The best moments here are either instrumental or wordless, when Coyne's voice--which, though never technically impressive, always fit perfectly with each album's sound, whether it was the ragged bombast of their Soft Bulletin-era epics or the hushed haunt of The Terror--becomes a whispering (or even whistling) texture. Lyrically, though, Coyne appears to have exhausted any last nuggets of profundity he once had.

Cry will make you cry, because Gonzalez knows what he's doing. It's cathartic, stunning, it'll awaken your senses and it's not to be missed.

Forcefield strips down the Tokyo formula to its most basic components of guitar riffing, a strong sense of melody and a brilliant ear for unforgettable hooks, which has birthed some of their finest work yet.

A solid listen front to back, Freedom is the album fans have been waiting for.

The tracks are far from filler; they're a revealing look at where the band find themselves creatively at the moment.

With every moment on Internationally Unknown I find odd, I ask myself "was that intentional?" Because I usually have no idea. ... Internationally Unknown is fun and probably not intended to be examined too far past the surface.

On Days of Abandon, the Pains continue to demonstrate why they've been able to find this sweet spot that so many bands strive for.

Oblique's songs are intricately woven into a dark, discordant tapestry, alternating between longer, more atmospheric songs and straight-up destructive doom.

Even when Wavves tread some familiar territory, the nine-song album is so short and peppy that it whooshes by like a refreshing ocean breeze.

Their brand of quirky indie pop runs throughout, but the slower numbers are as effective as the upbeat tunes.

Filled mostly with retro-cheese instrumentals with a smattering of blue-eyed vocal performances, Weird Drift explores the stranger aspects of love and devotion.

Pattern of Excel shows the latest brilliant incarnation of an artist who's sure to have many in the years to come.

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.

Written by a person whose conscience seems to keep him from having too much fun, Hard Love is a conflicted yet summarily good record that breathes new life into good ol' rock'n'roll.

Time 'n' Place is challenging, but its rewards are commensurate, and while the band may lose some of their more fickle fans with this release, it's always refreshing to see artistic growth put first, especially when it pays off like this.

Occasionally on Wallop, !!! sound either too world-weary or too committed to being incendiary to relay ideas relevant to listeners. But at their best, the band maintain their convictions about privilege, power and culture and present them as defiant, monumental tracks.

Martin cedes more of the spotlight to Brickell than ever, his strumming always sturdily present but rarely showy.... But Brickell also brings out the best in Martin, revealing his subtlest strengths.

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

For a 13-track album, the majority is forgettable and doesn't live up to the colourful elements of Lewis's previous releases. The lack of energy on Caer leaves a longing for more originality and creativity he has once given us.

Fourth album Mirage Rock is a bungled mess of poor production and half-assed songwriting.

Braxton truly has created his own sonic alphabet here, and has employed it to draft a manuscript that is as sincere as it is creative.

Bazan doesn't disappoint on this mini full-length and though he doesn't wow at first either, Blanco is meditative, and moves more slowly than other entries in the artist's discography. It requires, and deserves, an attentive and patient ear.

Recorded in France and produced by Frames guitarist David Odlum, this is expertly crafted and lushly arranged folk-rock, with some pretty fabulous horns.

Beach Fossils have found a balance that's better than anyone could have hoped for.

The problem isn't with Carnation's expansive instrumental palette, but with the way that the record struggles to use its sounds to captivate, often letting each part float away into the ether.

Despite its brisk pacing, Starz still suffers from bloat. Songs like "Iceheart," "Dance in the Dark," and "My Agenda" could have been left off the track list and made the album more coherent and enjoyable to experience.

Longwave channels the low-key indie pop sound of (Sandy) Alex G and Frankie Cosmos. Bonny Doon have proven their ability to transform their complex songwriting and vivid melodies into experiences that resemble those long hours of elusive conversations we crave.

With We Are Undone, Two Gallants have created an album that is enviable in its quality and consistency.

On Big Boat, their rambling new album, veteran producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed) does his best to emphasize the band's considerable knack for genre-bending exercises.

There's a handful of above-average tunes here, and an earnestness that suggests Harry Styles will have a fruitful solo career.

It will undoubtedly take some time for fans of the band's earlier work to get acquainted with the stylistic shift, though A Perfect Circle's messaging might have benefited more from sounds tried and true.

At its best, Somewhere Else produces a few tracks worthy of putting on and dancing to in the middle of the night. At its worst, it's repetitive material that should've stayed on the cutting room floor.

Tracks like the rambling "Old Things," the hoedown-lite "Bluebird" and perhaps the most precious song about outlaw life, "Private Property," shoot for middle-of-the-road appreciation, sucking out any grit from the recording.

For a stopgap collaboration, Underrated Silence sits comfortably with some of Schnauss's best work.

What this trio from Philadelphia, PA are offering, in spite of their rough-hewn hipster image, is nothing new and can be traced back to Barenaked Ladies through Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills & Nash and even the Kingston Trio.

Siggelkow's Born Again is fearlessly exposed, touching on emotions in the most direct way — an infectious, wondrous full-length debut for Ellis.

On SUM/ONE, DeGraw avoids the trappings many first-time solo artists fall to, leaving the listener with a collection of songs that manages to exude its own indispensable personality while staying true to Gang Gang Dance's wild and wooly origin story.

The EP is good but not great. Diplo missed an opportunity to explore a variety of emerging EDM genres, instead releasing a slew of tracks that bang hard but fail to resonate.

Skiptracing takes the listener on a beautifully produced and paced adventure that plays out like a soundtrack.

Bleachers is agreeable and safe, but there's a fumbling listlessness to the whole thing, a lack of dynamism that makes it fade into white noise. Antonoff’s latest is not the grand, drive-off-into-the-sun record that Strange Desire or even Gone Now strove to be and sometimes became — Bleachers is a commuter’s record through and through.

The charm of the disconnected, breezy path that starts the album--seeming interludes punctuated by the odd story of a more solid, structured track--quickly wears thin when you realize said path meanders, the tracks mostly underdeveloped, only occasionally rolling into a bigger sound with tangible depth.

Ultimately, the album sounds confidently beautiful. While some may not be as memorable, songs like "Meadow Song" make this album one of S. Carey's best.

Moaning establish their sound while dodging redundancy on their debut.

They avoid mere imitation, but a sense of aimlessness still floats through the record.

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

For now, it's likeable despite feeling a little too aimless.

Sonic Highways is an attempt to channel a different musical energy, but it's one that Grohl does a far better job capturing with his camera crew.

On In Sickness & in Flames, the Front Bottoms decided to let their stream of consciousness dictate the majority of the 12 songs on this album, it's harder to decipher what many of them even mean. It's infuriating, but that's what also why band has such a dedicated fanbase.

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.

The Kills' fifth studio album might not bring anything particularly new and groundbreaking to their discography, but it certainly won't disappoint fans.

There's very little on offer to ground the listener here, which makes Maze of Woods a challenging collection; it's the aural equivalent of a 90-minute movie that feels like a 3-hour watch.

Although there are some standouts on the album, like the vocal push-and-pull of "Don't Move Back to L.A.," the soulful "Shelter Song" and the dramatic buildup of "Human Being Song," Sheff sounds rather lost throughout this album, hampered by indecisive arrangements and ambling verses.

The History of Apple Pie have no illusions that they're reinventing the wheel, but Feel Something should silence critics who dismissed the group as another example of record collection rock.

Over seven tracks, Moonface and Siinai expertly pair Krug's iconic warble with instrumental propulsion that showcases a more positive and collaborative side to the team's sound.

It's a late night listening record set in the candlelit environment of the human psyche and a worthy followup to Nathaniel's Falling Faster Than You Can Run.

Melvins Lite at once bring the noise to more mature ears and reignite the fan fervour that petered out around 1996's Stag.

One of the only things missing from the album is flow between tracks. Songs hit a satisfying ending, but then fade out and move to a track that doesn't connect to what the listener just heard.

When a guy comes all the way from Jakarta, that's unique, and you want something unique from him. Amen falls way short of that.

Though the band have toed the line between boyish charm and adolescent callousness for most of their career, this ambivalence has not aged well, and often obscures the more successful moments of sincerity on the record.

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.

After five or six songs, it has a sonic and thematic sameness to it that manages to work solely because of the glimmering moments when he allows other voices to sparkle and the high-quality production.

As their past few LPs suffered from a bout of structural sameness, Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out! contains just enough musical and lyrical variety to place it amongst Art Brut's finest work.

Subtly sad, sweetly distorted and at times outright trippy, the result is perfect for long drives under summer skies.

Eucalyptus finds Portner going back-to-basics, taking listeners on a psychedelic but steady trip over 15 tracks with atmospheric and shifting samples ("Lunch Out of Order" Pt. 1 and 2), Sung Tongs-style guitar work ("Jackson 5," "PJ" and opener "Season High") and spaced-out instrumentation (the twisted "Boat Race" and lo-fi drone of "Dr aw one").

The Desaturating Seven finds Primus oddly compelling, as ever.

Black Rock is still filled with McCombs' spacious, isolating tracks ("Tonight at Ten," "Gold!"), which are best for lonely winter evenings.

A frustrating album that manages to both thrill and disappoint in equal measure, which suggests that with some trimming, this could have been an incredible EP.

Cruel Summer has too few of these transcendent moments and is decidedly less than the sum of its parts.

Essentially a pared down version of last year's singles box set--minus the singles, of course, and with a couple of additional tracks--it brings together acoustic takes on old favourites, a handful of covers and a muddy live cut.

At 13 tracks and close to 70 minutes in length, Abaporu just contains too many (albeit many terrific) ideas and stylistic flourishes to properly cohere as a singular work.

Check this out if you are a devoted member of the Pentagram coven, but otherwise, stick to the classics.

Breaking up the band's predictable metal onslaught is the mid-tempo stomp of "Morrigan," the slow-burning "Prayer for the Afflicted" and the ballad-esque "All for Nothing." While they're each a welcome reprieve from the sameness, these moments inadvertently temper any more chaos that could have perhaps been unleashed.

Bizarster is definitely worth a visit for Vibert fans and anyone who wants to relive some glory days, but considering the sheer size of his back catalogue, it's easy to see this one getting lost on the shelf.

After an extended break, Teengirl Fantasy return wiser and sounding somehow more like themselves.

Jungle Rules is full of summer vibes, and makes a perfect addition to not only Frenchie's catalogue but any summer playlist--which is to say it was worth the wait.

Khalid delivers something to tide you over; Suncity is awash in that same energy that has kept him in the musical conversation.

Those who actually contemplate this album and its live counterpart on their artistic merits might well recognize them, as equal to anything else in his stirring, outspoken back catalogue.

Let's Face the Music and Dance displays Nelson in his natural element: a small combo playing songs as timeless as his wonderfully idiosyncratic voice.

The cozy impressions brought to mind both by Scott's music and the image of him at work in his Asheville refuge are also set against some relatively dark themes.

This feeling of something ancient is instilled in The Sun Dogs, which possesses a strangely hard-to-pin-down sense of mysterious nostalgia, demonstrating that the creation of original music has not yet become a foolish ambition.

Even when the band vamps for too long on "Home Alone" and their "Like a Rolling Stone" cover, the large roster of guests and collaborators rarely feels unwieldy. Instead, A Productive Cough draws strength from its collective spirit.

2:54 have made a debut album that pulls you in, immerses you and haunts you ever so slightly.

Peace Is The Mission is equal parts tepid and garrulous, making it hard to get an overall read on this project. Probably best to not overthink it.

This is not just a comeback; it's All Saints' best work yet.

While the sound of this is pretty uniform the quality is all over the place and very dependent on the song being covered.

Earrings Off! is an album that demands multiple listens and gets better with each one.

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

It's rare for an artist to actually match a sound with their name (see Steely Dan for how not to do it), but with Talent, Pena has done just that by creating music that flutters to a perfect, heavenly beat.

This is energetic and essential listening.

There are great tracks on Green Language, but a lack of consistency stops it from being a great album.

With Crawling Up the Stairs, the masks are off for the world to hear.

In tone and approach it suggests the populism of a lost Cat Stevens classic ("High Hopes," in particular) but with enough interesting detours.

The album's missteps aren't egregious; rather, it's that after multiple listens, very little sticks. The Tourist's inconspicuousness is its biggest issue.

With its comparatively morose yet still lively sound, Animator is just as instrumentally adventurous and aurally beautiful as the Luyas' enchanting debut.

Erikson falls in-line with dreamy progressives like Caribou and Four Tet, generating ten new compositions that sound as beautiful as they do bouncy.

The Santa Barbarite has focused even more on textured, hazy compositions, allowing much of the album to move at an ebb-and-flow pace.