Overall, this is unmistakably a Banks album, so if you've liked anything she's done so far, this is definitely worth checking out. Despite some of the shifts described above, her darkness is still there, and it is still equal parts inviting and off-putting.

Yellowcard may still stand as one of their most impressive feats yet. Serving as their most captivating and emotive release since Ocean Avenue.

While Heritage is the strongest of this new trilogy, as well as laying the blueprint for this current era, Sorceress is able to push the adventurous qualities further to outstanding effect.

As a guitar record, Pretty Years perhaps doesn’t reach the delirious heights of LOSE, but the melodies here are more consistently grounded in pop roots, however ripped and dusty they may appear. ... One of 2016’s best albums.

Ultimately, it feels massive in scope and is consistently engrossing, with enough new tricks to forecast a bright future for the experimental metal legends.

This is not the first time the band has wiped the slate clean, but they’ve never sounded as focused or purposeful as they do right here and now. Tidal Wave may sound like a transition, but it feels like a resounding statement.

The bloat of Transcendence seems to be a problem inherent to post-2011 DTP, and appears to be symptomatic of a group trying to deviate around a winning formula of the past rather than one keen on developing the innovation they were built to achieve.

No one could have crafted this masterpiece quite like Nick Cave, and the staggering amount of material over his nearly four decade long career doesn’t prepare for what we have here. This stands as possibly his greatest achievement, as much a sorrowful exploration as a loving sendoff only for his fans, but more importantly, for himself.

Carly Rae captures the glitz and glamour and grime and sex and directionless sadness and anxiety of her listeners so, so well, and the way it’s wrapped up in an endlessly compelling composition of synth jams, funk accessories, and modern electro-pop makes it even better.

This is a dazzlingly euphoric and utterly stubborn album.

For This We Fought the Battle of Ages doesn’t feel like it surpasses space and time, or bridges a gap between consciousness and dreams. Once it’s over, it’s forgotten fairly easily, save maybe a couple of Vernon’s stronger melodies. It digs its nails into your scalp, but doesn’t truly grab at the psyche.

While it doesn’t quite reach the songwriting highs and wrenching lows of 2006’s Nux Vomica (few things do), Total Depravity avoids the dead spots that have plagued the Veils’ last two records by ensuring that atmosphere of dread remains consistent.

While not as ambitious as it could have been, Your Wilderness serves as a needed push in a new direction for Soord and co. Whether Harrison remains in the band or not, this will hopefully stand in their impressive discography as a stepping stone to even more lofty explorations for the future.

elseq may well be the most ambitious thing Autechre have ever released.

The song is always so compelling, so rich and vibrant, so immaculately layered that in the end it doesn't really matter. Gorguts, as usual, have created a death metal masterpiece.

Not everything's entirely stale, though. On the whole, the djent factor of the album is lower than most others (spare, perhaps, Juggernaut: Alpha) and the inclusion of orchestral elements throughout makes things feel a little more open, inviting, and intriguing.

MSTRKRFT and Keeler have never been ones for half measures. Operator’s overall refusal to do just that, its inexorable 808 death march through a digital hell, makes it MSTRKRFT’s best album yet, not to mention an impressive approximation of DFA1979’s live show, in spirit if not in sound.

In its best moments, Day to Day basks in routine humdrum, making it a bit more magical.

Far from the sort of thrown-together collaboration that is generally de rigueur, case/lang/veirs stands out because it remains an accurate representation of the sum of its parts, a catalog of what makes its three artists great.

They return with something more uniquely insidious than anything heard from the label so far, something which attacks and intoxicates in equal measure, completely assured of its success and all the more awe-inspiring for it.

She appears to be in the right place creatively, but she just needs to take her own advice and break free.

Simon’s thirteenth studio album is as fresh and relevant as anything currently being mass-consumed by the market, and the things it forces you to think about are far more important than most of the topics that are being fed to us by the industry.

Modern folk fans take note; it’s not every day we get the pleasure of hearing such an accomplished debut.

It makes for one of Radiohead's most personal efforts, but also an elusive one. Yorke often loses himself to the point of losing others. Those able to ride in his emotional wake will be captivated--those by the curb will forget A Moon Shaped Pool like the receding tide.

E MO TION is no fluke. It doesn’t grip you by the heels but instead lures you into a full-bodied embrace that is iron-clad, it’s simply up to you to give it the chance to do so.

There is familiarity here, but nothing feels routine. This is an album as cohesive and thunderous as it would have been if it had come out in 2014.

There's not much new in the way of substance, but the execution is nonetheless pleasing enough that you can shrug off flat or dull offerings (see, e.g., "Brighter" or "Wasteland"). It's a nice record filled with nice moments.

As an EP for the band to dip their toes back into the creative process of being a band again, it’s a thrilling piece of work, a preface to their national run of live shows and, well, whatever comes after that. Because while EP4 makes for a mighty fine mixtape, one certainly hopes they won’t stop there.