Fish proves that sometimes letting things run off the rails pays off, so long as you have hands to grasp onto.

Loma is also the product of atypical conditions, written and recorded as the marriage of two of its members was dissolving. The trio seem to have leaned in to that situation: Loma captures the intimacy of such heightened circumstance with layered, compelling nuance.

The level of craft involved — songwriting, musicality, performative sense — belies his relative anonymity within the greater music continuum. You Will Not Die is both an affirmation and a promise.