In stark contrast is the self-indulgent hero worship of “The One And Only (Van Dyke Parks).” However well-intentioned, the track is too cute by half, but its juxtaposition with the “Back In New York (Electric Mix)” redeems the conclusion of The Great Escape as crisp electric guitar figures echo through the jaunty tone of the Modrec Horns.

A stripped-down guitar-forward record that still wraps the music in a solid pop sound.

A satisfyingly solid collection of new originals. ... Several of the tracks here take a little longer to grow on the listener, like the Woodie Guthrie-in-spirit singalong “Big Backyard,” but after hitting the repeat button a couple of times the appeal starts to become clearer.

Despite the quality of the songwriting and the performances, there’s something about Let’s Rock that feels like the two are tying up the band and bringing their music full circle. Whatever the intent and the future of the band, Let’s Rock is a solid release that should make fans happy, whether it’s a coda or just their latest record.

The Heartless Bastards have constantly evolved but Wennerstrom has been consistent, the outfits voice, heart, and soul; A Beautiful Life puts those perpetually on display.

The singer-songwriter’s twelfth studio album mostly sounds like 2000s-era Crow with some contemporary flourishes in the production. Crow’s diverse vocals are still solid, ranging from country twang to soulful croon and saccharine pop.

While perhaps not a major cultural statement, Every Loser is an extremely secure album for the legendary mercurial artist to deliver this late in his career.

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

While almost all of the songs on Laurel Hell, taken individually, make for strong additions to Mitski’s catalog, the melodies and production start to feel interchangeable from track to track through the album, and with relatively few curveballs thrown into the mix, there is a feeling of sameness that starts to settle in on repeat listens. ... This album shines the brightest in the moments when Mitski and her producer/collaborator Patrick Hyland lean into their more avant-garde impulses.

Harmonizer shifts from that tone halfway through the glam rock spiced “Pictures” which starts off like a gangbuster only to switch halfway to a minimal stripped-down effort in odd fashion, resulting in two songs shoehorned into one to the detriment of both. The downer “Ride” drags as well, but the confident strutting riffs around the silly lyrics of “Play” picks up the pace. The dabbling in Black Sabbath-like sludge metal (“Waxman”) and intriguing post-punk sung by his wife (“Feel Good”) prove that you can never pin down a style with Segall.

Stinson and Robert have turned down the raucousness and deliver more contemplative efforts, while still experimenting with sound and instrumentation. The stakes feel lower by design as if two musicians are just having a good time with each other as Cowboys in the Campfire allow Wronger to chill along.

It is a hard-to-classify effort that shifts genres and influences often as War moves through different motifs.

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.

The fact that the increasingly complex playing compares so favorably to the antecedents of the Allman Betts Band (including the latter-day lineup circa 2003’s Hittin’ The Note) speaks as much to the intrinsic skill of this unit as to its future potency in a more mature state.

Crawler feels like a more personal album, with less sloganeering than previous IDLES releases. Talbot’s monotone voice and underwhelming lyrics are still the band’s weakness, but band’s attack mixing heaviness with anxiety-inducing dissonance keep things interesting.

Destroyer becomes the perfect album to play in your car while you speed (safely) down the highway. Though not as trippy or psych heavy as its predecessors, Destroyer still manages to fit perfectly into the Black Mountain catalogue.

Taj has a one-of-a-kind personality. and the arrangements are solid in what potentially could be a great album. However, although the background vocalists are not on every track, their presence on enough of them mars the album. For whatever reason, they just don’t match the vibe and are incompatible with Taj’s vocals. His phrasing and Simon’s arrangements are the real pluses.

Chatten’s monotone downtrodden vocals with direct lyrics (not going much deeper than their titles) dominate the songs. This style will either pull in the listener or alienate as the woe is me gloom follows each song like a small rain cloud.

The songs here are largely fun and accessible, but contain hidden depths that encourage repeated listens; and that in itself is a testament to Toro Y Moi’s staying power and ability to find new ways of expressing himself.

With its complex sonic textures, use of repetition, and few standout hooks, The Million Masks of God is Manchester Orchestra’s least accessible work, but it’s an achievement in its own way. It doesn’t have many stand-out singles but is best appreciated by repeated listens in its entirety as the narrator, as a stand-in for the band, confronts his spiritual and emotional pain without a clear resolution.

In keeping with his primary vocation, he [Johnny Depp] nevertheless sounds like any fledgling musician still in the process of finding his own style. Meanwhile, Beck makes it quite clear from the very start this is his album: “Midnight Walker,” a composition by Irish musician Davy Spillane, is the familiar and highly atmospheric sound of vintage Beck fusion, while the clattering mechanical rhythms of Killing Joke’s “Death And Resurrection Show” recall You Had It Coming in 2001 and Jeff two years later.

Gov’t Mule’s willingness to step outside its collective comfort zone here is clearly not without its shortfalls. Still, that very courage augurs well for the celebration of their thirtieth anniversary next year.

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.

The softer, subtler sound of The Other Side of Make-Believe means it’s never able to reach the greatness of the peak moments of Turn On the Bright Lights or Antics. It simply doesn’t have those powerful moments. Despite that and Banks occasionally singing outside of his range, it’s a solid effort and a welcome splash of color to Interpol’s dour palette.

This is not an album meant to prove any sense of prowess; it is a quiet collection of songs from an artist looking to understand himself better.

The CRB doesn’t wholly recapture the unified sense of inspiration that earmarked their initial work, but they come close.

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.

The slow, contemplative songs on Set My Heart on Fire Immediately are hit or miss. Most are moving mood pieces with intricate melodies, while some are bland and skippable. The best Perfume Genius moments are with the dynamic upbeat pop songs, jam-packed with hooks and danceable grooves. Throughout the album, Hadreas forms complex sonic textures out of the thoughts tormenting his psyche. The result is an album that thrills at times, invites quiet reflection at others, but is always interesting.