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.

As their name suggests, they have all the control over the music, and how they channel that is through wonderful anarchy.

Around the World and Back is far from the final destination for these champions of New York pop punk/rock, but it's a definite step forward on their journey to take the world, and their genre, by storm.

Where the original Something About April was a show a prove lesson in sample creation, part II is a dirt-off-the-shoulder proclamation of songcraft.

While the album is a drone-based record, Mountains never stagnate, unafraid of abrasive movement, and their sometimes intense palette never feels out of place or unpleasant.

She stated that the album's title refers to the laurel bushes that grow in the Southern Appalachians in the US, where they're just as beautiful as they are isolated. She shows us these qualities of beauty and isolation are often two sides of the same coin, and can be married to uncover the intricate corners of a person's full truth.

McBryde stretches musically and melodically to incorporate country, pop and alternative rock sounds, while her lyrics are brazen, badass and unexpectedly beautiful.

"Not Running" and the aforementioned "Little Death" have especially great arrangements, but it's a highlight throughout Future Me Hates Me, and anyone who loves British indie punks Martha for this reason should be laser-focused on this debut from the Beths. Future you will definitely not hate this album.

On The Narrows, Phillips hasn't so much reinvented his craft, he just reinvented his perspective.

Though it's not quite perfect--some songs wear out their welcome before they finish--this album is written and arranged in a sonically and lyrically engaging way, and will surely excite the faithful, even if it fails to convert fence-sitters.

The music — a mix of digital sound with electric and acoustic guitars and live (or at least live sounding) drums — complements their newfound humanist approach to songwriting. 2022's Glitch Princess shattered pop music into a million little pieces. Here Ćmiel has glued things back together, but the cracks are still visible in the way they pair genre tropes.

On What's Your Sign?, Oneida and Rhys Chatham show that sometimes the most obvious collaborations are the ones that end up surprising you the most.

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.

Meshuggah haven't returned to impress anyone but themselves. This is the music they like playing. It just happens to sound unlike anything else in metal. After 30-plus years in the game, Meshuggah have neither quelled their thirst for tectonic frenzy nor dried their well of dexterous musicality.

Bird's Eye is tinged with her signature futuristic nostalgia, but her sonic and personal growth is clear, creating a vibrant kaleidoscope of sound and feeling.

Hopelessness is her first album under her new name, and with that comes a new clarity and purpose to her songwriting, an ownership and authority over her artistic voice that we've not yet seen before.

How Ill Thy World Is Ordered is a thoughtfully orchestrated masterpiece that reveals something neat and new the longer you stare at it. Lyrically, musically, and critically, Daniel Romano is a soothsaying sorcerer operating in plain sight.

She's tough and confrontational, and on her 11th studio album, Down Where The Spirit Meets the Bone, that toughness initially comes across as even more deeply entrenched. It takes a little while to discover the tenderness that goes along with it.

It may be a bit platitudinous, but Temple's delicate voice and songwriting make it an enjoyable listening experience.

At the end of the day Tony Molina is just a guy who loves making music, and this is clear in every second of the layered, hard-hitting Songs from San Mateo County.

They aren't reinventing the wheel at this point in their career, but as young artists with explosive, disillusioned and wrathful emotions for the world and social conventions around them, there isn't a rock band more suited to the times.

Dying field or not, the Beths' third LP is a reaffirmation that the band are ready and willing to go down with the ship.

High On Fire have been on a hot streak with their records in recent years, but their latest is far and above the strongest release they've put out to date. Their blend of thrash, tribal-sounding sludge and doom metal has fully flourished, but to see the band still stepping up their game this far into their career is a testament to the lasting legacy they've left in their wake.

A Written Testimony is a solid effort that makes good on promises set by Electronica's earlier work: thumping, vintage beats; dense rhymes that shimmer with vivid imagery; clever references to the Nation of Islam.

With such a wealth of exposure in his musical upbringing, it's no surprise that this mix boasts the instrumental range that it does, not to mention such a precise and intuitively executed pace.

Amid soulful, R&B-indebted sounds married smoothly to the more country-leaning, Atkins has created her best and most resounding work yet.

Many of us are still absorbing last year's mighty Providence LP, along with the accompanying remix EPs, but Sunder adds even more water to the sponge, serving as yet another reminder that Fake never fails to amaze--even when he's recording on the fly.

While it lacks the political punch of 2015 album Ba Power, Miri stands on its own as a call for peace, mindfulness and reflection.