On COW / Chill Out, World!, the Orb's easily digestible and absorbent songs make it simple for the listener to take the album's titular advice.

It's hard to find a flaw on this album, quite frankly. It's personal, political, funny and the production is spectacular.

First Ditch Effort doesn't match NOFX's '90s peak, but it rights the ship somewhat, and goes a long way to re-establishing the group as worthy and relevant elder statesmen.

Whether Sport is really for digital punks or leather-clad clubbers remains to be seen, but regardless of audience, this is one of the most interesting records to come out this year.

Ruminations isn't exactly a stunner--it's too low-key for that--but as a humble mood-piece, it's an engrossing listen. Its best moments are also its darkest ones.

The band's evolution on The Violent Sleep… keeps them one step ahead of all those who have been trying to catch up, making Meshuggah as powerful and proficient on the cusp of three decades of existence as they always have been.

The Lemon Twigs almost always use the kitchen sink approach on Do Hollywood, and it's pretty effective, too--there's nary a dull moment.

If this truly is the end for Dillinger Escape Plan, they've ended things by throwing down the gauntlet with such force that the reverberations will be felt for generations.

Remember Us to Life is one of Spektor's strongest records, and one that really requires repeat listens to appreciate every detail and effort.

Jacklin manages to rouse quite a number of emotions across these 11 tunes, including steady slow-burners, unconventional lyrics paired with bright guitars, hushed, soft singing and grungier moments here and there.

Marginally more "mature" in composition and content than the band's previous records, Transit Blues is another solid release from a band that audibly continue to give their all.

The stadium-minded ensemble strikes a great balance between fearless exploration and casual virtuosity with unabashedly catchy classic rock-isms pulled and bent from across the genre's history.

This string of downtempo songs, while soothing and catchy, will leave fans of Shovels & Rope's more upbeat fare feeling restless. A more balanced reshuffling of the track list would have solved this issue, and might have made this already excellent album a classic. But as is, Little Seeds is a fantastic LP that showcases Shovels & Rope's uncanny ability to both rock out and rest easy.

Sum 41 in 2016 is a lot like their early 2000s pop punk peers Blink-182; they're fun, capable of writing at least a few songs worthy of an inevitably forthcoming "best-of" compilation and at their best when embracing their past.

A collaboration with names such as saxophonist Wayne Shorter, percussionist Brian Blade and bassist John Patitucci sees a the self-professed "jazz dropout" helm a strong project of original material, save for a sweet rendition of Duke Ellington's "Fleurette Africaine" and a bulletproof interpretation of Neil Young's "Don't Be Denied.

Though Armstrong does a decent job of speaking for the freaks and the rebels, Green Day's music is always at its best when he's speaking for himself, and Revolution Radio is no different.

Cody is undoubtedly Joyce Manor's strongest effort to date, the apparent result of meticulous revision that has tightened up their sound on all fronts.

The Chilean producer has released collaborative records, scored films and released a series of incredible 12-inches, Nymphs I through IV. And yet, for all of the sonic breadth of that material, none of it quite prepares listeners for Sirens.

On Big Boat, their rambling new album, veteran producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed) does his best to emphasize the band's considerable knack for genre-bending exercises.

It's by no means new territory for the Swedish outfit, but a move that keeps their further foray into prog rock enjoyable.

They have both found, on their eleventh album (and best since the early 2000s), a renewed purpose and direction in this time of existential crisis for America.

Three's high points come when some of the pop veneer is pulled back to let more raw, real feeling through. Overall, it's a solid record that should draw a wider audience to Phantogram's music.

There is eloquence to this anguish, and it is an awful and lovely thing.

Stewart's reliance on familiar 'intro/build-up/drop' production structures can at times run repetitive, but his own subtle guitar playing, hyperactive synth pads, mallets and bells make the songs anything but predictable.

This sophomore effort builds off her debut, but loses the plot in a mass of electronic blackness and vague grievances.

This mining of the best of days gone by, without falling blindly into nostalgia, makes the Frightnrs' approach a perfect fit for Daptone's retro roster.

There are moments of suffering, self-pity and, eventually, redemption throughout the nine tracks, and although there are some missteps, Luke Winslow-King's I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always is admirable in its undertaking, and definitely worth the listen.

Alcest strive for balance once more here, and for the most part, they achieve it.