While the French artist has introduced a new persona and perspective on Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue), his ability to produce truly unique moments of pop power remains.

While Her Loss houses no immediate street bangers or Billboard hits, it's the sum of it all that makes it Drake's best record this decade. From the comical fake promos during its rollout to the memorable one-liners and aggressive diss verses or the TikTok memes it will generate for months to come, Her Loss has a lot of meat on its bones.

Much like 2017's Ti Amo, Alpha Zulu has a romantic warmth that transcends lyrics, which evade interpretation, often melting into the melody but occasionally snagging the ear with a beautiful turn of phrase.

Changes isn't the most complex album King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have ever made, but it's been gestating in the backs of the member's minds for years, and feels oddly representative of everything they do well. Whether you're a true Gizz-head or just dipping your toes into their psychedelic swamp for the first time, it's worth a listen.

Waiting Game is a smooth and smart shift for an outfit that was doing just fine prior but could stand to switch it up. Whether soft reset or brief respite, it's definitely Junior Boys' most tasteful and interesting album.

Midnights is a slow-burning journey through the labyrinth of Swift's history, groping around in the dim light for the way forward. Sometimes, in the hush of nightfall, catharsis comes quietly.

The Car is a beautiful calling card for this opulent new version of Arctic Monkeys, even if it lacks the immediacy the band built its reputation on.

The band have lost none of the piss and vinegar that's marked every stylistic diversion that came before. They're just taking those component parts to build one barnstorming monster of a record.

Where the drums of Joli Mai were, more often than not, ready to roll one over at any given point, Cherry blossoms as a listen worth savouring as Daphni's melodious detail leads the dance.

The whole fun of a new RHCP album is hearing the ways they grapple with their legacy and push the boundaries of their sound. In that sense, Dream Canteen offers just the right amount of old and new.

The talents of Crutchfield and Williamson cannot be underplayed, nor their deft ability to convey and intuit emotion.

Wild Pink's song structures, instrumentation, arrangements and sound design are their most inspired yet, and Ross's steady, calming presence is almost like a spiritual guide. Altogether, ILYSM is reliably enjoyable but just shy of transcendent.

Its Alvvays least penetrable, most challenging album yet — but one that still preserves the band's best qualities, sounding chaotic and painstaking at the same time.

WILLOW's pointed vision and eagerness to push the envelope allowed her and Greatti to construct songs that consistently take unexpected turns yet culminate in her most cohesive project to date.

Overall, hardcore R&B fans will appreciate age/sex/location most, but this is an album made for cuffing season and should probably be listened to by lovesick single people still figuring it out.

There's rebirth in the swirl of destruction, but these days the Yeah Yeah Yeahs seem more interested in the stories that start after the cataclysm, where purple fireweed bursts from scorched hillsides and glass shards are rounded by the tides.

The songs on this album aren't going to be overshadowing the classics that the band built their name on, but they'll sit nicely alongside them, and The End, So Far is a worthy addition to Slipknot's raucous arsenal.

The Hum Goes on Forever finds the Wonder Years doing what they do best and doing it a bit better each time, all while raising the emotional stakes to make each record feel newly important.

On Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, The Comet Is Coming continue their exploration of the wide wonders around us — the unknown, physical and metaphysical, light and darkness, life and death, and the connectedness and spirit laced between it all; broadening the scope, testing ideas and seeking freedom and rapture through rhythm and sound.

It works wonderfully camping on a relaxed beach or in the most ostentatious concert venue, worthy of rigorous intellectual inspection yet just as easy to get high and chill to. ... It gives something wholly original to the culture in a way similar to what Will 'Quantic' Holland did when he launched the Quantic Soul Orchestra in 2003.

Alex G is a genius at crafting intimately familiar feelings while injecting off-kilter miscues that satisfy the oddball compulsions living in our heads. The level of restraint routinely becomes unbalanced in an instant, yet the results are more reassuring than anxiety-inducing.

Although it lacks any true standout tracks, it makes up for it with Watson's most adventurous production to date and a clear desire to walk on new paths, which bodes well for any future releases.

They've managed to create an album that feels fresh while also being the closest they've come to recreating the magic of earlier records. This is a band that has finally found a way to evolve without eliminating what it was that made them so special in the first place.

Keery could have gone back to the alt-rock psychedelia that already earned him plaudits; instead, he took a risk and made DECIDE — a funky, sometimes goofy sci-fi odyssey with tons of twists both sonic and emotional.

Portions of SPARK may be too slick for its own good, as basic lovelorn lyrics that fill songs like "BACK THEN" ("Blue skies don't feel so wrong / Those times have come and gone") and the back end's more drippy melodies ("HEART WILL BEAT") go down a bit too easily. But on SPARK, Whitney prove themselves to be in the indie rock game for the long run, even if they've outgrown the type of indie rock that birthed them.

Even for all the newfound sheen, there's nothing on this new self-titled album that necessarily feels out of step with what's come before. ... Anchoring the songs to drum and bass grooves and keyboard loops gives Bixler-Zavala more space to flex his voice; once little more than a high-pitched rebel yell, it's now capable of delivering a rainbow of emotions.

Despite some bumps, Hold the Girl is full of passion and reflection, uninterested in holding back and unafraid to revel in the power of vulnerability and self-love.

Dying field or not, the Beths' third LP is a reaffirmation that the band are ready and willing to go down with the ship.

Someday Is Today pairs fragmented, stream-of-consciousness lyrics with soundscapes that flow and grow at their own pace, balancing the post-rock proclivities of Do Make Say Think with the lazy drum machines and synthesizers of Beach House (especially on the opening track, "Hold Me In Your Mind").

This time around, they've pulled from the world's ever-present deterioration to bring some much-needed heft and urgency to the formula.

Her identity is permanently stamped on As Above, So Below — the album both showcases Sampa's growth as an artist and delivers on fan expectation, taking them on a journey beyond bars into Africa's rich musical heritage.

Natural Brown Prom Queen is somewhat overstuffed with both tracks and ideas, and the album's chaotic, sometimes hurried nature doesn't always work to its advantage. But even if censoring herself a bit more would've made for a more concise project, the album is nonetheless a captivating glimpse into Sudan Archives' artistic palette.

Although When the Wind Forgets Your Name is by no means revolutionary, it's still a refreshing, cool-sounding record, one that finds Built to Spill revelling in the past and looking clear-eyed toward the future, some 30 years on. That's no small feat.

Repeat listens uncover a musician trying to arrange these musical insights into something as affecting and creatively grounded as her best ambient works.

Flood is much less didactic than its predecessor — it isn't Donnelly's job to teach us, but she still demands and warrants our attention.

Julia Jacklin is a unique talent. Know her. With PRE PLEASURE, Jacklin once again makes herself impossible to dismiss. She not only lives up to the hype, she deserves more of it.

Freakout/Release tugs on the bare threads of the moth-eaten sweater of our collective conscience while leaving us dope beats to step to and good thoughts in our heads. You can practically feel the cumulative effect of Joe Goddard microdosing mushrooms, opening the window of perception a tiny crack to let some fresh air in each day. Depression has rarely sounded breezier.

The album is emotionally mature beyond his years, and like 1999, it is a gateway to hip-hop sounds of the past while looking to the future, making for a project that shouldn't be skipped this year.

Cheat Codes stands as Black Thought's most fully fleshed-out and accessible non-Roots project to date. Despite not veering too far outside his comfort zone or breaking any new ground, it holds the perfect blend of accessibility and complexity, supported by an energetic cast of guests.

It's the samples in particular, though, that give Reset a sort of whimsical timelessness. ... Like much of Panda Bear and Sonic Boom's best work, Reset is disorienting — an album of songs that feels cyclical and never-ending.

While less vulnerable than Lemonade, RENAISSANCE takes the reins as Beyoncé's grandest record to date because of the technical achievements in production and seemingly effortless experimentation without losing any of her lyrical cool. ... Beyoncé's RENAISSANCE is a modern classic.

While their mesh of influences isn't exactly novel, Patina shows Tallies coming into their own as songwriters, capable of crafting warm, memorable music unbeholden to nostalgia.

With all these varied components coming together to form a cohesive unit — a family, if you will — ODESZA cleverly offer a reminder that they're making world-changing stuff, and we're lucky to be alive at the same time they're making music.

Seasoned hardcore listeners may not love this avant-garde approach, yearning instead for something in a similar vein of the breakdown-heavy Good to Feel, but CANDY still deliver a solid handful of unrelenting, uptempo jolts.

Exquisitely recorded (Segall might have picked up a few more tricks for his already considerable bag from Steve Albini, who had produced recent efforts) and inviting while still being mysterious, Ty Segall has another excellent stripped-down "folk" record to add to his (extremely) extensive discography.

A flurry of emotion — joyful and pointed — and clattering noise blending into haunting sparseness, this is the record the Sadies have been working on capturing for their entire existence. Thankfully, and with bittersweet timing, they got it done when we most needed them to, making the best record that has ever been made by anyone. Ever.

The songs of Entering Heaven Alive probably won't become the genre touchstones that White's heavier tunes are, but they're a fresh glimpse into a songwriter who, long considered a retro traditionalist, now continues to get more unpredictable with each album cycle.

Although inconsistent at times, Special contains enough effusive catchiness and unapologetic positivity to make it an enjoyable summer listen.

The result is a fine record, but one that ultimately fails to leave a mark.

This is an album that throws everything at the wall, and most of it sticks. Best enjoyed in the present.

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

Its upbeat synth work and swirling crescendos are not just an illusion, or a cheap trick, like many songs that make up a "Happy Songs That Are Actually Sad" playlist.

Cave World is thoroughly conceived and smartly realized. It balances high-energy ragers with mellower, introspective numbers while the interludes keep things progressing smoothly, adding some cohesion to Viagra Boys' signature chaos.

One thing is clear from Love Is Yours: Flasher have come back stronger than ever, with the tenacity to adapt to new musical dynamics in the same way they convey the complexities of personal connections.

With nothing to prove, no features or flashy hooks or bells and whistles, it is his most accessible album in seven years.

From "Runner's High," the album can drag until the second half, which has many more acoustic ballads.

There's a lot to like about Songs My Friends Wrote, especially the way it celebrates lesser-known tunes — but unfortunately, not a lot of the charm and wit that Corb Lund fans have come to love.

Sometimes, Forever is a rich and varied album, with ultramodern production that never tramples the influences at play.

Hints of the album's atypicality are apparent from its opening minutes, for better or worse. "Falling Back" makes for a questionable lead-off, as Drake's falsetto has never been particularly strong, but Honestly, Nevermind rarely falters from there.

Cola make it all seem effortless to create perfectly catchy post-punk tunes, incorporating their punchy instrumentals with casual social commentary and calming meditative meanings.

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.

While Farm to Table isn't quite the classic that he surely has in him, we should consider ourselves fortunate that Bartees is in it for the long haul.

While Fault Lines sees the transitory Deliluh maintain their hankering for neurotic storytelling and bleak narration, they've tapped into an arcane musical world of enveloping darkness predestined for a band that was bound to take their scene by storm before global pandemonium ensued.

Across the record, Malone has not only seemed to forget what makes his music tick, but also who his fanbase is.

While White Jesus Black Problems is certainly an album that prompts further discovery of its deeper layers, it is also liberating in its musical profundity.

With clear priorities and unsaddled creative impulses, Horsegirl are the authoritative future of noise pop. With their help, we too can run free.

Overall, From Capelton Hill is a brilliant reminder that it's totally fine to rely on your strengths and build on them to produce beautiful music without having to constantly reach for new tricks.

With Blue Skies, the production is crisper, the melodies are sharper, the moods hit deeper and Dehd seem ready to conquer the indie rock world — from Glasgow to Chicago, and everywhere in between.

Welch's powerful vocals shine on this record through anthemic synthpop, baroque pop and folk balladry, as the band experiment with new textures, aligning with the inspiration drawn from the Pre-Raphaelite tradition of embracing contrast within art.

Styles finally sounds at home in his role as a pop megastar. Settling in nicely on Harry's House, he manages to hit a sweet spot in between One Direction breakout star and modern-day rocker.

Cruel Country also contains some of the band's most awe-inspiring music, especially in the album's middle.

Although Regards / Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer won't stand as their most approachable LP, nor will it be remembered as their most audacious (it's most likely in between the two), Matmos have cemented their rightful place within the annals of some of the most resourceful and inventive multimedia artists of their generation.

With heavy doses of Mellotron, downtempo breakbeats, electric piano, fuzzy guitars, family and fortitude, And Those Who Were Seen Dancing demands to be heard and felt.

Ballad takes Hardware's craft to new heights of sophistication and richness, establishing him as a master of melody, an exquisite popsmith, and a brilliant compositional mind.

While this is likely not an album that will float them to the mainstream, it is one to be proud of.

Porridge Radio delight in these universal growing pains that ultimately reveal a greater vulnerability, born of not having it all figured out yet. As such, WDBLTTS is a natural next step on the road to nowhere.

From Jagger's playful banter ("Everything alright in the critics' section?" he asks sardonically) to the band playing quite tightly around Charlie Watts, as he messes beautifully with time and space so that the Stones can transcend them both, the band innocently gave Toronto and the world something incredible to talk about for four decades and counting.

Getting this type of content from someone so guarded makes Mr. Morale more powerful and brave, especially given some of the topics he breaches. Kendrick Lamar lets it all out.

It's too familiar-sounding to be revelatory, but six years on from A Moon Shaped Pool — the longest-ever break between Radiohead albums — it's a pleasure to hear Yorke and Greenwood's talent undiminished as they hit the sweet spot of their sound.

There are good moments here and there, and the only sin Harlow truly commits is that much of the LP is boring and forgettable, not even bad enough to be entertaining besides a few head-shaking lines.

No Fear… lives up to its name thanks to Black Star's bravery against the odds of falling woefully short like nearly all of their fellow MCs would have. The fact that they occasionally come close to pulling off a comeback as towering as their debut will make you wish they don't wait so long to try again.

Several moments on Peacock Pools rank among the most emotionally resonant in McBean's monumental catalogue.

It's both her loudest record and her most inscrutable, burning away some of the welcoming intimacy of her earlier work for a galaxy of cataclysm and stillness all its own.

It's warm, inviting, comforting and – much like a cloudy day spent indoors – always pleasant, sporadically stimulating and only noteworthy if you're paying close attention.

Nothing here quite scratches the itch of both emotional catharsis and rapturous splendour the way Arcade Fire's best songs do, but after a few initial attempts at capturing our collective panic and frustration, they have finally managed to pull it off by seeing themselves as part of the problem, by putting themselves in the line of fire, and by sharing the coping strategies and counterarguments that get them through and putting them into song.

Belle and Sebastian aren't making a grand statement here; rather, more than seven years on from their last proper LP (2015's Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance), B&S are honing in on some of their signature styles and making an album that sounds quintessentially like themselves.

It's not a complete return to form, but it's a reminder that even later in the journeys, all-time greats' talent and dedication to their craft can still yield impressive results.

For all the mercurial experiments in power, Forgiveness also contains moments that scale back the theatrics to spotlight Tucker and Tividad as the sincere, gimlet-eyed songwriters they've proven to be since Girlpool's inception.

With lyrics that are minimal and often delivered measured and mantra-like, LP.8 is hypnotic, introspectively abstract, and while some may find it too left-field, or lacking her more club-leaning tracks, it's not intended to follow in those footsteps. LP.8 creatively explores Owens' inner life while being inextricably tied to the current age.

With i don't know who needs to hear this... , Tomberlin goes beyond avoiding the dreaded sophomore slump. She examines the posture of what it means to make an excellent album through her meditative reflections and the mutating organism of the soundscape she sets them against.

Even if It's Almost Dry isn't the flawless masterpiece that many had hoped Push would deliver this time around, it's still a great album with many standout moments.

Spiritualized have delivered yet another great project with Everything Is Beautiful, an incredible mix of genres bringing forth truly impressive instrumentals with compelling lyrics.

With each piece of childhood minutiae recollected, the divide shrinks, and there's a triumphant sense of something starting anew. Sparks flying.

With (watch my moves), Kurt Vile possibly creates indie rock's first ambient masterwork, a piece of art that is surprisingly and lovingly languid, even for the king of slack.

It's opulent and immaculately composed but lacks the strong perspective that's usually central to FJM's work.

This is easily his most ambitious, personal and hard-hitting work to date.

He may have ditched the grit that got him here, but the glam he's donning now suits him just fine. While the horse remains untamed, the reins have clearly been fastened.

With every moment of unflinching social commentary, the Linda Lindas let listeners in to the smouldering embers of youthful promise we all have before the weight of the world eventually crushes our spirit.