Throughout, D'Agostino's words are intricate and so tangled in detail that the stories are obscured; it's more like flipping through a photo album without footnotes — you're not told the story, but you feel the impression it leaves on you.

The unlisted, sludge metal instrumental with crashing, crushing, demo-quality production only adds to the overall awesomeness and crazed attitude behind it all.

It's a rare record that serves as an entry point for newcomers while rewarding old fans who've stuck by them since the beginning.

By not only fearlessly facing grief, but also honouring Justin's sly humor, raw vulnerability and nimble songwriting, Steve Earle fittingly sees his young Cowboy off into the sunset.

Over the course of 11 impeccable tracks, Amos delivers eerily infectious singer-songwriter fare on par with the intelligent and emotionally raw efforts of Nina Nastasia and Sun Kil Moon, but that's polished with studio savvy worthy of Califone or even mid-period Modest Mouse.

Everything works here, in its own unique way.

The EP's mix of the myriad styles presented (drone-influenced electronica, dancehall, progressive synths) come together in a way that makes the experience feel unique.

Not a single cut on Oh My God feels out of place. Each song is effulgent in its composition and intention.

Moody moves away the deep soulful grooves that made his name and instead focuses on creating a new sound that, while retaining the breaks and drum machines that are his trademark, is now coloured with live instrumentation and Kenny's delightfully sleazy croon.

What's impressive is how well integrated these Agee-inspired tunes are with their more modern cousins.

Since this is Tanya Tagaq, no moment of the album feels excessive or perfunctory, making Animism one of the most challenging and listenable albums of the year.

Clark can do it all and it's entirely likely that Blak And Blu will be recognized in the future as a moment when American music suddenly got a great deal more interesting.

In its enhanced and alternate history, complete with more stunning liners by Mehr, this Let it Bleed edition tells the tale as beautifully, clearly, and boldly as fans of the Replacements could ever hope for.

Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything is the most personal outcry of righteous indignation they've mustered. The result is something for a broader audience of like-minded people constantly muttering 'What the fuck?' at the world at large to connect with.

In A Dream is brand new, but has the feel of a timeless dance record, the kind of record that is pulled from the crate on the most special (and danceable) of occasions.

UZU is an album that uproots us and transports us into the unknown, but it's an adventure that we would happily go on again and again.

Iit's her softer singles that add a new dimension to her artistry. While Cardi B's own relationship with Migos's Offset has been thrown into the spotlight, Invasion of Privacy feels like her Lemonade moment, one that magnifies her insecurities for public consumption.

Jaime, Howard's first solo album, complements her distinctive croon with R&B, hip-hop and funk sounds, marking an adventurous departure that reveals unseen depths to the vocalist. With some of the most emotive, direct lyrics of her career to date, the dynamic range of her new collaborators — including jazz maestro Robert Glasper — informs the flavour of each track for an eclectic collection stockpiled with loose grooves.

The band one-up Ex Lives in every regard.

Coloring Book is a spirited musical sermon, and Chance's fellow MCs will covet its perfect union of gospel and rap.

In a discography as impressive as Lamar's, GNX stands as a major highlight, sitting comfortably in the upper echelon of a rarefied body of work.

A darker and more complex record, it displays a newfound maturity in Allison's arrangements and a decidedly higher set of stakes.

It is minimalist yet lush, hopeful yet rooted in a stark and sometimes grim reality.

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.

The glowering strength of If I don't make it, I love u is in its commitment to both sides of the coin, an album both experimental and laid fully bare — The result is one of the best rock records of the year.

The intent, execution and expression is pure. But the ominous feel of the entire project overwhelms, in parts, with a forlorn sense of distance and dread — which appears to be the point — yet its subsuming sense of femininity, sexuality, free will and determinism paradoxically draws us in.

NYC's Roc Marciano follows up his 2010 critically celebrated solo debut, Marcberg, with a sequel nonpareil in its originality and craftsmanship.

The Last Spire, their tenth and last release, combines all that the legends do well: snail-paced doom, upbeat Sabbath stoner rock and craggly sludge.

An effort that is even more emotionally ambitious an undertaking, and all the more wounding for its beauty.

NEVER ENOUGH is a cohesive display of genre experimentation that cements Caesar's place as one of the smartest and most talented artists in today's constantly mutating R&B pantheon.

Despite its name, Agricultural Tragic is also deeply comedic. That, along with its irresistibly catchy alt-country rhythms, make it one of 2020's most well rounded and re-playable releases.

Shauf brings the same mentality to pop music as the songwriting greats of the '60s and '70s did, with gorgeous instrumentation, subtle arrangements and an all-round organic feel. Paired with his very human and humanizing lyrics, The Party is relatable and honest, simply marvellous.

What makes Interior Architecture such a success, though, is how effortless his attention to detail feels, as each movement flows into another to help create an experimental noise concept album.

It's an emphatic step forward, a gorgeous album that, rather than running from it, reflects our fractured world back at us.

The Road: Part II is doubling down at its finest. The sixth studio album from UNKLE is nothing short of a musical odyssey, and takes special care to bring back the prestige of the playlist. Split into two acts, Lavelle masterfully builds a beginning, middle and end to each section, moving "from light to dark, from brute force to tenderness" in a way that documents the highs and lows of being out on the road.

With Reunions, Isbell unites the disparate aspects of his craft — soothing acoustic and fiercely electric; Hemingway's word economy dashed with Oscar Wilde-worthy asides, relatable details and otherworldly allusions. ... For listeners immersed in similar bittersweet nuances on a daily basis, there's no better musical accompaniment than Isbell's latest.

King Krule is an artist moving a mile a minute, and 6 Feet Beneath the Moon is just the beginning of what will be an amazing career to follow.

At only nine tracks, the album delivers big time in such a short trip and definitely leaves the listener wondering what gems this super duo left on the cutting-room floor.

It's safe to call Outside CFCF's magnum opus; it's an immaculate zenith that represents every brave, leftfield musical choice this young musician has made up until this point.

With a fresh approach and a renewed outlook on life, DeMarco reaches a whole other level of cool, lush calm as well as an unprecedented degree of maturity and introspection.

An LP so irresistibly danceable and irrefutably topical that it'll also leave generations of up-and-comers clamouring to team up with Janelle Monáe.

Great art isn't great art because it's easy, and this 90-plus-minute, five-act rock opera inspired by Stickles' experience with manic depression is absolutely worth spending the time with.

This gloriously woozy record is era-ambiguous and the sonic equivalent of a contact high.

There's no denying the album is catchy.

LP1 is a fantastic debut from an artist who is quickly becoming the curator of her own mental museum.

it's also about how those feelings of weariness and romantic ambivalence can so quickly knot up with ones of jealousy and longing. There is, of course, no resolution in sight by album's end. But it's in these in-between-spaces where Deland thrives. It's a gestational document, thrilling to witness.

The Big Day has enough ideas, sounds and flows to justify its vast breath. What's more: it finally gives us a glimpse at Chance's multitudes, letting us accompany him to the altar and the confessional, instead of restricting him to the pulpit. (Independent)

It's a piece that Basinski apparently revisited and refined throughout 2016, a year made monumental by its cultural losses--and it's one of his very best.

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 urge to greet the commercial and artistic triumph of a major league debut hip-hop album with a subversive stiff-arm on sophomore efforts has notable precedents in De La Soul's De La Soul Is Dead and Digable Planets' Blowout Comb, but few have been as audaciously challenging and heavily layered as Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, which will likely be one of 2015's most discussed, dissected and debated album releases, regardless of genre.

Childqueen demands patience and a receptive ear to pick up on the care and detail Bonet has taken in crafting every moment. She is in complete control of her artistry.

On Take Flight, Coles provides a stunning journey of immersive and emotive house music. While most artists would buckle under the weight of 24 tracks, Maya pulls off the feat with ease.

Retribution is immersive, cathartic, potentially even transformative.

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 certainly was a long wait, but finally Slowdive have given us the album that we have been dreaming about for the last 22 years.

The New York rapper-producer's greatest contribution to RTJ4 is his vivid and varied sonic backdrops. His on-point production offers the lyrically superior Killer Mike both space and sonic support as he rises to new heights of artistry and activism, making El-P the kind of ally worth emulating.

This kind of underground indie pop, with its roots in DIY music like Orange Juice and the Feelies, always has a hardscrabble edge — but Ducks Ltd. find the cinematic grandeur in their scrappy ditties.

Heart-rending, arterial and woundingly authentic, As The Stars is a hell of a record to drop on Valentine's day.

It's the type of album that shifts with every listen, making you discover unknown corners of certain songs, with nary a lowlight or highlight in sight.

It's a deliberately weird record, but authentically weird; it's chaotic yet cohesive, full of sound, colour and unshakable vision.

The transition between blasting drums and metal riffs on "Blot" from Automata I into "The Proverbial Bellow" is surprisingly smooth without feeling like there is any disconnect between records. Overall, splitting up the release made it much easier to digest a full Between the Buried and Me album, which is never an easy task.

Howl is a well-crafted structure, built on the foundation laid by its predecessors. It's certainly the pinnacle of West's career so far, and up there for electronic album highlight of year.

A sound collage like no other, Garden of Delete finds Lopatin engaging listeners with an album that almost defies description.

The songs just sounded great, and were played with such precision, at these shows.

Bark Your Head Off seem like a gamble, given its broader palette. It only takes a few listens to realize that it is really the fulfillment of the band's potential, though. ... Hop Along are truly a band at the top of their game.

The Ghost Inside proves that the band are back to operating at their creative peak, with an expert synthesis of theme, composition and delivery that makes for their strongest material to date.

Little Oblivions is generous and giving; it's not only a public display of personal catharsis, but also an act of collective commiseration and an invitation to heal.

Nosaj Thing isn't just a brooding, melancholic minimalist, but an interior designer finding the perfect shade of white — not for some high-fashion contrivance, but for the psychological and emotional effects a colourful sunset will bring to it.

Vast and breathtaking, RIITIIR is simply stellar.

Thirty years later, it's another landmark, his best record in years. Maybe decades.

They stick with what they know, and they have it down to a flawless science.

The resulting poignancy of his honest songwriting is an amazing accomplishment.

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.

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

Though the occasional use of spoken word on the record jars uncomfortably, this debut is about as accomplished as one could reasonably expect.

Simply put, cannabis is the medium through which this album should be listened to; otherwise, its greatness will never be revealed to the non-believers. ... When sober, 14 minutes for a song is a little long; stoned, it's not long enough.

The Weather Station is Lindeman's loosest, most confident album yet, but it may also prove to be her most deeply psychological; she doesn't hold back.

Sensual, artful and accessible, it is easily one of the best pop albums of the year.

De Vermis Mysteriis is a bloody, hard-fought triumph.

Collaboration clearly suits Destroyer well: after ten albums in close to two decades, the band still sound as vital and inventive as ever, and they're operating at the top of their game on Poison Season.

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.

Pleasure presents a unique, uncompromising vision of intimacy and enjoyment.

Anyone who doesn't fall for Depression Cherry's hypnotic splendour probably just isn't a Beach House fan, or didn't live with the album long enough. But those who do will recognize this album as the sweeping, grand gesture they've been working up to giving us for the last nine years.

Thomas Arsenault manages to convincingly combine his penchant for heart-on-your-sleeve lyricism and dance floor oriented-beats to craft an almost-perfect collection of nostalgia-tinged pop songs.

This final track ["Aura Aura"] manages to rein in all the restless energy found throughout The Wink and transform it into a beautiful, warm sound that sends you on your way, all the better for experiencing it.

It is a transformative synthpop journey exploring how our worst moments shape us as individuals for when we are at our best.

If The Lost Boy was the new wave rapper's most substantial test of talent and longevity, YBN Cordae passed with flying colours.

Produced by Garm of Ulver, the textures of M are even more finely hewn and interwoven than its predecessor, resulting in a record that is at once profoundly tactile and deeply sensual.

With classically trained vocals, storytelling swagger and a knack for melodic invention, Lost & Found serves as both introduction and foundation. The debut offering is laden with contradictions: feels safe yet edgy, simple yet complex, ambitious yet relaxed.

Cohesive and well structured, Freddie is a clear standout for the season and quite possibly, the year. And Gibbs didn't have to rent out the Louvre to do it.

Yves Jarvis has brought his insides out on a spellbinding album that's equally puzzling and gratifying.

Necrocracy is as perfect as we're all hoping Carcass will be when they bring their good ship back for another gruesome go at it.

Soul of a Woman is a more than worthy farewell by one of the hardest working and talented women show business has ever known.

DIANA blend genres and provide a real sense of intimacy on Familiar Touch, a deeply personal and musically rich collection of songs.

Lush is unencumbered and honest, putting emotional pitfalls on full, nuanced display while remaining streamlined and filler-free.

Summertime '06's coming of age tale is complemented perfectly by production that finds the nuance in Staples' stories and matches it, couching Staples' rhymes in a way that the streets can understand best.

Clark has made the beautiful ugly, the ugly beautiful and the difference between them nearly indistinguishable. If that sounds pretty complex and incredible, you've got a pretty good idea what listening to St. Vincent is like.

Haliechuk and co. have developed a layered universe and score that creates a unique and immersive experience for those wise enough to carve out ninety minutes of their time to read along with the story as they listen. It's an album that requires listeners to invest their time and attention, but surely those listeners will be happy they did so.