The fact that the album kinda sounds like so many things, very few of them usually adjacent to the genre, sits at the crux of the album's aspiration. Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is a critical reminder to card-carrying loyalists and new inductees alike of their own agency; that it's potentially revelatory, not sacrilegious, for the spectrum of black metal to include things outside of its purview.

With the release of their 16th album, All That Reckoning, the Toronto group craft something simple, passionate and visceral.

Not an album you'd crank up at a summer patio party, but a quietly compelling work.

There is a sprawling synthesis in the groove-tinted, riff-centric jams that will have you waiting to see these guys live.

Such concerns about the pitfalls of contemporary life are well-worn and Uniform Distortion largely retreads these coordinates. The excitement of this music, nonetheless, is its undeniable kinetic energy, as James laughs through his lyrics and bounds over his riffs.

Fans of Wolfmother and Pallbearer might see this as the second coming of Sabbath, if they liked more At the Gates. But those who are looking for a bit more fuzz won't find it. Melodies, not distortion, drive this album.

Themes for Television works as the perfect translational piece between Windswept and the much lighter, more traditionally ambient followup Digital Rain, despite actually arriving in the wake of the latter.

Cohesive and well structured, Freddie is a clear standout for the season and quite possibly, the year. And Gibbs didn't have to rent out the Louvre to do it.

Hardly Electronic is a mature and polished album from a band confident enough to let their influences guide their sound without overshadowing it. Longtime fans will obviously snap this up, but anyone with an interest in classically-minded pop arrangements and great songs will find much to like on this unexpected gem from the Essex Green.

All in all, The Now Now feels fresh and present. Gorillaz have performed a type of sonic reset by stripping back their cast of collaborators, yet it exemplifies the strength of the songwriting at the group's core.

Drake aims to come out stronger, more focused and more righteous than ever. ... He goes hard at addressing his industry ops on Side A, and it's full of the effortlessly cut-throat Drake we've come to love. ... Drake gets all the way into his feelings on the second half of Scorpion.

It's a heartening LP, both because of the top-notch, life-affirming beats throughout, along with the renewed vigour in the voice of a man who clearly takes nothing for granted now that he's on the mend.

High As Hope is a welcome chapter in Florence + the Machine's career. Welch is writing reflectively but with a firm rooting in the present; singing with clarity about life's biggest questions as she and her fans continue to figure it out side-by-side, in both the loud and quiet moments.

K.T.S.E. is a strong start with an anticlimactic finish. With a bit of additional time and effort, it could have been so much more.

Essential is a strange, adventurous and ultimately enjoyable collection of half-finished, fully realized songs that could only have been crafted by artists as musically brazen and tenured as Soulwax.

Satisfying as both a sophomore effort and streamlined pop album, I'm All Ears establishes Let's Eat Grandma as a band that need to be heard.

Chaney moves with ease from nearly operatic to contemporary and casual and sounds equally at home.

If not the most focused entry in the project's storied discography, it's a delightfully wide angled glance at what the Orb still have brewing and perhaps a projection of a vital new period of experimentation.

They're still channelling the same types of youthful emotions that drove their best work, just with the experience and conviction to mould them into more compelling shapes.

Although its brighter moments ("Adam and Eve," "Cops Shot the Kid") save it from being a complete fall from grace, overall Nasir is disappointingly heedless. Hopefully his next effort is more honest.

All the elements that have made for their most enjoyable material are still here, and the band shows they are just as capable as they have always been on captivating listeners.

Plenty of tracks here end abruptly, which likely works well for their use in the film itself, and maybe less so in an independent listen. But even removed from visual and narrative components of Hereditary, Stetson's compositions still manage to conjure a deeply unsettling, unrelentingly tense mood.

Throughout simply titled/simply written tracks like "Lullaby" and "Journey," Washington has astonishingly revealed another element to his budding songcraft.

This is the kind of music that, in 20 years, we may look back on as a pivotal point in changing the trajectory of the pop music sound.

Nothing is off limits, and their chemistry on wax continues to be just as powerful as it is in real life. It's not only a top-to-bottom banger, but it's also relationship goals.

Please Don't Be Dead is virtually airtight in terms of musicality and intent. Fantastic Negrito continues to live to his "black roots" moniker--a weary, weathered soul survivor raging against the coming storm.

Music this nakedly derivative requires sharp pop instincts to be successful, and tracks like these prove that Chromeo are still able to create magic within their well-worn source material, even if they are retreading old ground.

[Kelley Deal] sings on two of the new EP's songs, and that all-too-fleeting taste will leave you immediately hankering for more.