With a few of its tracks trimmed off, No No could have made a great EP, but as it stands, it's equal parts fun and frustration.

Times Infinity Volume One is a magnificent testament to the human heart in all of its complexity.

Although Slay-Z's flat lyrics might be a little uninspiring for the sober listener, its vigorous beats and dizzying pace are perfect for settings that require more moving and less thinking.

Overnight's departures from form are subtle.

What Now is accessible in every sense of the word, but after several spins, it'll pull you much deeper than one might initially think.

The result is a fun, freewheeling album that nonetheless feels mature — and still very NYC as well.

Fans just finding Alkaline Trio, perhaps via Blink-182 fandom, will undoubtedly enjoy this album for its prevalent, socially conscious lyrics, delivered like a paintball to an already bruised arm with the band's signature passion. Longtime devotees, meanwhile, will appreciate the way Is This Thing Cursed? calls back to earlier Alkaline Trio albums, and its mix of both nostalgia and originality.

Ritual, is some of the best work the band have done so far.

With an honest and unflinching stance, Chris Cohen effectively creates a series of songs that allow for a slight glimpse into the melancholy and inevitable contentment that accompany a candid existence.

Both sides of the coin show all the trappings of a '90s Warp Records release, which we know has been done before, and is certainly nothing new for Avery, but damn if he doesn't do it well.

With CEL, nothing is simply uniform, which makes for a compelling listen every time.

This record drags in its second half, as several of their records have now done, but there are some all-timers to add to their best-of playlist (along with their standalone single "Warn Me," a phenomenal song not included here) and the rest is enjoyable enough. Tigers Jaw make albums that are good, sometimes very good, but not quite great.

Sadier's glorious voice could easily cover-up a multitude of sins, but it doesn't have to on Silencio because this is a great collection of songs.

This will probably be labeled a folk-rock record, but at its core Elastic Days rocks.

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

If Future Teenage Cave Artists is the only cultural artifact left behind in an apocalypse, future generations will at least have an interesting scripture to use to rebuild.

Tthe net effect is ultimately an uninspired collection of tracks that do little to offer a close listener anything new.

While it provides plenty of tell, there's not nearly enough show.

Hypercaffium could have been just another instalment in Descendents' long and fruitful career, and that would have been just fine; its biggest surprise is that it offers fans something new if nevertheless familiar, thereby cementing the band's continued relevance after all these years.

An arresting song cycle that reveals a three-dimensional version of the modern folk singer.

The North Borders introduces a host of vocalists to accompany solid arrangements.

The artist's seemingly unlimited reservoir of imagination and talent have allowed them to fuse years of musical tradition into a wholly singular sensibility encapsulated in these 18 finely hewn tracks.

While it may not reach the heights of Acid Rap or Coloring Book, it doesn't feel as far removed — and, in some moments, indicates that those heights are still within reach.

There are some great tracks--a standout being gorgeous opener "Don't Wake Me Up"--but, at times, it veers a bit too far into the saccharine, with the playing, unlike the singing, lacking a bit of soul.

The Loud Silence finds the producer showcasing his boundless creativity while working within a self-imposed, limited framework. Once again, he's come out successful.

This collaborative album, It's Hard for Me to Say I'm Sorry, casually sits somewhere in the middle between tonal ambience and noisy dissonance.

In the solid Late Night Feelings, sadness is more than an abstraction here: it's multifaceted, multilayered and mellifluous melancholy.

A rarely relenting party with more substance than the last.

Electric Slave makes a strong case that Lewis is ready to go toe-to-toe with the Dan Auerbachs of the world, and easily has what it takes to go the distance.

The final product is dynamic, with a warm, analog sound that brings out the best in Auerbach's writing.

The New Abnormal is not a bad record, but it is a frustrating one, made by a band that feels pulled in a dozen different directions.

Here, Unsane deliver the goods with efficiency and reliability.

It's wilder and brighter than their previous efforts, which is definitely a good thing.

Goodman remains a sharp and confident songwriter, and buried underneath the noise there's still plenty of charm here, but dialing back all the bluster would have gone a long way.

Artificial Dance is an extended glance at one side of Leimer's oblique sonic outlook, one which is as wonderful as it is weird.

On Night Melody, West has created a touchingly personal piece of art that feels more like an addendum to Howl than a jarringly new chapter in his musical journey.

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.

The resultant album is cohesive, but slightly tiring; bogged down in ballad after ballad, all draped with the Weeknd's pretty but repetitive vibrato falsetto.

These songs evoke an assortment of characters — a washed comedian, a wayward traveller, a group of disengaged partygoers, a doomed mobster — who tend to be down on their luck and feeling like they're wasting their lives away. But there's also a sense of movement — in time and space — that suggests that while things are strange and messy and definitely not ideal, there's more on the horizon.

There's no denying the highly enjoyable nature of their raw, emotive debut; that they're so young only means there's potential for even better things to come.

A Go! Team album that works by evoking their past yet looking optimistic towards the future.

With 12 tracks and a runtime of barely more than half an hour, any flaws are minor and the album breezes by. The arrangements may be ambitious, but there's very little pomp or grandeur here; this is just another low-stakes success in a long and varied career.

Everything works here, in its own unique way.

There is nothing unexpected on Hotspot, but to trace the contours of the expected with Pet Shop Boys is never without reward, and they're certainly in fine form. Fans will find much to enjoy here, but Hotspot is best viewed as a victory lap.

With Big Star now put to rest following the passing of Alex Chilton, Stamey is the rightful person to fill his shoes. Lovesick Blues offers more than enough proof that he's fully prepared to do just that.

Rather than phoning in the record fans expect, AC/DC made one that suits their own needs.

It's a very welcoming album that will please Pastels fans, and hopefully find some new ones.

The tech-house producer has attempted to cultivate his dusty electro landscapes, leaving the listener with seven hearty compositions built upon loose and fertile groundwork.

American Nightmare is not convincing or consistent.

It's tremendously long, offering remixes of old material and recapitulating many typical Vile motifs. While slyly daring in extremely subtle ways, a large portion (of an almost hour-long EP, I might remind you!) feels somewhat superfluous to his more grounded catalogue.

The recording savvy of producer Kyle Gilbride of Swearin' helps sharpen the band's jagged edges and gets them to sound truly potent, playing through each one-minute tune like they were running out of studio time.

There's nothing here we haven't heard done better somewhere else. Sum 41 can and have done better.

This rejection (of prettiness, of palatability) is part of her mission statement, although moments from her catalogue where she allows herself to abandon it ever so slightly — "Don't Go Putting Wishes in My Head" from 2021's Thirstier — feel like the true window into the boundlessness of her artistry.

Unfortunately, the band play it safe on No Coast.

Whatever Scott has gone through on an emotional level, Woman finds her at a life stage where she seemingly maintains a balance between optimism and pragmatism, a worldly perspective that informs one of her strongest full-length efforts in a minute.

The Incredible True Story is Logic's best work yet, but there's still work to be done bridging the gulf between his ambition and his ability.

Mosey is highly approachable and magnetic without being mawkish, but it also speaks clearly to Romano's various frustrations with his generation. These 12 tunes are as poetic as they are powerful, and house a hefty amount of meaning.

There are admittedly some palatable textures here, an inevitability given the roster of talent, but so much of it is obfuscated in genre confusion and poor arrangements.

This album as a whole doesn't quite match the consistent glories of such earlier albums as Hello Starling and The Animal Years, but he remains an artist eminently worthy of attention.

In Ferneaux is everything most Blanck Mass albums are not: patient, subtle and disarmingly low-key. It was made in confinement, but it takes Power to surprising new places.

Musically, this might not be post-anything, but it is a postscript to an already impressive musical résumé.

Using the album as a full-length thesis on the blending of Berlin and Manchester sounds causes Living With Ghosts to feel rather analogous and tedious, at times.

It can feel a little tiring at points, as the music arguably borders on being too dense and involved considering the album's aloof spirit, but Oozing Wound do a good job of sequencing and varying tempos.

Please Don't Be Dead is virtually airtight in terms of musicality and intent. Fantastic Negrito continues to live to his "black roots" moniker--a weary, weathered soul survivor raging against the coming storm.

Throwaways make the ten-song album feel low on substantial ideas: there's enough material here for a solid EP, but it's rather thin for a full-length. Still, as a modestly enjoyable throwback to 2006, it gets the job done.

Hardy and her band have written an album that meets the daily crises of life head on, finding light in the darkness and the motivation to keep going. That victory was born out of a very personal fight, but with Survival, Wares make the personal universal.

Social Cues not an overly adventurous record, but it's the sound of a band who know their niche in contemporary alternative rock and how to deliver every time.

To call Shout! a mixed bag is redundant, as being able to assemble your favourite version of the album is part of its intrinsic appeal and quite possibly a way for non-Mule fans to get introduced to their wide-reaching approach.

As with their previous six albums, Liars find a way to both innovate and deliver a brand-loyal effort with (dis)ease.

A veritable three-course meal, Knight's refined palate and keen attention to detail make Each Other a well-paced, flavourful experience that ends too soon, but lingers long afterward.

My Love Divine Degree adds modern flair to soul and speaks to ChesnuTT's captivating songwriting skills.

On a song-by-song basis, Sanchez leans into human moments to ground his bigger ideas in connection or struggle. That helps keep the more galactic concepts well-grounded.

He writes and sings beautifully; Unfurl is a lovely, understated pop disc. But, for now at least, RY X's material lacks the range of a [Jeff] Buckley set.

ACCA is showy, drama-dripped and ultimately rewarding. It demands a lot from the listener, but more music these days probably should.

You'll love this album, but you won't learn much from it.

The leisurely pace of "In Your Dreams" is too soporific, while "Yeah You Know" lacks the punctuation that needs to accompany Burch when she resigns to "go out west a while." Despite this dilution at times, Bruch still burns bright on Quit the Curse.

End constitutes a worthy addition to Explosions in the Sky's discography, even if it doesn't really open a new chapter for them.

It's a love letter, and yet, it's astonishing just how hard-hitting it is.

Too often, supergroup side-projects come across as ego-building exercises, yet Banks has managed to avoid this with both his collaboration with Wu Tang Clan's RZA (on Banks & Steelz) and now with Muzz.

Lovelessness is an ugly, abject work that challenges the listener to accept both unhappiness and disgust, conveyed with power, intelligence and artfulness.

Given some judicious editing, this could have been a truly great album; as it stands, we'll have to settle for just really, really good.

Sasami is a gifted writer who is careful to develop arrangements that heighten the emotions of her songs. Listeners will relish the detail poured into her debut, its polish not too shiny to obscure the raw experiences that its songs are drawn from.

While this third entry could be classified as largely more of the same, there's enough freshness here to warrant a closer look, especially if you're already a fan of the project.

What appeals to you about this Strand of Oaks effort will likely depend on which side of this spectrum you fall on--in the heartland or out in space. That's a divide that Eraserland creates, putting it somewhat out of sync with itself, but the title track brings those worlds together beautifully.

Sinéad O'Connor's eighth full-length album, and her first in five years, is a revelation.

[A] perceived lack of personality can't change the fact that Dalliance is one of the catchiest and most energetic guitar records of the year.

Olympic Mess isn't a complete shift in direction for him. It's merely one step toward the outer rim of a very large and very dark shadow.

Kamikaze hits like an electric storm, shaking into its listeners the disconnection that's resulted from our over-connected world.

There are definitely kinks: certain moments on this EP are disjointed and muddled, as the band throw loose riffs out into the ether and hope they'll stick, but the hooks and verve that made the band successful in the first place are still potent.

Glass represents Hunn's most mature musical sensibilities to date; however, the instrumentation throughout the album is so sporadic and indecisive that it's unclear what its ideal listening setting might be.

"Psycho Star" and "Neverending Sunshine" are the more dance-y tracks that make The Other much more vast than Thomas's earlier work. Lastly, "No Man's Land" is a mesmerizing sendoff to end the album; slow and triumphant, by the time it's over you're left with a lasting impression.

Sunlit Youth may not be the massive leap forward some fans may have wanted, but it's far from a step back. Instead, it's yet another steady offering from Local Natives, who continue to build on a solid catalogue.

The issue is whether he's done enough to quench our R&B-infused pop sensibilities; he hasn't. The needle may have jumped a bit, but ultimately nothing here turns things over.

The Switch, in its entirety, is full of beautiful resonances.

As Wire albums go, Wire is very accessible and it contains nods to almost every album that has come before it.

Clocking in at just over 30 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, but unfortunately it gives up most of its best moments by the halfway point.

There is just enough difference in the two voices to keep things interesting, while producer Teddy Thompson corrals an A-list of session players, including Benmont Tench, Davey Faragher and Doug Pettibone to add empathetic instrumental accompaniment.

McCombs tries on many different hats, but has the skill to produce mostly positive results.