There's no song on Black Mile like "Wolves at Night" or "April Fool," the kind of high-energy howler fit for an EA Sports game, but their efforts have paid off with an artistic triumph, the kind worth regarding as a creative masterwork among their collection.

Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine achieves artistic exploration while maintaining the unmistakable hip-hop aesthetic without it feeling pretentious or forced.

With Junun, Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express succeed in creating a textured and energetic collection of songs that transcend genre and the generalizations often used when describing non-Western music. This is music to be embraced and celebrated.

It's a potent celebration of their past work and a capable endnote to the band's career, whether it truly is the their final release or not.

It certainly has a strong first half, opening with "Eve of Destruction" and "Bango," a pair of high-energy tracks that play to the Chems' strengths. ... Similarly, just-okay tracks like "We've Got to Try," while boasting some exciting elements, seem b-tier in light of past triumphs. That said, even b-tier work from the Chemical Brothers is worthy of interest--an opportunity to respect one's elders.

Excluding its minor gaffes, More Life cements a place for genres long-overlooked by mainstream media; dancehall, grime, Afrobeat, house, trap and, of course, rap, and takes Toronto on a world tour to celebrate life--More life.

Listeners should strap in and brace themselves for some stylistic hairpin turns. Thankfully Simpson is at the wheel, his Teflon tough voice, high torque guitar playing, and vivid lyrics steadying this thrilling journey through a world on the brink, and ensuring the wheels never come off, which would surely happen with a lesser artist in the driver's seat.

It's inevitable that lately i feel EVERYTHING will be relentlessly compared to its influences and predecessors, but Willow manages to pay homage to the subculture while putting her own spin on it.

Pratt's succinct lines can spill out so naturally and conversationally it's hard to believe someone wrote them, except that she messes with the syntax a little, too.

Wenu Wenu does a decent job presenting the veteran singer, but your desire to return to this disc hinges upon your enthusiasm for that instrument's unique sound.

He might have the Midas touch when it comes to genre, but when it comes to his last word, Terje is wise enough to say it in his first language.

He really can write a song, and the fact that it never wears out its welcome makes his music damn enjoyable.

With their debut full-length, WEVAL have proven that they're willing to approach their music with their ears wide open and their possibilities endless.

From the diamonds on the chains he hedonistically spits about while prospering to the shameless confessions he unveils at the nadir of despair, the way Lanez embraces his flaws makes his music stand out.

The album is an ode to all that Khruangbin have achieved and a look forward to everything that is to come.

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

If you can get past the haughty lyrics on "Fickle Sun (ii)," for instance, then its minimalist piano notes will surely impress. And yet, even that song's musicianship sounds downright conventional compared to preceding tracks "Fickle Sun (i)" and opening track "The Ship," a 21-minute composition that begins with solemn synth moans like a distant vessel's horn.

These songs don't contain the spine-tingling embrace of death that fuelled Leonard Cohen and David Bowie's final albums, but Nelson faces his realities head on here, with grit and a grin.

Near to the Wild Heart of Life isn't the record fans waited five years for. But backed into a corner, Japandroids have penned a truly great record filled with all the guitar hooks, shout-along choruses about nights spent drinking, sweating and longing to be somewhere else that we've come to expect.

The Heliocentrics' most beguiling effort to date.

The tracks on Apocalypse, girl flow into one another like smooth, glassy water, and the collaborations, with improv cellist Okkyung Lee, harpist Rhodri Davis and Swans' Thor Harris, add texture.

Dulli and company manage to elatedly deliver everything long-standing fans crave in an Afghan Whigs album--and they do so in spades.

On Brill Bruisers, the band's glory days have returned.

Didn't He Ramble shimmers, saunters and charms; Hansard has never sounded so good.

Lux Prima certainly isn't Karen O's most urgent or explosive work, but it all sounds exceptionally lovely.

Otherworldly and full of enchantment, Deerhoof's 13th studio album, The Magic, finds the wholly original and ever-engaging band at their most cohesive and versatile.

For more than a decade, Lady Gaga has encouraged us to 'just dance' regardless of the pain hidden deep within ourselves. While she may have veered off from her own advice over the past few years, Chromatica proves that Gaga is back and better than ever.

Sol Invictus isn't perfect, and it's not their best work, but Faith No More creaking with a little rust and blinking cobwebs is still a glorious thing.

Bigger, bolder, and even more exploratory than his 2020 debut Your Hero Is Not Dead, An Inbuilt Fault.

A neon sugar rush that occasionally fizzles out with filler tracks, Nothing's Real ultimately leaves a lasting impression.

Brood Ma's vision of the future may be dark, but on the challenging, rewarding DAZE, his future as a purveyor of its soundtrack is all but secured.

It's all good, but none of it is great. Still, if this is merely the first taste of an eventual vault series of releases from Townes Van Zandt's musical archive, it's more than enough to make us hunger for more.

Karaoke Angel is a beautiful surprise from Sarlé, whose career as a solo artist has only just begun.

This is tough-talking, hard-living stuff, but it's been infused with a welcome dose of 21st century sexual politics.

Where Donovan really soars is the quieter moments on the record.

Putting the tiger back in a 15-year old cage works well for the band, for the most part. You can feel Stump chafing against the creative box he's put himself back in, and the tension it creates in the music gives many of these songs a sense of immediacy.

Like much of Willie's work these days, Band of Brothers might not bring many new fans into the fold, but it's sure to please those already there.

While it might be just another Bettie Serveert record, it's also another solid addition to their already impressive discography.

Bahamas Is Afie contains some of Jurvanen's best work to date, standing up there next to 2012's Barchords high benchmark "Lost In The Light."

With Everybody is Going to Heaven, Citizen have forged a visceral, stunningly nuanced work that is nothing short of immaculate.

Stripped is exactly that: fully chilled out and no-frills in intent and sentiment. It's better than expected.

[An] astoundingly distinctive album.

The album is slippery, but perhaps not in ways that are interesting enough to memorable, and definitely not as much as his previous work.

Overall, LAGEOS is an engaging listen that just might surprise you in the places it goes.

We just need to sit back and enjoy it when a band like this comes around and puts out a record as big and fun as Master Volume.

Somehow, the players have managed to escape our universe, and what they've brought back with them is both captivating and indescribably beautiful.

One of the best records of their 30-year career. Neither prog nor doom, Katatonia sound like no one else.

Between Fox at this most stripped back and Fox at his most ornate are "Vedana," "Arising and Passing" and "Parasthesia," which mostly eschew the stream of consciousness rhythms and melodic flourishes of the rest of Contact for a more pensive feel, replete with drones, tuned percussion, and tantric textures. These tracks aren't ineffective so much as they are on a different plane from the rest, one less ecstatic and adventurous.

Something to Lose is evidence of Better Person committing further to terrain covered on his earlier EP, mining often overlooked musical traditions with obvious enthusiasm and yearning credibility, an effect that is elevated when paired with Goldwasser's expertise.

Ugly Season may lack the emotional resonance of Hadreas' best work as Perfume Genius, but it achieves a wildness that he's never quite accessed before, an alchemy between his bone-raw earlier records and the epic proportions of his later work. It's not the most essential Perfume Genius album, but it feels like an important one.

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.

The Hope Six Demolition Project implicates all of the Western world's complacency, making for a complex and challenging, though gorgeous, listen.

93696 is an ongoing, turbulent act of engagement — its surging power will throttle you, blow you over with fury and ecstasy. But it will also pull you in for an embrace, to quell and allow for the chance to breathe and reflect.

Although Dedicated might be a more comprehensive piece of work as a whole, Side B is so impressively strong that it could easily be a continuation of the album (its B-side, even). Side B is brimming with starry-eyed euphoria, glittery synth-pop confections and her characteristically odd lyrical syntax.

Rather than make giant artistic leaps every few years or so, Woods are content to push forward incrementally, showering fans with material that nonetheless gets better every record.

Although the 40-minute LP may come off as the work of an artist still trying to find his sound, Long seems to somehow pull off an enviable genre-bend on An Act of Love.

Silver Cloud delves deeper into the internal, headphone experience than even R.I.P. and it's easily Actress's best release since Splazsh.

Cody is undoubtedly Joyce Manor's strongest effort to date, the apparent result of meticulous revision that has tightened up their sound on all fronts.

Even after encountering a few detours and career doubts, Rose has turned a bad situation into something remarkable; Cage Tropical is a welcome return from an artist that clear has more to say.

Here From Where We Are is an album born of the desire to make genuine music, and the end result is a moving, blissful album that shows just how far Pariah has come in the past six years.

Coexist is far from a bad effort. Gentle sophisticates that the XX are, however, it's hardly surprising that the cutting edge got a little too sharp.

Lotta Sea Lice feels like two old friends getting together for coffee.

Weiss long ago found his own voice, and on Standards he finally captures it on tape for the world to see and hear.

One of the most consistent post-rock bands in terms of pacing, song structure and style, the Scottish Guitar Army's ninth studio album doesn't exactly break new ground; instead, it finds them subtly refining their recent, synth-focused sound to great success.

Is the best rap/rap-adjacent album of the year? It's definitely a contender. Is it the most important album of the year? Probably. Should you be listening to it right now? Without question.

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.

Though it still flirts with the blues, soul and R&B that he's built his name on, the record has a country-fried warmth, coloured by slide guitar and Southern rhythms. That those Southern rhythms are played mostly by chintzy drum machine, that they're undermined by hip-hop-biting guitar samples or artificial horns, is the record's vaguely outlandish appeal.

The shadows of the trap loom large on Benny's dense and detailed The Plugs I Met 2 EP, the sequel to 2019's impeccable original with producer DJ Shay. This time, New York underground producer Harry Fraud's soundscape elevates both the melancholy and menace to cinematic heights.

If Women in Music Pt. III cracked the door open, I quit stands in the threshold, taking stock of what's worth carrying forward.

The album is certainly dreamy, but its lack of urgency may also cause some listeners to snooze.

Despite its title, these Brits find themselves with their most diverse offering yet, a culmination of their career's work to this point.

At the end of the day, the Lovells have created another strong, forward-thinking record that continues to show an overall evolution in Larkin Poe's sound and style, providing a worthy followup to their previous outings.

For those not moved by this more unhinged side of the band, MYBH may prove disappointing. ... Still, MYBH makes the case that the field recording that plays out album closer "Laughter and Silence" is now as integral a part of the Sumac sound as any other. If you're willing to consider a musical choice like that to be just as "heavy" as a lurching dirge or a colossal chug, then May You Be Held will prove a rewarding and expansive listen.

As per usual, every song Homme touches ends up being undeniably sexy, but it's unlikely you'll want to take it off and get it on, listening to it. Post Pop Depression isn't the sound of an acclaimed artist seamlessly slipping away, but a wild animal screaming with all his might into the night.

Before the World Was Big hears Girlpool unapologetically channelling some big feelings in a way that sounds brash without being bratty, and emotional but not without an empowering message.

Rival Sons are a great band with a great sound; the only thing they're guilty of is doing what they do really well, but then exhausting it over and over again.

There must have been considerable pressure on Diamond to deliver with this album, and she largely does with Reflections — it really does sound like pop music from 15 years in the future. Hopefully a more substantial collection of new material isn't too far into it.

The real fun of Cooler Returns, though, lies in the clever details that you might never understand, no matter how many times you listen.

Similarly to Manic, The Great Impersonator shines most when Halsey is unapologetically themselves.

Friko play with more lift and propulsion, creating songs that sprint and bloom with a confidence their debut, 2024's Where we've been, Where we go from here, only hinted at.

It contains more successful experiments than usual, and a few moments of genuine splendour.

That's right: sonically, thematically, lyrically — on every level, Royce gives The Allegory his all. And the result is the best LP yet in his 20-year-strong career.

It takes immense skill to know what to keep while being one step ahead of the modern musical landscape, and Hellfire accomplishes both.

With The Caretaker, Rose is finding strength in self-discovery and returning to the present with delicate repose.

When Smoke Rises is a succinct and well-crafted album that serves to tell the story of Mustafa's pain, grief and loss in way that honours his unique voice. Mustafa manages to transcend genres while remaining true to himself as he navigates his emotional trauma.

The result is a moving, disquieting experience, sweetness and fear mingling together as the summer fades into autumn.

I AKA I is a shedding of the shackles, a great example of what can happen when someone jettisons rigid structure for boundless creativity. This, above all else, makes Ash Koosha one of 2016's most important players and solidifies I AKA I as one of the most unique records to come out in years.

The Long Ryders show they are well-equipped to take a leading role in modern Americana.

With progression and reinvention a staple of Romare's work, we can only wait in anticipation for his next release

Although it may not be the best project that Young Thug has released, certain tracks off So Much Fun are guaranteed to become classic party anthems played at max volume for years.

Back with arguably more certified bangers than before, clipping. throws caution to the wind with soul-rending sonics and elite-tier rapping. At the very least, Visions doubles the likelihood of a hapless Disney+ user following Diggs from Hamilton to a horrorcore masterclass.

Restarter is remarkably composed and perfectly balanced, demonstrating Torche's ability to continually refine their doom-pop/melodic hard rock approach.

Tasteful inclusions of every kind, powerful melodies and dense, wry lyrics make Tim Melina Theo Bobby an unmissable conclusion for fans of Midwest emo, electronic rock, and strong songwriting.

On Anoyo, Tim Hecker stretches out his heady winning streak for another 32 striking and captivating minutes.

It all adds up to a cycle that is as complex as it is direct at times, describing the imbalances between moments of lucidity and desire, and what is lost or gained when one declares "let's get out of the romance."

It's mostly a cheery, upbeat listen — although Murdoch still sounds best in melancholy mode, something he proves with on the synth-anchored "We We Were Very Young." ... B&S only miss when they leave their comfort zone.

It does occasionally err too heavily towards swaying ballad tropes, but importantly Blake never hides his feelings through allegory or metaphor, nor does he mangle his vocal delivery with electronic trickery.

Skelethon is funky, freaky and heavy on the drums.