The album evokes a powerful sense of longing: a yearning for the connection, understanding, and beauty found in fleeting moments. In the hiss and fuzz of splintered memories and reveries, Powers draws us into a past that lingers, soft and near, just within reach.

Equal parts pensive and dreamy, minimal yet expansive, Phonetics On and On is the unapologetic sound of confident experimenting, the product of three musicians years ahead of their respective ages. Horsegirl rule, and so does this record. Put it on and on (and on and on and on).

On Cowards, Squid reveal themselves as possibly the most forward-thinking and artistic band of the new post-punk explosion. It's not an easy ride, but few of the best things are.

The resultant album is cohesive, but slightly tiring; bogged down in ballad after ballad, all draped with the Weeknd's pretty but repetitive vibrato falsetto.

Think of Mist feels airy and accessible, even as Paas quietly presents herself as one of our most slyly provocative musical theorists working today.

Taken on its own, in an era where most artists make albums a third of its length, the EP feels like a daunting endurance test. But the deeper you dig into Perverts and Ethel Cain's world, the more rewarding the experience.

This album — through its stirring, stripped-back guitar music and syllabus of cultural touchpoints — limns a path to that solace, and locates it alongside the toil and trouble that underlies rock 'n' roll's still-unfolding history.

In a discography as impressive as Lamar's, GNX stands as a major highlight, sitting comfortably in the upper echelon of a rarefied body of work.

While still an immensely enjoyable record, coming from someone who never shied away from mixing it up, it's hard not to walk away from the last song thinking, "Has Tillman lost his nerve?"

Night Palace is an atmospheric, ambitious album by one of modern music's most open songwriters. Its length will certainly be a detriment for some, but those who allow themselves to be absorbed by the bubbling, crashing sounds contained therein will be rewarded with another beautiful, endlessly re-listenable collection of songs and sounds from Mount Eerie.

Seed of a Seed gives fans the stunning folk vocals and intricate guitar work they've come to expect from Haley Heynderickx while gently defying conventions set in I Need to Start a Garden. It's an album best enjoyed outdoors with a seasonably appropriate drink and box of tissues nearby.

While it's missing some of the frantic, desperate immediacy of God's Country, Cool World sees Chat Pile exploring their sound and aggressively antagonizing the world around them.

While his style here isn't too far removed from the melodic pop leanings of 2019's IGOR and the mixtape homage of 2021's CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, he's continuing to expand his ambitions. There's theatrical Zamrock on "Noid," surprising sentimental softness on the polyamorous "Darling, I" and "Judge Judy," and a towering crescendo in the form of "Balloon" and "I Hope You Find Your Way Home," which end the album with celebratory grandeur.

At its best, the album delivers contemporary counterparts to feminist folk classics, but the good moments are often rushed through for seemingly no purpose.

There's a mature artistry wide awake beneath the concept. A thorough attention to detail and an obvious reverence for its anachronistic references pay off, conjuring an atmosphere that's as eerie as it is familiar.

Similarly to Manic, The Great Impersonator shines most when Halsey is unapologetically themselves.

Guided Tour is not a bad record, but it's not a particularly memorable one. It features some excellent work by a powerful band ("Mind's a Lie" is possibly the best thing they've ever committed to record), while also forcing the listener to sit through some truly bland, unoriginal filler.

Pomegranate is sharp and vibrant, like a pulled pin it explodes lofty ideas and ideals, dreams sold to us by mainstream culture and reigning ideologies, and offers the everyday as something worth celebrating.

A pleasant float into the blue of Allison's mind. It's a safe and comfortable journey, but you might find yourself dreaming of bigger adventures.

The first half of the album is presented with the clean and stripped down grain of early Karate songs, but the feel is less their trademark over-caffeinated tension and more suburban dad that used to be in punk bands jamming to Thin Lizzy songs with his buddies in the car port. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not very remarkable either.

At times Clouds risks being dragged down by its bleak outlook, but ultimately it's a moving portrait of a band on the brink of its own breakthrough.

The songs don't hit quite as hard or as immediately as that high watermark [Celebration Rock]. But there's also nothing to suggest that Japandroids couldn't have carried on, dropping albums when they had material, touring when it suited their schedules.

PRUDE's half-hour-ish run time packs plenty of punch, mixing old and new strengths well, exemplifying why Drug Church have so much staying power.

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.

Spiral in a Straight Line is an album that represents the logical next step for a band who have honed in on what works — not reinventing the wheel but finding subtle ways to improve on what Touché Amoré is and what they can be.

The record's weakest moments often come when Amstutz flexes her pipes. .... Still, the record has enough shimmer and verve to keep it afloat. Amstutz has made a chart-friendly pop record that never loses sight of what made its central character so compelling in the first place.

Snaith's work is meaningful, and it pushes music forward in a way that's genuinely exciting.

The songs on Cutouts feel jammy and jazzy, and while the trio are of course experts at their craft, the instrumentation tends to meander.