Though things work best when Pierce allows enough space amidst the music for the actual songs to flourish, even the jostling of the overcrowded bits is wonderful and energetic.

It's in these moments--when he's paying attention to melody and songwriting--that Kiss Land demonstrates plenty of promise and tentative steps in the right direction.

There isn't one sound out of place and absolutely no fat; it's just that you can't help wondering whether a weekend away from Berlin drinking mushroom tea with James Holden might help to take it to the next level.

Presented as a new studio album, it only manages to recapture the band's spirit, rather than its soul.

For all these hits, there are more than a few tracks that slide by without making an impression. While Lauber's work often transcends the sum of its competent if unremarkable parts, things can sound a bit rote and unimaginative when they don't.

Forever is essentially a pop record, but while there's no denying that some of these songs in isolation fulfill the catchy promise of that genre, there's just not enough to elevate this above being a decent debut and not much else.

The songs are short and punchy, and nod to the anything-goes attitude that pervaded the jams sessions from which they were born.

While it's surprisingly early in Alt-J's careers to release what is essentially their version of an acoustic album, Relaxer provides a necessary change-up that keeps the band's iconic sound from becoming a caricature of itself.

Over the three-song run of "Alfred's Theme" (which jacks Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette," best known as the theme music to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, to delirious effect), "Tone Deaf," and "Book of Rhymes" (which climaxes with a flurry of DJ Premier scratches), Slim Shady stuffs more rewind-worthy punchlines and flow variations than most rappers will deliver in a whole career. ... Other attempts feel more forced. ... More compelling are the two tracks produced by D.A. Got That Dope.

Unfortunately, Drink More Water 6--the latest iteration of a mixtape series started in 2012--shows little evolution in Makonnen's style, and hints that he may have exhausted the esoteric sound that he pioneered.

Numbers like "Springs" and "NoWayBack," featuring the "good witch/wicked witch" vocals of Berlin Germany's Butterclock, may show that oOoOO is willing to move forward with his music, just not at the destroy-and-rebuild pace that the average ADD-afflicted hipster has grown to crave.

Emerald Forest and the Blackbird is far and away Swallow the Sun's most theatrical release.

Elements of jazz, ragtime, blues, Hawaiian and folk are audible, but there's a consistent sonic thread throughout.

Hearing these two famously unrestricted musicians distil their maximalist instrument vernaculars to primal fits of abstract brutality makes Full Bleed is a fascinatingly insightful record.

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.

A.I.M. may not be concise, but it's focused and purposeful, a loose collection characterized by sticky-hot swagger, political awareness and, most importantly, urgency.

Because the Internet is a vast improvement over his debut effort, showcasing an artist who has confidently found a way to coalesce his love for music and films into one hybrid effort.

Scott's hedonistic lyrics about sex and drugs remain awfully vapid for what's been billed as a trap masterpiece (the utterly banal "SDP Interlude" takes the cake). ... Scott's strength, of course, continues to lie in his ear for beats, with part of his appeal being his ability to make songs with less than rewarding subject matter still sound cool.

For an indie record, the sound of We Loved Her Dearly works nicely, but Lowell's ambitions--and her songwriting chops--are at another level, and better production would make them more emphatic.

At times, the album sounds a maybe little too polished, but the energy and stereo movement in songs like "Do We All Feel It" and "Disco Night Driver" sound like they would translate better live than in studio, anyway.

The End of That has more outstanding moments than La La Land, but whether those highlights are enough to neutralize Plants and Animals' weakness for occasionally derivative kitsch depends on how much their fans are willing to overlook.

That's Why God Made the Radio is the dad-rock album of the year.

While it can be hard not to yearn for more massive and cathartic songs like "Reflection," Light We Made is still a quality effort, even if it's an adjustment.

If U2 was ever cool or exciting, that spark has been absent for a good 20 years, and with Songs of Innocence, they've never sounded so ordinary or cloying.

There's a subtle audaciousness to My God is Blue that pulls the listener in; it's almost like Sébastien Tellier is channelling a gloomy saviour.

Stephens fronts the group with aplomb, with her Joni Mitchell-esque vocals floating through the album's 11 tracks like smoke from a campfire.

Diver completes Lemonade's transformation from jerky, banger makers into wistful, all-encompassing pop sophisticates. That it was done so flawlessly makes it such a triumph on their part.

As with earlier releases, This River is a seamless mix of Southern soul, rock, funk and blues.