Far from essential, Hotel Sessions is a glimpse of a once great songwriter in mid-process.

It's a release that somehow feels like it has less to prove from a duo not quite overdue for their follow-up to a huge success.

Colors is a breezy, tightly composed party-starter of a record that doesn't demand much of the listener, but gives back generously.

if i could make it go quiet is a testament to girl in red's rapid growth as an artist. In addition to a sophisticated examination of anger and suffering, her voice has grown richer and deeper while her sound has evolved to blend punk nostalgia into her youthful ennui.

Fortunately, with The Battle at Garden's Gate, they've earned more ground by delivering an album that's far more confident, earning the rock schlock with larger compositions that feel more grandiose.

Given some judicious editing, this could have been a truly great album; as it stands, we'll have to settle for just really, really good.

Tricky has injected so much raw emotion into Fall to Pieces that it can't help but stand out as one of his most notable, memorable and authentic releases.

JJ's sound may be nothing special anymore, but their songs and vibe still stand up.

abysskiss continues to keep Lenker's songwriting hot streak going--more than enough to tide us over until the next Big Thief record.

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.

The entire premise of the album is entirely playful, defined by its because-I-can nature, and while this might not result in a unified feel, it's nonetheless an enjoyable and eclectic experience.

A few minor missteps don't derail the album. What's most impressive is that, 20 years deep, New Found Glory are still putting out compelling music and growing tastefully with each release.

Black Milk has renewed his sound, proven his skill in lyricism, and displayed his depth as an artist who is proudly using his platform to discuss political issues.

Babelsberg's ten songs comprise a confident, fully realized soundtrack to a quasi-fictional dystopia.

Paradise is a record with a big personality that demonstrates how much your integrity as an artist informs your music and why that slippery qualification separates someone like Hood from the legions of lesser producers out there.

Sonically and thematically, the 48-minute downtempo project is impeccably cohesive, executive producers Singawd and Yakob tying a black bow on a deep list of contributing producers with brooding, layered synths and space to think. Auto-Tune appears heavily, and the guest list is firmly in the now.

No doubt existing fans will love this about the album, but newcomers might be turned off by the uniform approach throughout. Still, Songs of the Recollection is a joy to listen to, start to finish.

On their 10th album, The Former Site Of, bandleader A.C. Newman has honed his playful gibberish to the point that it's become his signature style, delightful rather than simply a way to fill the syllables of his towering power pop melodies.

The real surprise of Miss Anthropocene is that it actually sounds like a fairly standard Grimes album. She's a become a controversial public figure whose whole persona is like one big multimedia art project, so this is a welcome return to her wheelhouse.

With its often bright, and chill nature, the album is a fitting soundtrack for the transition from spring into summer. It saunters by delicately, evoking floral scents and pastel colours.

The steep conceptual angle imposes a significant hurdle on casual listening, but Treanor rewards engagement with hypnotic, off-centred rhythmic cycles, and elements like the Nauman sample only represent a small portion of the runtime (Lancaster's assertions fall off before the two-minute mark).

Fans of the band will enjoy the mature and practiced sound of this very good album, but the unconvinced might remain so, as the band don't exactly reinvent the wheel on The Glowing Man.

Dva is a calmly delivered artistic statement, one that makes a compelling case that Emika could earn the kind of praise currently lavished upon James Blake.

This compilation shows the lasting impact Funkadelic has had on popular culture and on subsequent generations of innovators, striking a balance between reverence for the originals and creativity from the re-visitors.

Long Slow Dance is a record designed to earn them new fans, but also lose some old ones by ditching the scratchy, unpolished production of their previous work.

Having few tonal shifts and being practically devoid of contrast, LAHS is the perfect atmospheric soundtrack for a backyard party with boozy beverages and adult tokeables.

On Fading Frontier, Deerhunter focus on their ability as a band to hypnotize and confound, which make the explosive moments here stand out that much more.

While A Billion Little Lights as a whole is not as elegantly cohesive as Wild Pink's past work, the starry-eyed melodies shine stronger and more confidently than ever.