Producer Jim James (of My Morning Jacket) brings the same balance to the soundscapes Bulat maintains with her lyrics, positioning the space-age synths and backup harmonies in ways that invoke both gospel and girl group traditions without overshadowing the album's strongest suit: Bulat's vibrant vocals.

Gold Past Life is dreamy and colourful, but poignant nonetheless. All those feeling lost, wherever they may be, can take comfort in the tender reminiscing of Gold Past Life.

Essential is a strange, adventurous and ultimately enjoyable collection of half-finished, fully realized songs that could only have been crafted by artists as musically brazen and tenured as Soulwax.

The resulting 12 tracks find Freeman both revelling in and lost within this musical yin and yang.

Oddly accessible and intriguing in its damaged form, Lonely is much bolder than the MOR, left-field beat music one might initially believe it would be.

Tracks like "Roses Are Falling" and "Take You Back (The Iron Hoof Cattle Call)" are solid entries to the classic country canon of Glen Campbell and Loretta Lynn, while his impressive vocal range helps keep the album varied. His breathy croon drives erotic lovers' ballad "Big Sky," while his formidable belted falsetto elevates "Winds Change" beyond mere Smiths pastiche.

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

It’s fast, furious, funny, sad and above all real.

Dave Harrington's group stay in the realm of cinematic mood-scapes and atmospheres for the most part, despite some of their free-jazz inclinations.

There is unquestionable bravery in the access and vulnerability that sentiment communicates, and the journey into pop music is yet another promising step in rousay's always-morphing development.

Although many songs lack the fire and passion that defined his earlier work, with the exception of the race-relation lyrical content of "What's My Name?" and the growling "Snake Behind Glass," Four Lost Souls is simply unlike anything else in Jon Langford's sprawling discography.

While the soundtrack shows how versatile and nimble singer Jade Vincent is, she seems more stagnant on Heartbreak. That's not to say that Vincent flattens out completely. On "Heartbreak," she is in full retro-pop mode, and by the closing track "If," her voice melts into a lovely, lilting little lullaby.

A marriage of vocal house, disco and pop, it's an immediately accessible album with several decent dance floor stompers.

The words only hint at the true meaning of the piece; it is an experience that needs to play out in a linear fashion, felt and absorbed through multiple senses.

Sleep On the Wing finds comfort in discomfort. The emotions expressed are not completely happy but there is also the sense that listeners can make peace with this.

His third album Pure Luxury is busy yet balanced, drawing from a diverse and sensual set of influences.

Fertile Crescent sees Homeboy Sandman adding another project to his growing library, and it's one worth repeated spins.

Neige's constantly evolving approach to songcraft means that Alcest's music, for better or worse, will never be what it once was. While Le Chants de l'Aurore doesn't reach the same heights as some of their previous works (particularly the intricate Kodama or the aforementioned Écailles de lune), the album is still awe-inspiring.

Created in a time of distress and despair, Fuck Art is pure escapism. Looking back 20 years from now, you'd have no idea it was made during one of the most world-changing events of the past century; the only thing apocalyptic about it is the ground-shaking sound of a cranked-up Marshall stack.

On Through a Wall, Single Mothers have managed to preserve something old and mix it with something new.

With the cohesive and captivating Morning After, dvsn have used soothing vocals and layered beats to paint a sonic portrait of modern R&B.

Although the band manage to avoid the self-indulgence that often comes with ability and ambition, Autotheism does occasionally lose steam.

It's music with a strong pulse that also whispers its truths close to your ear, like an intimate conversation at the back of a booming dance club.

It's a cool record that coasts on chill grooves rather than bombastic drops.

Callus is a harrowing experience, not for the faint of heart. It's more of a preach than a rap, at times more post-rock than hip-hop, the overall experience something akin to hearing slam poetry at knifepoint.

Eight is a solid album of bass-heavy, tribal dub techno that employs plenty of analog synth and is among Deadbeat's strongest releases to date.

The songs on On the Green Again are long, and some listeners might find the album a little wearying by the end. But Tiger & Woods are first and foremost purveyors of party music, and in the hands of a skilled DJ, all these tracks should be able to ignite a floor.

All Nerve remains stuck firmly in a box of the band's own making, both to their benefit (this is most definitely version of the Breeders fans know and love) and detriment (a couple songs are kind of boring).

The Migos formula works, to be sure. But it's those occasional reaches outside the tried and true — be it beats or collaborators — that make for a more compelling listen, even if they don't always smack the mark.

Honus's lyrics are as fever dream as ever — "The Prettiest Song In the World" has a clergyman find Satan 69ing in a motel room — but the widened instrumental prowess across Dream Hunting gives a fresh edge to his words.

Spooky Action At A Distance is a sprawling pop album beaming with the kind of confidence none of us, likely even Pundt, expected. Some surprises are worth waiting six years for.

It's an in-your-face, no-frills rock record that contrasts with the slower tracks of A Productive Cough, reminding fans that no matter what happens, this band can still rock. For those looking for the vintage punk Titus Andronicus, this record will do just fine, even if it doesn't quite match the high points of their best work.

It's yet another solid rock record from a reliable group who are very good at this sort of thing.

Putting its small shortcomings aside, Everything That Dies is nonetheless brutally visceral, uniquely textured and unexpectedly melodic. In their second collaborative effort, Uniform & the Body seamlessly put their own personalized twist on nu metal, proving once again that they can work together to take the genre to shocking new dimensions.

At times, At Swim feels like it drifts aimlessly. ... Nevertheless, At Swim is like a dream you won't want to wake up from.

Like their previous albums, Land of Sleeper transcends when taken in as a whole, with tracks that are perhaps individually a bit workmanlike but soar when plugged next to the surrounding pieces.

Arctic Thunder is an honest, heavy and crushing effort.

Bold and robust, these eight tracks are sure to engage any fan of the label's prior output.

On ONE MORE TIME…, blink-182 don't always hit that sweet spot, but when they do, it feels earned.

For better or worse (mostly better), None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive captures the feeling of the Streets past, while laying out a path for its present and future.

It's on these longer, wide-angle tracks that the album really shines, and fans who thought the stricter pop playbook Gonzalez has been using recently was perhaps too strict should find much to like in these more open-ended pieces. For the rest of us, DSVII should prove a likable enough diversion until the next standard studio release.

Exo would appeal to fans of the aforementioned Amon Tobin and, at times, Exo is also evocative of Plaid, or even Aphex Twin in the midst of his most acidy madness.

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.

King's Mouth is a light album, one that — in its best moments — ties the fantasy of its central conceit to a studied sense of reality

On Treasure House, Cat's Eyes continue to forge a unique path, as Badwan and Zeffira blend the old with the new, pop with classical and melancholy with drive.

At its best it's far closer to the sort of comeback album that reminds listeners why they loved the music in the first place, instead of the hollow nostalgia of past glories.

On first glance one might mistake it for a kind of "playing the hits" trick that many artists rely on as they revisit their origins. But digging in, Time Is Glass feels more like a progression of ease — 20 years on, Chasny is able to reach the astral plane the way most reach for a light switch.

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.

It's questionable whether Chvrches' sound can survive and stretch any further for future material, but for the time being, The Bones of What You Believe is an impressive slate of sonic pleasures from a young band still experimenting with a room full of synths.

[An] engaging Sold Out.

The Portland pair embrace vitality and exploration, but their polarized approach to psychedelia overcompensates at times.

Poppy Ackroyd chooses to move at a efficiently percussive pace throughout (best highlighted by the fertile and aptly-named "Time"), giving the album a post-modern atmosphere rarely explored on many classical-inspired albums, making Resolve an album hard to pin down and hard to categorize, but easy to adore.

It's certainly not the culture-shifting force that The Fame or Born This Way were, but it does recapture some of that former glory after some years where Gaga's biggest contributions have been blockbuster soundtrack ballads.

Between appealing beats and this discomfiting tone, Silver Eye sits in a middle zone--and while it could give listeners some better-defined emotional content behind the android-y veneer, it's by no means borin

While its 'realness' likely won't win Roc too many new fans, it's sure to satisfy those down with the brand, and fans of that underground aesthetic he's become known for.

On V, the Budos Band give fans a new, granite dimension to their craft, while keeping things head-bobbingly and anthemically familiar.

The Pool feels a tad disconnected to qualify as one of the year's major releases. There's a kind of connective tissue missing; the groove is there, but it lacks flow.

The trio's intent is crystal clear here: make hypnotic murder rap that evokes a screwface and head-nod. If horror movies aren't your thing, though, Without Warning might not be the rap project for you.

The 47 minutes diced into 17 tracks that consitute Breakthrough demonstrate what Gaslamp Killer is capable of.

Stylistically, White may be a one-trick alligator, but it's a damn pleasing one.

It's not game changing, but Saigon's fanbase will love it, and sometimes it's better to stick with what you know.

The whole collection works to move beyond predictable conclusions though, and as a result, each listen holds a new discovery.

With 12 tracks and a run time of just 30 minutes, much of Tobacco's fourth solo LP almost sounds incomplete at times, but Fec somehow makes it work to his advantage.

The album peaks when Cyrus finally delivers retro rock-inspired collaborations with both Billy Idol and Joan Jett. These two champions of 1980s rock bring some grit to the album, taking Cyrus into the heavier direction she's been teasing for years.

The highs on How to Socialise are meteoric while the relative lows are kept afloat by its members' musical prowess and McDonald's ability to wring tension and drama from personal adversity. Far from the stand-offish listen its sarcastic title suggests, expect the album to win Camp Cope plenty of new friends and admirers alike.

It ends with a breakdown and is littered with weighty riffs. However, these aren't forced or the focus of the band's sound, instead complementing the incredibly polished rock.

The band have never been run of the mill, and their latest is no exception--it's definitely interesting. And really, that's Pussy's Dead's greatest strength: a fearless sense that evolution always trumps repeating yourself.

Fun and compelling as such high points can be, nothing on this album reaches the strata of the title track.

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.

Sundowner's glow begins to fade in the album's latter half. The final two tracks, the instrumental "Velvet Highway" and "Provisions," are pleasant enough, but taper the album off on a muted note. It's a minimalist ending showing that less isn't always more.

As a debut, it's undeniably a solid effort, although one that might be lacking in memorable surprises. It never reaches the highs of their hypnotic sets, but it's certainly a worthwhile listen nonetheless.

Tonality and instrumentation aside, the overture of All The Right Noises is subtle, reserved and warm.

Aloha is a pleasant-enough sounding slice of raspy-sounding soul with enough genuine emotion to spare.

His puns about denial v. the Nile river, or his boasts about being like Mother Goose, land with laughable thuds (though perhaps that's this fun-loving MC's intent?). But Uzi nimbly switches from relatedly lovelorn speak-singing on "Bust Me" to rugged, speedy punch line powerhouse on the very next track, "Prices." That transition is merely one of the energetic and unpredictable performative tricks Uzi pulls off on this stadium sized LP.

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.

Origin of the Alimonies is an opera, complete with three acts, an overture and an interlude. Sonically, it picks up on past Liturgy motifs: minimalism, black metal, classical music and electronic beats. The scope and scale, however, is incredibly vast.

It captures the sense of being not here, and not there, but somewhere pleasantly ambiguous — a Land of No Junction, indeed.

Texas Sun is a cool side project that is able to exist on its own without the pressures that critical acclaim has brought to both artists.

Loud Patterns is an overtly ambitious first album, which fittingly captures Molleson's "difficult to define" approach.

It's a more focused effort than scattered 2014 solo debut Everyday Robots and more delicate than the bulk of his back catalogue, but Albarn's still drawing outside the lines.

Having shown herself to be an adept garage rock frontwoman in recent years, Crutchfield effortlessly slips back into the role of an intimate solo bedroom artist on Great Thunder.

There's room for improvement for the melodies and beats, even though the subtle instrumentals help amplify Cozz's voice and his champion storytelling.

If Noname has one glaring weakness, it's a tendency to ramble without ever seeing the need to switch up her rat-tat-tat triplet flow. She does, though, have the rumpled, mellower-than-thou swagger to pull it off, and why complain when Room 25 is the prettiest rap record to come along in months?

Broken Knowz does hit a few snags, with some tracks pushing the six-to-eight-minute mark and remaining pretty much static throughout (single "Knowledge of Selfie" comes to mind, the eight-and-a-half-minute track perhaps mirroring the constant repetition in our self obsession), but its shorter, more contained tracks override and stand out, showcasing what Daniel has to offer.

Though drumming on tracks like "make it right." and "hypnotized" occasionally overpower the songwriting, the songs are redeemed by Garbus' vocal wizardry. In the verses, she meanders all over the scale in an offhand way, but dishes out a cathartic climax of soaring harmonies that make for some epic choruses.

For all its focus on breakups, love very much appears on the record. "How Did You Know?" uses light and layered synths to create air on the album and explore the feeling of hope found in a new love."

It's that intoxicating blend of late night, tripped-out electronics and melodic psych that is featured prominently on Shine Your Light, and it's a notable improvement.

Banana Skin Shoes is classic Badly Drawn Boy: Eclectic songs held together by heartfelt lyrics and rich instrumentation. The only thing that's changed is Gough has proved he can dance.

Layers is a great step forward, a glowing promise on his next album, his ambitions will be fully realized.

Often tawdry and occasionally remarkable, Damogen Furies is a scattershot release, but one that's definitely worth exploring.

so sad so sexy is an unusual blend of pop and R&B inspiration, but it's not a memorable album. Lykke Li scratches the bare surface of the talent she possesses, making you wish there was just a little more ener

It's certainly not going to produce the next "Viceroy" or "Chamber of Reflection," but it's an exceedingly pleasant listen — the kind of thing that's the perfect soundtrack for working and studying, or to make chores a little more tolerable.

NO certainly caters to longtime fans, especially ones who rather be pummeled with noise instead of pulled into new realms, which may disappoint fans of their more experimental songs. But their cacophony continues to provide comfort, especially in these strange times.

Although its runtime of 16 tracks and 67 minute means that a portion of Q36 dips in energy, Rentals fans will no doubt count Sharp's latest outing as a ambitious, astute and listenable achievement.

This Too Shall Light is Amy Helm's second album outside of her group Ollabelle, proving further that risks pay off when you put your soul into it, and even within the unfamiliar, there is always light.

Perhaps its biggest fault is being a good album that's just not as strong as the other two in .Paak's "Golden State" series.

Budden's raw energy and experience enriche otherwise throwaway pop, even when saccharine hooks (Kirko Bangz) and amphibian croaks (Lil Wayne) threaten to cheapen it.

Like the best of old-school R&B, - Ugh, those feels again has a heavy hip-hop influence and an aura of feel-good innocence throughout, even on darker songs like "Love Like That" and the infectious, call-and-response number "Nothing to Me."