A wealth of songs that are as engaging as they are enjoyable.

Atlas Vending is a transitional album in the best of ways as METZ has proved they can create piercing noise with anyone around, now they deploy a wider scope without losing their foundation.

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

Blitzen Trapper has succeeded in making a very complex album that is probably quite different than most new albums you’ll hear this year.

This Dream of You is a solid entry, though surely not the strongest in her storied catalog.

Where Go stood as a natural outlet for stifled creativity, Shiver extends Jónsi’s prowess even farther. Both may prove to be products of their times, but both serve as deeply singular bodies of work.

Under the Spell of Joy allows Death Valley Girls the freedom to explore and the structure to tighten up as they communally dance and shake along the void.

Continuing to nurture mature pop music equal parts brains and soul on Good Luck With Whatever, Dawes solidifies an even more finite approach to writing and recording. This seventh studio effort of theirs not only represents a logical progression for the quartet, but it also augurs well for its continued evolution.

It’s refreshing to hear from the icon directly, especially with his quartet in such fine form.

The Nude Party’s strong 2018 debut found the sextet knocking loudly on the door. With Midnight Manor, they kick it off its hinges. ... The result is undeniably an impressive overshadowing of that debut album.

His most effortless success yet. Sundry Rock Song Stock is a breezy trip through the life of a confident and naturalistic performer, someone whose best work still may be ahead of him.

Generations is a more mature album than Policy in that Butler creates a cohesive narrative throughout. ... Butler also proves that he is adept at creating music on his own without having to rely on past sounds from Arcade Fire.

Like all IDLES releases, Ultra Mono’s biggest drawback is its lack of variety. Though the guitarists experiment with different tones, each song still has the same feel sonically. Likewise, Talbot’s vocals are monotone with little variety and his lyrics are sometimes simplistic. But IDLES make up for those flaws with its greatest strengths, the band’s passion, unbridled fury, and raw intensity. IDLES wears its passion and anger on its sleeve, delivering infectious rhythms, filthy distorted guitars, and snarling vocals to drive its message home.

This album is a success, albeit one that does little to distance itself from the releases that came before it. Each track shares the percussive and wonky tone of Face Stabber but Dwyer knowingly infuses enough melody into the highlights to make for a few key standouts.

Doves has stayed true to their sound and as the result they have made an album that fans will want to listen to over and over.

The album has a Side A and Side B feel to it with the first half comprised of layered, dense tunes as is mixer Blake’s penchant. Side B (if you will) lightens the sonics a bit, giving the band more room to breathe and, for these ears, an easier listening experience.

The group flashes its technical wizardry, an ear for the weird/experimental and crushingly powerful headbanging ways, cataloging their past while looking towards their future.

Bocoum seems to have certainly mastered the art of collaboration judging on the assemblage gathered for this jubilant set.

Lightning itself is a competent record, but more importantly it’s another notch in the belt of one of America’s most overlooked and underappreciated songwriters, someone who has consistently proven that he’s always worth hearing from.

Gold Record is simple, but packed with lyrical mastery and it plays through without any hitches. Each song encapsulates a lesson or a character that Callahan wants us to either learn about or learn from, and his voice sinks in comfortable in the life that he has lived.

The result is an excellent sounding but slightly flat affair as the band settles into life as a trio.

Plum is a great album, one that is professional without losing its beauty, ambitious within their discography and undoubtedly one of the year’s best.

Sound Wheel is an experimental chronicling of the vagabond road trip lifestyle of an artist who is constantly observing the open highways and the American culture driving them. Mosshart keeps her eyes sharp, her voice fluid and her thoughts rolling as she follows her muse.

It’s clearly a different time now in so many ways that it’s unlikely that any of these tunes, which are as good as any he’s penned (can’t help using that term), will become mega hits. Nonetheless, these songs are a salve for these times and do plenty of justice to Penn’s legendary status.

At their best, The Avett Brothers are transcendent songwriters with the ability to cut right to the soul while delivering perfect musical harmony. The majority of The Third Gleam serves as a reminder of the best qualities that The Avett Brothers can bring.

Bless Your Heart simultaneously reinforces and extends the favorable first impression left with the premier album.

LaVette came so close to a Grammy with her interpretations of Dylan’s songs. Blackbirds may just push her to the top. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else delivering an album that oozes such deep emotion with each lyric. Clearly, it cements her status as one of today’s elite interpreters of song.

Yes, this should be a contender for Album of the Year in roots-rock circles. It is stunning.