As with all great musicians, Wagner embodies each track on TRIP the way he would any other album, and in the end provides another strong entry in Lambchop’s ever-growing discography.

The first half of the record, complete with some of the catchiest work he’s made so far, also stands in stark contrast to the warmer vulnerability on side two.

Whether or not you grew up with gospel music, you’ll find that this collection of songs is both warm and heartfelt. And if you did grow up with gospel music, this album gives you plenty of opportunities to sing along.

“Even the Sparrow,” however, leans more directly into gospel, with the unison lines of the sax and electric violin creating blissful harmonics. Yes, even this one explodes into shrill, combustible sequences as it evolves. These ten pieces are a preamble of sorts to the explosive closer, “Fear Not.” ... Yet the six sound seekers find an anthemic melody, after a beginning of restless chaos, reaching a surprisingly peaceful resolution.

Capricorn by Eddie 9V is proof that his aptitude for soul music is just as strong as his aptitude for the blues. He shows that he can sing the slow smooth songs just as well as he can shout with the best of them. Be ready to do some dancing when you hear this one. Also, be ready to feel better at the end than you did at the beginning of this mood-boosting album.

Edwards’ vocals are vibrantly strong, framed beautifully by the accompaniment, whether driving hard or in a more sensitive mode.

A judiciously edited forty-some minutes of music that sounds every bit the essence of what the band’s titular leader wanted to say and how he wanted it to sound.

Clearly, the group put time and effort into production (the dance/electro “Flutter Freer” and vibrating “Andy Helping Andy” both sound alive) but made an artistic choice to neuter their more rock efforts. Had the instrumentals been more invigorating this may have been an interesting choice, but as People Helping People wraps, the feeling of No Age just going through the disenchanted motions sets in.

While lyrically Bridwell is struggling during these tough times, musically he has rebounded and that combo works; Things Are Great proves Band of Horses has a lot left in the tank.

Bunny deserves credit, like each Beach Fossils album, for challenging an aspect of Payseur’s process, even if it was less effective this time around.

Somebody’s Knocking could be a lost 1980s New Wave album. A really good one. ... What’s impressive about the album is that while the mode of delivery is electronic, there’s a live heartbeat beneath all of the songs that consistently reveals Lanegan’s humanity.

In My Dreams proves that subtlety, judicious use of space, and generous, trusted sharing can deliver a quietly gorgeous soundscape. Frisell harnesses all his trademark attributes into one, evocative declarative statement.

Path of Wellness lacks the punch of the groups’ highest points and the more restrained searching style leaves a few of the tracks lacking, but Sleater-Kinney is open to trying anything at this point in their excellent career and continue to craft intriguing songs.

Jump For Joy finds the clouds parting and Taylor and his band finally reveling in the possibility of happier times. The uncertainty is still there, but this time tinged with optimism.

Another complex, solid effort from the Drive-By Truckers, one of the great American bands, who are happy to keep on writing songs about trains and people who died on Welcome 2 Club XIII.

Face Down in the Garden is a fitting goodbye that highlights everything the band does well. The intricate guitar and keyboard melodies, sing-along choruses, jangly guitar licks, introspective lyrics, pop hooks, and wall-of-sound production are all in full force.

Welfare Jazz is a major progression for a band that has already been blowing minds with a sound unlike anything else out there, not to mention truly brilliant music videos. Their serrated and offbeat approach to rock and roll balances dark humor and unexpected thrills with the kind of dangerous edge that is sadly missing from most music these days. As one of the first album releases of the year, the Viagra Boys have set the bar high.

TANGK is an artsy outing that is polished and honed while refusing to stay complacent and neat, their range as a band now seems limitless as IDLES release the riskiest and most rewarding music of their career.

These songs find her shaping her thoughts on motherhood, romance, the universe, and death into some of the most accessible music of her career, telling the tales of our bodies and what comes after in a mesh of psychedelic funk and earworm hooks.

The verbal, melodic and production understatement (the latter overseen by long-time studio mentor Jeremy Backofen) compels close listening to Undress, not just to comprehend the point(s) the group’s trying to make, but to appreciate the finely-tuned care with which they have offered their observations and asked their questions.

The songs on The Traveler are tight and streamlined, with no particularly lengthy solos and little frenetic fretboard shredding. ... Instead, the focus is on good blues-based rock songs with catchy grooves, sing-along choruses, and memorable lead moments. Shepherd still shows his six-string mastery, especially on “Turn To Stone,” but he does so in much smaller doses.

Michaela Anne has been on a steady rise since her 2014 debut Ease My Mind. Desert Dove will certainly steepen this trajectory. She is deservedly a major emerging voice in country and Americana circles.

Swimmer doesn’t quite reach the peaks of other Tennis albums but is a solid album featuring expertly composed and performed piano pop.

Twenty-five years into it, Jurado can still write compelling, emotionally powerful songs driven by little more than his commanding voice and a stripped down acoustic guitar. But the unevenness of this record makes it a hard entry point for those unfamiliar with his work. Longtime fans of Jurado can still find enough to rally behind this one.

Brijean’s new album Feelings is an exciting lush and layered sophomore effort.

While it would be difficult to ascribe the term ‘organic’ to the original album, the original bears more melodic qualities and the ebbs and flows are musician-driven versus effects-driven. It’s a preference – dancefloor or couch and headphones. It’s not every group that can deliver both experiences and that makes GGP special.

The album has a joyous feel and familiarity even by those who have never heard U-Roy before. Each tune rings vibrantly with highlights being the artist’s earliest hits of “Wake The Town” and the cheeky “Wear You To The Ball.”

Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) is, again, a natural and comparably diverse extension of his ongoing ambition(s). Satisfying as it is as (re)new(ed) Metheny music, this album will also whet the appetites of his aficionados and jazz lovers in general for future installments in the series.

Royce Hall, 1971 is a solo acoustic gig, recorded in January of that year on the UCLA campus, while Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 1971 is a similarly executed performance, with Young on vocals, guitar, piano and harmonica, on the last US show of his solo tour. While these first two may seem redundant in the wake of the aforementioned prior releases, they are also a testament to the consistently high level of Young’s performances.

The story there [on “Birdsong”] and on “Losing You” is almost as absorbing as the depth of sound for No More Worlds to Conquer: the audio quality compels more than a passing thought about how that less than three-minute latter track might go on longer. But Robin Trower repeats himself no more often in his solos than with each successive record of his, so “Waiting For the Rain to Fall” also whets the appetite for more of his rich, thoughtful playing.

It’s quite conceivable Noise & Flowers will convince aficionados as well as more casual listeners of the potency of these musicians as they collaborate in the spontaneity of the moment. In so doing, it may simultaneously join Hitchhiker (recorded in 1976 and released in 2017) as one of the highlights in Neil Young’s ever-expanding discography.

The Sick, The Dying … And The Dead doesn’t have anything as epic as “Holy Wars” or “Hangar 18” or a riff as instantly memorable as “Symphony of Destruction.” But from start to finish, it offers unrelenting intensity and an outlet to channel anger and fears from a world ravaged by a pandemic, war, and economic struggles into shouting and head-banging along with Mustaine’s somewhat-fictional tales of the same. ... All these years later, the band’s music is as relevant as ever.

["Goodnight" is] one of the strongest album closers heard recently and takes the edge off the hard-hitting statements that make up the bulk of this provocative, lay-it-all-out-there effort.

Never shy with their political activism, Plastic Eternity is a battle cry for those who share the band’s beliefs. For those who don’t, it’s still a fun alternative album that channels political fury into a fiery collection of aggressive rock.

We have one of the best in their series, one that sounds like one infectiously grooving continuous track.

Yes, it’s as good as you’d imagine.

To be sure, those moments on Sam’s Place that sound like vintage Little Feat are fleeting. But there’s no denying how this unit’s bond retains an authentic feel for numbers like those of the inimitable blues poet Willie Dixon.

The first release from these Australian friends finds firm footing as GUM / Ambrose Kenny-Smith Ill Times pumps up the jams and rocks the house.

Overall, Andrew Gabbard plays to his vocal and guitar playing strengths, hinting at even more with digital beats and vibrations throughout the enjoyable ride that is Ramble & Rave On!

There’s no denying Robin Trower’s writing and playing with a freshness that bespeaks deliverance on Come And Find Me.

The track ["Stick Around"], like all the others, runs short, getting to the lyrical point without overdoing it. Those lyrics can sometimes feel generic and straightforward; however, Bird’s vocals have taken the next step, as she manages to sound both vitally urgent and more subdued and heartbroken with ease.

Lyrically, it’s not deep — focusing on living life with its ups and downs while finding time to enjoy the in-betweens — but it’s undeniably fun. .... It’s the quieter moments on The Dreamin’ Kind—such as “Stealin’ Time,” “Rickety Ol’ Bridge,” and “Dance On Thru”—that feel slightly out of place here. The album closes with “Engine 99,” a song that best ties together the quieter moments with the new rock-focused tracks.

"I'm People" is honest and so accessible that it seems as if the storytelling MC Taylor is engaging a single listener, both seated in a cozy room.

On the band’s newest release, Open Door Policy, The Hold Steady moves to fully incorporate Finn’s more muted solo offerings, and the result is a disjointed transitional work.

There is no doubt that Little Rope is much more successful than those recent efforts [2019's The Center Won't Hold and 2021's Path of Wellness], but it never fully pushes the artists in new directions or completely recaptures the group's immense past magic. That said, as an outlet for one of the best duos to deal with smothering grief and loss, it is a blessing that it exists at all.

Gold Past Life operates almost on two levels for Fruit Bats, the sheer pleasure of making fun music that draws on the things we’ve treasured from ages past, while consciously rejecting the temptation to live forever in that space. The result is a record that is both easy to leap into, and rewarding to stay in.

Made of Rain manages to be both vaguely nostalgic and groundbreaking at the same time. There are no obvious rewrites of their old songs here, but between Butler’s easily identifiable vocals – vacillating between anger and vulnerability – and the curiously heady mix of hard rock guitars alongside sax, the sound is still clearly built on the classic foundations of the band.

Ferrell’s unique approach and broad sonic palette will have this album garnering plenty of attention. Don’t be surprised to see it land on several year’s end best lists.

True to form, Ordinary Man provides the rock and roll heft Osbourne’s fans crave.

A worthy follow-up to Strangers To Ourselves. Though more controlled than the band has been of late, The Golden Casket still has its share of outlandish moments. From its amalgamation of influences to its raucous rhythms to its bizarre lyrics, there is plenty of Modest Mouse to go around.

Wasted Shirt might not immediately hit the expected highs, but the anything-can-happen jam session feeling hints that the duo has more to offer in the future and Fungus II is just the cap and stem of a larger organism underneath.

A Bit of Previous stands alongside the earlier works as a cohesive full-band effort. This latest effort surely should be counted alongside B&S beloved classics If You’re Feeling Sinister and Tigermilk. It feels good to go home again.

The collective clarity of mind on cuts such as “Monaco” keeps them focused and to the point. And while both the musicianship and the material In songs such as “Last Frontier” sound distinctly of that time in the mid to late Nineties when Ride pioneered what is now described as ‘shoegaze music,” it’s also pertinent to that period when it took courage to leave the home even as it was psychically suffocating to stay inside. No question there is a tangible confidence suffusing Interplay.

Angel Du$t miraculously showcased their maturity while keeping a keen eye on the elements that make them such a unique voice, all while writing incredibly moving songs.

This forty-fifth studio album of Neil Young’s may not rank as one of his greatest, but it may well be the most true-to-life effort he’s ever released.

It is a flood of art at its most naked that won’t relent until you are submersed.

Endless Rooms bristles with a creative spirit, which is clearly displayed in the twinkling folk-rock of “Open Up Your Window” and the building/banging dance-pop of “Blue Eye Lake”. The upbeat finale, “Bounce Off The Bottom”, keeps the tone bright with synths and chimes augmenting the sound of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever who seem to be expanding into a new era as a collective.

The songs here are a perfect continuation of Walking Proof, especially the musically breezy title track with deeper lyrical meaning, summing up the exhaustion and loneliness many felt over the past year.

There is not a single track on the album that doesn’t deserve to be there. Even more so than any of his previous records, Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! is his the most consistently satisfying album yet.

Cone is a crusader for patience and that steadfastness and fastidiousness comes across.

Taylor wrote and recorded the 10 tracks that makeup Terms of Surrender, and ended up with something that feels nothing like anything he’s made before it.

The recording of Somewhere Under The Rainbow (by Pete Long who also contributes an essay on the four-page insert) radiates palpable resolve and despair in almost equal measure, plus an air of genuine catharsis, all this despite the murky audio quality remaining in the wake of mixing and mastering by the artist himself and long-time technical collaborator Niko Bolas.

SKELETÁ is a fascinating concept album with tight melodies and carefully crafted arrangements, enough to satisfy day one Ghost fans, but might fall short of bringing new fans into the band’s ever-growing sonic realm.

The funky hip-hop moments sit beside some truly gorgeous passages, especially Kuroda’s flugelhorn on the Hancock piece.

Count on this unbridled phenom to be with us for a good long time. This is her auspicious beginning.

As the avid completists and longstanding fans decide whether they need the whole of The Later Years 1987-2019 for the sake of the books and peripherals the mammoth compendium contains, more than one music lover who aspires to maintain a grasp of contemporary rock history may find this Pink Floyd title is more than just a sampler album. Its instantly-recognizable cover imagery and the kinetic photo array in the enclosed booklet are more than just cosmetic inclusions, but a reflection of the music inside.

Catspaw ultimately belies its title and instead achieves multiple tangible goals for Matthew Sweet. He’s fulfilled his lifelong ambition to play lead guitar on one of his own records, further distinguished the ongoing expansion of his discography, and, last but not least, reaffirmed the eternal appeal of the noisy musicality in pure rock and roll.

The album is as good, maybe even a little better than Vagabonds, if not musically, certainly lyrically.

The beauty of this creative work is that you’ll hear different sounds almost every time you play it. The melodies are infectious, and the playing is immensely inspired. It’s a risky concept that succeeds brilliantly.

This new one smolders but never truly catches fire. Perhaps as a measure of the emotional disarray in which Young found himself at the time—he sounds almost as distracted at times as on that Seventies LP delayed some forty-five years–he couldn’t really cut loose, even in the comfortable company of Crazy Horse.

Tare achieved something magical on 7s. The collection of music presented on the album changes with every listen, almost like watching a plant grow. The more your surrender yourself to the album’s intensity, the more you find solace in the hecticness.

It is a very groovy record, full of disco and funk beats. It was also brought to life with the help of Sonic Boom, a former member of Spaceman 3, who has also worked with Beach House. Any fan of Moon Duo or psych-rock will not be let down by Stars Are the Light.

72 Seasons is an impressive metal album, not just for a band 11 albums and 41 years into its career, but for anyone. It packs a punch and doesn’t let up on the assault for over an hour of menacing guitars and head-banging rhythms. In the end, that’s what we want from a Metallica album, and that’s what 72 Seasons delivers.

What makes Send A Prayer My Way so compelling is that – song for song – you have two superb singers working together rather than competing over the vocals singing some of the smartest lyrics the genre boasts.

The songs on this album may not end up on rock radio stations, but they would fit right in with a lot of the classic rock that is played incessantly on stations across the country.

Boulevards puts a pep in your step. Keep this one handy for that first spring or summer barbecue but be sure that your guests control themselves. Your gathering could easily get out of hand.

On his fifth studio effort, Brent Cobb has never sounded more relaxed. And the calm, self-assured flow of his vocals is not particularly out of place for this always-on-the-cusp-of-making-it-big Americana artist, but there is a laid back flow to Southern Star that is hard to ignore and nearly impossible not to love.

For all the celebrated figures accompanying him, Ian makes Fiction his show, one that’s as (thankfully) understated as it is penetrating.

Oceanside Countryside may or may not hold broad appeal for anyone other than the most fervent Neil Young aficionados. .... In the end, the inveterate iconoclast’s front cover portrait for Oceanside Countryside accurately reflects the LP’s artful combination of style and effect.

These songs manage to uphold expectations while taking baby steps towards something the duo can call their own. The tracklist comes together like a long DJ set, ensuring bodies are moving all around while painstakingly crafting a consistency that is noticeable from the jump.

While the mood is subdued and even brooding, this is a powerful album where you feel the story in each song.

It’s weird, ambitious and at times straight-up absurd; even as it settles for a vaguely more accessible and hook-heavy sound than previous efforts. It’s also, curiously, a bit of a slow starter, the songs getting well and truly better as it goes on.

He continues to fuse elements of hip-hop, R&B, funk, soul, and rock ‘n roll into his signature style. ... He’s won both of his Grammy for “Best Contemporary Blues Album” but his music is so different from most other entrants that he’s in a sense carving out his own genre.

Silver Tongue is an excellent collection of Scott’s strengths as a producer, performer and songwriter as her sounds run the gamut from modern pulsing anxious odes to open confessional natural pleas, each delivered with grace and ease.

The ten songs are all solid, however, the restrained feeling of the record, especially early on, results in an album more one-note than it should be. EX Hex still rock but urgency is primarily absent, keeping It’s Real from truly ripping.

[“Spinning My Wheels”], and the album as a whole, fit these odd times and the excellent song kicks off an album which slots in well with the band’s varied past offerings as Waterfalls II drifts into and out of psych, folk, late-night disco and jam band spiked arena rock.

Real Estate seamlessly ties in the esoteric with the relatable, landing on a short but powerful LP that simply asks you to question everything without demanding an immediate answer.

Their consistently unpredictable high standards keep the rest of us interested as well, and have turned them into something pretty special.

As you’ve come to expect, the duo writes their usual honest, literate and narrative lyrics, this time perhaps with more intense personal themes. ... Meanwhile, the backing music, often cinematic in scope, can range for gritty and thrashing to ethereal and provocative.

Emotional Eternal is about as restrained as you can imagine Prochet. Sure, the arrangements are still huge and encompassing, like on the swelling “Where the Water Clears the Illusion”, but these efforts are scattershot and often muted by Prochet’s own reluctance towards inhabiting any kind of persona. ... Prochet to her credit, has been able to wiggle into that narrow restriction, a surprising amount of diversity.

Over the course of more than a dozen records, the Old 97’s have experimented a bit and tempered their sound from time to time, but American Primitive is a return to their Clash meets Cash roots.

A bare quaver and a patch of rough grit here and there are the only signs you’re listening to an octogenarian. The grit actually gives Starr’s voice some character, especially alongside Tuttle on the heartbreaker “She’s Gone” or the sublime duet “You and I (Wave of Love).”

Though darker than most Garbage releases, No Gods No Masters is no less catchy than the albums that produced numerous hits in the 90s.

Packed within these ten tracks is a solid and eclectic mix of genres, fresh sounds and vintage flair. Hate for Sale is the band’s strongest in a long while and should give any listener enough to gnaw on and then some.

With a dream pop aesthetic and a mood that shifts from depressed to confident, the third album is Medford’s most varied and confident, making up for toning down the noise by dialing up the melody and soul.

Blonde On The Tracks doesn’t contain any must-hear renditions, but there is a comfort to be found in the contemplative singing of Swift and the clear production/playing of her Nashville backing band.

Culled from a perfectly-balanced selection of road-tested fan-favorites mixed with newer material, Everything Must Go stands out as the group’s most comprehensive and gratifying studio release to date.

White Stuff may not be as experimental as some of their past efforts, but it is an incredibly enjoyable dip into the dumpster of dirty grooving rock and roll whose sound is surprisingly appropriate thirty years after their formation.