The album is an offering of loose yet plush stories that trigger memory and mood, and swim with the lithe astral synth and keys that Geotic always plays with.

The only notable shift in balance is a slight tipping of the scale towards the weight of electronic over acoustic instrumentation.

The fifth Black Mountain album is their most driving album yet, literally. It was edited on the road, directly influenced by the feeling of being behind the wheel. Of the 22 tracks recorded, the eight that made it are as propulsive as you can get, hard-edged cerebral space trucking.

All told, Bad News Boys is as solid a record as the King Khan and BBQ Show have ever put out, and a must-have for fans of both the band and the genre.

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.

Unfortunately, Keith is treated to some friendly fire here, as most of his cohorts outshine him.

For such a specific formula, the law of diminishing returns likely looms, if it hasn't arrived already, but for now, The Glow is just enough of a good thing.

Despite a few kinks and unnecessary tracks, B4.Da.$$ is a great album that revisits classic '90s boom-bap signifiers: the production, the delivery and cadences.

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.

I Wasn't Born to Lose You is a solid return from a band eager to sound like themselves again.

While a slight step forward, Nocturne, like all of Wild Nothing's output to date, still inhales all of its influences--the women, the hurt, the favourite records stuck on late night repeat--and exhales them in to a beautiful, swirling, ethereal cloud.

At times jovial and elsewhere solemn, Quickies is an anthology of flash fictions, thematically clashing against one another like "I've Got a Date With Jesus" and "You've Got a Friend in Beelzebub," yet otherwise twinning mischievously like "The Best Cup of Coffee In Tennessee" and "The Biggest Tits in History."

By splitting his 2022 albums into two distinct projects and saving his quieter material for Entering Heaven Alive, White has delivered his best release since 2012's Blunderbuss, and one of the most consistently exciting albums in his 25-year-career.

True North (their 16th LP) lacks the visceral power and focused sense of purpose their trio of post-Epitaph return albums had, the band nevertheless sound unwilling to go gently into that good night.

Repeated listening makes it hard not to see the album as some sort of quasi-confessional mini-masterpiece, and if not that, at least another example of his increasing strength as a songwriter.

There's little about Dead Set on Living that isn't an improvement on the band's past efforts, from the thunderous guitar tones to the frenetic energy pouring out of every song, courtesy of live-off-the-floor recording.

There is a comprehensive exploration of musical avenues and ideas, as well as a pleasing juxtaposition of an overarching concept and sound design.

Sure, the LP falters when it casts its net too wide, particularly on the Roxette-indebted "Love They Say" and Twin Shadow outtake "Shock to Your System," but those moments are few.

With an exceptionally dismal sound, and artwork by Anthony Lucero to match, Dragged Down a Dead End Path is set to be one of the best aggressive releases of the year.

On Calling from the Stars, Miss Kittin's ambition comes off as both a blessing and hindrance; it's a cycle of ideas that unendingly feel very close to wearing out its welcome.

On paper, the 32nd edition of the Late Night Tales seems like a wilfully difficult listen, but Röyksopp possess the musical gallantry to have compiled the first indispensable comedown DJ mix.

There are great moments that fulfil expectations of Jesu as a dissolving whirlpool bath of glass shards, but these flashes don't carry the full weight of the album.

On their return, they sound wiser and refreshed.

The Gamble takes some extraordinary risks, but the rewards are glorious.

One of the best things about the Album Leaf is the mental imagery that comes naturally with the music, and Between Waves provides a fresh canvas.

Well-crafted and delightfully infectious, The Courtneys II is a sequel that surpasses their already-great original.

While these eight tracks rarely involve an epiphany either narratively or musically, their anecdotal nature is a reminder that not every story has an ending, and that the memories that stick with us are often the ones we don't fully understand.

Bold and stirring, Darling of the Afterglow further establishes Lydia Ainsworth as a master of arrangement and melody, and pushes her just a few more inches toward the mainstream, where a larger, captivated following surely--and deservedly--awaits.