The only downside to the album's stripped down sound is that while it makes for a solid play from start to finish, there isn't much differentiation, making it easy to forget which track is which amongst the dozen offerings.

Seven albums in, Stars may not have very much left in the way of surprises, but the subtle pleasures of these songs offer considerable rewards to those of us who have stuck with them.

On Faithfull's latest album, Give My Love to London, the collaborations work best when they contrast with Faithfull's signature weathered chanteuse persona, giving a new background for her unmistakable voice.

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

There are great tracks on Green Language, but a lack of consistency stops it from being a great album.

Born 50 years ago, he would have been the toast of the avant-garde community; his musical experiments are a rarity in this ADHD world of MP3s and free downloads.

Tinashe's Joyride is a stop-start journey that doesn't quite stall out, but does feel like some ground has been lost. It does move, however, and it will be interesting to see where things go from here.

Tooth & Nail is mellow, but not un-edgy.

Pax Americana has covered a fair amount of stylistic ground, and while a couple of tracks may prompt a meaningful glance at their runtimes, this is a strong and varied album overall.

Ratchet is an exciting first look at an artist in development.

Even in its weighty moments, the simple melodies, infectious hooks and liberal dashes of humour will keep your spirits up from start to finish. Good For You is a satisfying, well-rounded effort.

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.

If there's anything to be said about THE UNRAVELING, it's that PUP have remained true to themselves.

On their sophomore effort, Good Living Is Coming for You, Mondal and Schnug are again looking ahead, but this time around, the scenery feels more sinister and the ambient sense of dread is sharper. Thankfully though, the result is no less dynamic than its predecessor.

Although those moments may be too fleeting to call Snowdonia a complete departure for the band, fans can will appreciate the added ambition here, on top of the elements they've come to know and love.

Krivchenia has absconded with sounds traditionally associated with beauty, applied his twisted genius, and the result is A New Found Relaxation.

Future Islands' landscapes of sound are more intricately detailed here than they have been before. Their poetic angst has matured into something more subdued and dripping with acceptance. As Long as You Are feels, in a way, like the band coming home to itself.

Above all, Cynic's New Year sounds incredible; its production quality alone is worth several listens.

Dig beneath all the sneering sarcasm and laissez faire projection, however, and you find a band stuck in strict formation with the subject matter of their songs. For much of its runtime, Dudu, the cheekily titled followup to 2017's Dada, operates as a series of short diatribes.

Though at times a little too cacophonous, the nine-track LP is an impressive collection that remains true to its Afrofuturistic roots.

There's nothing necessarily at fault about borrowing so heavily from the past — these sounds are, after all, classic for a reason and it's true that Starcrawler conjure them expertly and deftly. The most memorable moments of the record, though, are those when Starcrawler distinguish their work from the giants before them, sketching out instead their own growing sense of self.

Jacuzzi Boys is a fine garage rock record that finds the band exploring several welcome new directions.

Through fragmentation, each track finds cohesion, making deconstruction — the silences, gaps, twisted repetitions, abrupt cuts, looped production, harried noise--the story itself.

While this is likely not an album that will float them to the mainstream, it is one to be proud of.

God of the Serengeti should impress fans and may even bring back some of those who miss the Psycho-Social days.

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.

While it's unlikely they'll ever again have the kind of recording budget a major label can afford, they certainly made the best use of what they had. That they made an excellent record in the process is a feather in their cap and a giant middle finger to the label that paid for it.

Whatever this record "is" in terms of its overall sound, it will appeal to a broad audience with its series of radio-friendly medium-tempo stompers and tender ballads. A solid debut effort overall for Townes.