At their best, the Men imbued borrowed styles with urgency and fervor. Drift attempts to conjure the same spirit, but it's too divided and derivative to be vital.

Spring certainly isn't the worst Weezer album (don't worry, Pacific Daydream, that title still belongs to you!), but it's frustrating to hear them sabotaging their own songs in a futile attempt to pin down the sound of a season. So far, SZNZ feels less like a lofty concept and more like silly gimmick.

Dahlia's a talented artist, but though the album aims high, it runs out of steam landing in the realm of just okay.

Strait is doing what most contemporary country artists shy away from, which is successfully bring back the real deal. He is effectively and triumphantly making traditional country music cool again.

Sometimes the way Nash has structured the songs becomes hard to follow, or downright abrasive, as heard in the vocal changes in "California Poppies." Yet there is always a feeling of purpose dictating the clear vision behind "ugly" moments.

Given that the chillwave craze only lasted a year or two, this is another solid outing from an artist who has turned a flash-in-the-pan trend into a deep discography.

While fans of the show will certainly get extra layers of inference out of Dethalbum III, the most amazing thing about it is, all on its own, it stands as a hilarious and skilful example of the genre.

While continuing to work in the box they've created for themselves, Yuck come across as far more amorphous than many first thought while still making an album that delivers on the promise of their shambolic debut.

While Bell boasted that The Industrialist is "Demanufacture-plus," it's not quite. However, at certain times, it does come pretty close.

The songs on Empire are still short, and while they retain the sunny aesthetic of Explore, they reveal a more motivated and confident Park.

The words only hint at the true meaning of the piece; it is an experience that needs to play out in a linear fashion, felt and absorbed through multiple senses.

It's a disorienting, manic, ambitious psychedelic statement filled with constant twists and turns, and this is both its biggest strength and most notable weakness.

Throughout the record, Marley demonstrates that reggae can grow and adapt without losing sight of its roots.

Despite her great pipes however, the band's arrangements make much of Born of the Sun feel like amateur hour at Medieval Times. A talented producer would be able to focus on McCarthy's strong voice and balance some of the band's more freewheeling tendencies.

There's a thin line between owning up to the voracious hunger needed to reach a new level of fulfillment and being trapped by the desperation to regain a title that is no longer his. Ludaversal finds itself somewhere in between.

Wiesenfeld's hazy side project is nice, but it would fare better if he punched it up slightly-- for active listening

On Pentagram, Gui Boratto seems uninspired, but worse, unsure of what made his music so inventive in the first place.

Mark Kozelek Sings Favorites comes off as if it was created to serve Kozelek more than to stimulate the listener, making the no-frills, stripped-down set easy to fall for to but tough to return to.

Rubberband has been executed with genuine respect for the artist. There's enough greatness here to justify the effort. Even if we hope this doesn't launch a new kind of re-bop craze, it's still great to press play on another Miles Davis album.

Aforementioned moments of experimentation show a continued development of Future's "Hendrix" alter ego, but there's something to be said for getting to know him over a longer runtime.

It's executed incredibly well for what it is, but what we're left with is ugly, soulless and emotionally bankrupt.

Beneath the Skin is too humdrum to garner any new acolytes.

While the album is far from his best work (the disjointed opening track is a strong first clue), it still merits a listen.

Lovers Rock reflects the Dears' identity as a band, illustrating their development, both lyrically and musically, by intertwining a sense of being down in the dumps with intricate, euphonious melodies.

Beaus$Eros yields some positive results while laying the foundation for some interesting future projects.

This one is cohesive and feels like a band affair, feels like an album, feels like it has the chemistry Velvet Revolver frustratingly didn't quite have but a certain other band had once upon a time when Slash was in that crew.

Living Fields is rich in its intimacy, enrobed in an ambiance that feels like a continuous pull towards a soundscape designed for dreams.

Though the fanfare surrounding the band may have dwindled slightly, the heartfelt emotion they deliver has not.