Like Maus's best work, Screen Memories converses primarily through its musical and instrumental affect. These songs are so clearly laboured over and full of detail that their impact as a whole, coupled with bizarre and often-obfuscated lyrics, can easily wash over a first-time listener. Spend some time immersed in their depths, though, and watch as they unravel and fill in Maus's immaculate vocal sketches.

Bizarrely infectious and never dull, this album of anarchistic yet spiritually reverent psychedelic experimental ragas is well worth checking out.

It's not only her best work, but the best amongst her peers, the sort of album that transcends the lane she was in beforehand, transcends whatever antiquated gender biases may still permeate the genre and puts her in the same category as your favourite rapper (who's now clamouring for a Rapsody feature).

Baker is careful not to glorify life's darkest moments, and certainly doesn't on Turn Out the Lights. Rather, her candid portrayal of pain is a rare and beautiful gift.

Weezer have had their share of ups and downs over the years, but Pacific Daydream finds them at their most clunky yet.

Uptempo or down, Shane's performances were maximum R&B before the term was coined.

Mirror Reaper is certainly an outstanding accomplishment in the Bell Witch catalogue. It may be their most emotionally stirring and musically ambitious record to date.

Longtime fans of Gwar will surely find a track here and there that's worthwhile, but in general, they would be better off returning to their back catalogue.

Backwater is a mature, rich effort that's likely to see Kllo continue on their ascent.

Mnestic Pressure feels like a synthesis of electronic music's best bits woven together in an intricate pattern, expertly, as very few producers can.

With ken, he has once again delivered an excellent record that offers both sonic surprises and familiar idiosyncrasies.

Lucinda Williams is an artist with the confidence to say what needs to be said, and the power to back it up. On This Sweet Old World, she might be repeating the words, but she's hardly repeating herself.

All American Made is provocative, charismatic and endearing, proving what many of country's all-time greats already seem to know: Margo Price is a legend in the making.

It's frankly still a pleasure to hear Lindstrøm masterfully keep everything in check, but there's a distinct lack of the full-throttle joyousness that he's capable of. If it was his intentional choice to temper that instinct, it was sadly misjudged.

The OOZ also practices an astonishingly brilliant economy of sound, allowing only the most needed instrumentation to percolate to the surface, emanating and radiating: nothing is overblown; everything is necessary.

There Is No Love in Fluorescent Light is the sound of a band that know themselves. Stars speak to the truths we grapple with, and the internal nature of our emotional experiences. It's a gift to hear this realized.

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.

Clark promised us "sex and drugs and sadness" on MASSEDUCTION, and while that sounds like a recipe for clichéd disaster, she kept her word and managed to fashion a totally refreshing take in the process.

Lotta Sea Lice feels like two old friends getting together for coffee.

Less is more with Lilies--De Biasio goes big with a subdued sound, and the end result is luminous

John Lee Hooker couldn't have asked for a better centenary.

Colors is a breezy, tightly composed party-starter of a record that doesn't demand much of the listener, but gives back generously.

There is certainly plenty here to explore and enjoy on Carry Fire, but a sparser and more melodic approach next time out would be welcome.

This is a rich and compelling record that deserves and rewards your close attention.

Elaborating on the foundations that have propelled Four Tet through his 20-year career, Hebden allows the sonic palettes from records Pause and Rounds to bleed into textures born from transfigured field recordings and sonic artefacts that epitomize the producer's discography while refining his sonic identity.

These sparse pieces beautifully combine elements of modern ambient production with flute, piano and chilly synths that feel anachronistically medieval in aspects of their harmonic construction. The effect is fascinating, and provides an evocative backdrop for Deradoorian's self-reflective poetic philosophical musings.

As convincing as Liam Gallagher is when he audaciously boasts that he's "got the Midas touch" early on in the album, As You Were doesn't ever quite turn to gold.

On Wide Open, Weaves prove that they can flirt with convention without losing their edge.