The album, her best to date, would've worked better had she dived into the sea of sadness instead of dipping her toe in from song to song.

Parts & Labor still do plenty of rocking out, but their tight compositions save them from overindulgence.

Flourish // Perish sounds like an extension of Standell-Preston’s other musical project, Blue Hawaii. In fact, many of the songs could be interchangeable with that project, but this isn’t a fault.

The result sounds like a stack of old 70s records your nerdiest music snob friend discovered in a dusty record store.

Everything moves in linear fashion backwards, with only Danger Mouse’s bold battering saving Beck from a horrifying relapse into dreary Sea Change melancholia.

The adulterously titled I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too, which certainly has its issues, comes across as more grounded, learned and confident.

As the narrative grows sleepier, it feels as though she wants to see how much she can reduce her theatrical pop image into something small and seemingly impermanent.

It has hooks, but none as immediate as past Gorillaz hits Feel Good Inc. or 19-2000. This is a hefty offering clocking in at nearly an hour and featuring everyone from Lou Reed to Snoop Dogg.

It's hard to shake the notion that the songs are leftovers from the songwriters' other bands.

It’s a meandering, angsty and deceptively gritty chronicle of the wonder years, but on repeat listens his guttural, conversational drawl and textured production seem to camouflage some seriously sentimental feelings.

The first three tracks build with effortless new-wave energy, making Fantasies an album you’d want to listen to while pre-drinking.

It's a solid denouement to Elaenia's touring cycle, and perhaps helps us appreciate that album for its use of exactly the right tools for the job and appropriate scope for its ideas.

The fleeting interlude Sonora, inspired by Cochemea’s Yaqui (an Indigenous nation from Mexico) ancestors, brightens the album with a hint of tropical sax.

The Terror crafts that chaos into a careful, impeccably sequenced compositions that should buy Coyne at least a few more years of guilt-free wackiness.

The shoegaze genre usually plays better in a live context, yet Ghost Blonde is a relatively immersive record. You need to crank the volume to hear the vocals, but it's the guitars that provide the hooks anyway.

The songcraft is high, balancing repetitive groove with dynamic surprises. There's so much variety here, from icy Joy Divisionesque excursions (Silhouettes) to Guided by Voices-through-an-echo-chamber mood (Continental Shelf) to melodic hooks (Bunker Buster) to howling post-punk fury (Death). It lends huge excitement to the project.

The group’s fifth disc is an infectious collection of bright rock songs (Whose Authority) and calm, soothing numbers (See These Bones).

The band’s second album has terrific production values, and beneath all the industrial edges and gothic stomp, Dean Tzenos’s vocals are surprisingly melodic.

The album's psychedelic pop runs out of gas near the end in cringe-worthy Battersea Odyssey and Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon, but by then you're won over and wondering how you slept on this band for the past nine years.

Fallen Angels is a hazy, laid-back history lesson with as many enigmatic twists and turns as a classic double-cross caper. It subverts archetypes of romance, heroism and interpersonal connection to reveal something more sinister about human intent, all packaged in beautiful musicianship of the highest order.

It's Collett's ability to lyrically and aurally crystallize moments in time that makes this album such a delight.

The 16-song record (some previously released) never feels bloated: the tracks could be love letters by the Harlem native to all the cultures jamming in the Big Apple.

After a few listens, hidden melodies reveal themselves and easy-listening bass lines guide you through the ruckus. Or rather, you get used to the disorder and appreciate the songs for what they are: weird experiments from a prodigal songwriter.

If the Replacements were to release an album stuffed with vital performances of stylishly crafted roots rock like those on Three Easy Pieces, it would be hailed as the comeback of the century.

If you thought no one made albums like this any more, they don’t so enjoy The Hard Way.

Unless you’re a desperate DCFC fan in need of satiation, The Open Door isn’t worth the purchase.

Somehow they’ve managed to become both more accessible and more unique.

He seems to be making an effort to be more positive, though sometimes that comes across as cumbersome or strained.