Magic closes with the majestic "Dedicated," as a sumptuous beat switch allows Nas to effortlessly change flows. This caps off an immaculate project that finds Nas regaining top form and will surely find its way close to the top of his illustrious discography, which is aging like fine wine.

Its meticulous self-production frames new lyrical pathways from band leader Yannis Philippakis, who seeks to channel the anxieties and fears felt the world over in light of our crumbling political systems and ecological crises. It's a tall order to wade into such essential yet complex themes, ones that Philippakis felt a duty to engage with.

Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 is a fine introduction to John Carpenter the musician for newbies, and a welcome re-visit for longtime fans.

Wilkinson's eighth full-length shows the musician's adeptness at thoughtful, patient compositions, but he seems to have forgotten the value of self-editing.

Ordinary Man isn't necessarily the best Ozzy album ever made, but if this does mark the end of his recording career, he's ended with a bang instead of a thud. The record is easily the most captivating music he's made on a solo record since the early '90s, and despite small flaws with select songs, he's created another record worthy of people's attention.

Although Versus is certainly not a place for casual Craig fans to start, nor is it designed for the dance floor crowd, it's an achievement that appropriately showcases one of Detroit's finest exports.

While it isn't a huge departure from Soccer Mommy's early work, Allison is promptly hitting her stride and clearly gaining confidence and showing it with strands of snarkiness and angst mixed within her delicate, vulnerable songs.

Unrefined and uninhibited, Fungus II is a visceral journey through layers of chaos that refuse to be subdued. Wasted Shirt's first record makes it clear that the two have teamed up to indulge their impulses and then blow them up.

From its weighty subject matter to its incredibly nuanced production, The Colour in Anything is not only Blake at his best, but also his most personal. Blake's expanded his both his heart and his process here, making music with others outside of his laptop to demonstrate the growth that had led to this brilliant, fulfilling work.

An unexpectedly celebratory affair.

It is a masterful experiment, full of rich details delivered by a sextet of artists who are not only top-flight players but excellent listeners and re-listeners.

Belle and Sebastian aren't making a grand statement here; rather, more than seven years on from their last proper LP (2015's Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance), B&S are honing in on some of their signature styles and making an album that sounds quintessentially like themselves.

Though it may seem as though she's yet to fully embrace her uniqueness in mainstream spaces, there are plenty of moments on Sucker Punch that suggest Sigrid is on her way.

In Another Life is a glorious return for Perri, an album that sits just outside of pop music. Any minor idiosyncrasies are downplayed by just how gorgeous and listenable these songs truly are.

In shearing off that thorniness, Drop Nineteens have returned as a highly competent, often lovely, and perhaps less interesting version of themselves.

The thematic focus on the therapeutic powers of the natural world, and the protective presence of familial and spiritual energies, make The Land, the Water, the Sky feel just as suited to playing from the peak of a mountain as from the crackling speaker of a bar or bookstore.

They're firing on all cylinders on Whiteout Conditions, working as one to deliver their most cohesive--and one of their best--albums to date.

The album is perfectly suited for restless observation. It's like watching a sped-up time lapse of the tides, or nature evolving rapidly before our very eyes.

On paper, World Record is a middle-of-the-pack Neil Young & Crazy Horse album, but it's filled with so much personality and passion that it begs to be remembered as one of his most soul-bearing.

As a listening experience, it's a dense one, but never weighty.

As an album wanders, more opportunities arise for a wrong turn. Omnion veers to a fault.

Certain synth melodies might be a tad too sugary for some, but they bolster the top-notch songwriting on Going Grey, and Sella's unique and unpredictable vocal phrasing keeps the proceedings distinctly Front Bottoms from start to finish.

The record has big, cosmic questions about time and space and possibility swirling 'round its bejewelled head, but it's at its best when putting these concepts under a microscope.

Though Edge of the Sun is a very good record by any measure, there is something about it all that feels frustratingly routine.

Raspberry Bulbs paint a seductively dystopian image through Before the Age of Mirrors, but its aesthetic cannot fully carry the weight of its musical shortcomings. There is both too much runtime and too little substance here.

That image of her — other people's perceptions — have always haunted her work, but near the end of Bloodless, on "Proof," Samia takes control of the narrative. As she confronts being loved "like a child's toy or cigarette" atop the descent of a warm yet aloof finger-plucked acoustic guitar line, she's at her most powerfully direct and poetically impact.

While many albums start out catchy and then become more introspective, Haunted Painting loses some of its moroseness to become more pop-ish.

[The] 14 tracks feel bloated--less so, though, if one treats Honeymoon as a concept album, a 66-minute Quaalude-and-wine dream musical that spans the history of Hollywood and 20th Century cinema.