Teaspoon To The Ocean's all-encompassing aura takes you through Craig's master class of dream exploration fairly quickly, but even in the midst of all the trippy goodness, his thoughtful testaments manage to shine through track to track, giving poignant, detailed expression to the anxiety that plagues his deepest thoughts.

The problem is that Earle's melancholy has taken primacy over his songwriting, which is uncharacteristically generic here, making this subdued and plodding release a career low.

During those carefree, unfussy peaks, Silk Rhodes sounds less like a retread and more like soul's next step forward.

Though the album lacks a unifying aesthetic, and a couple of pieces have a slight "interlude" quality, the strongest elements highlight Lipstate's unwillingness to place definitions or limitations on her music.

The narrative isn't particularly groundbreaking; it tells the story of escaping a bad relationship, falling in love with someone else and then torpedoing it with his libido. Ne-Yo's MJ-indebted falsetto does deliver some highlights on the album.

Vulnicura is a well-crafted antithesis musically and thematically, resulting in the most compelling effort she has put forth in years.

This is yet another great Punch Brothers album.

Man it Feels like Space Again stands apart both from their influences and from that other Perth group. That it also happens to be their best album is just a bonus.

Pratt's succinct lines can spill out so naturally and conversationally it's hard to believe someone wrote them, except that she messes with the syntax a little, too.

Natalie Prass is a beautiful record that does best when it prods the sweet ache of failed romance.

For now, the band seem content to maintain the status quo and refine the elements that made them so appealing in the first place.

The Planet works more than well enough as its own insular world, and is hopefully but a taste of more to come.

Their traditional characteristics and intellectual concepts, incorporated with new elements and ideas, make Apex Predator - Easy Meat another impressive addition to Napalm Death's spotless catalogue.

Although not as strong as Visiter, Individ comes off as a spiritual partner to their 2008 breakthrough, showing the duo working quite well in comfortable surroundings.

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

While the Go-Betweens may not be as well known to music fans as the Cure, R.E.M. or the Smiths, this lovingly curated box makes a convincing case that they are more than deserving of being on any list of the greatest rock bands of the 1980s or any other decade.

Fall Out Boy have honed in on an arena-rattling brand of pop that is different for sure, but likeable nonetheless.

Whether that is especially important to Calder is another thing entirely, but regardless, Strange Dreams is an enviable platform for any musician to vault from.

With each song finely crafted and composed, Nervous is an exploration of sonic tension that ultimately wrings beauty from an undesirable situation.

Despite a few kinks and unnecessary tracks, B4.Da.$$ is a great album that revisits classic '90s boom-bap signifiers: the production, the delivery and cadences.

It's these frenzied, sharp-turn transitions are what make this band feel so vital, so alive and so different.

There's not enough space here to get into why Sleater-Kinney may be one of the most important bands of 2015, but one thing is clear: they've already delivered a serious contender for one of the year's best records.

The Pale Emperor is downright ambitious when it wants to be and lazy when it can get away with it.

Though it's far from perfect--the Balkan folk-inspired "The Everlasting Muse" and lounge-y "Perfect Couples" weigh the back half down just a little--Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance is a statement record that Belle and Sebastian are still expert songwriters, with more than a few musical cards left to play.

This is Snapchat-raised turn-up music, trendy and self-actualizing through its references to memes that come quick as they go.

Uptown Special is unapologetic in revelling in its musical influences and ultimately represents a light and mainstream-friendly primer to funk and soul.

On Nights in the Dark, California X are comfortable in their own skin and playing at the peak of their powers, but the album would have fared best as a pared down EP nonetheless.

With Reality Show, Sullivan delivers an R&B album that feels like how R&B used to sound circa late 90's/early 2000 while still coming off as forward-looking.