What Now contemplates private change of circumstance and personhood with pathos, kindness, and humour, and bangs fervidly in the process.

For those who are willing and eager to succumb to Stetson’s idiosyncratic sound, pressing play on this album is like stepping into his wilderness, and if you’re prepared to be battered by typhoon-like playing and virtuosic arrangements of sound, then you’ll come out the other side thrilled and refreshed.

Though their influences are neatly displayed almost in the same way band posters are hung neatly on a bedroom wall: Cheap Trick, Kiss, Thin Lizzy, The Cars, The Ramones, just about any great power-pop or classic rock band, White Reaper effortlessly make their influences solely their own.

Heartless is a triumphant metal album, and is yet another entry on the list of arguments for Pallbearer being among the few bands in the genre’s peak echelon today. With Heartless, Pallbearer has laid down the gauntlet for the entire metal genre to even contend for its album of the year.

This is Kendrick Lamar playing the game, and making everything else look dangerously irrelevant while he's at it. Be afraid.

The highlights come when the songs are underscored by punchy percussion, giving the tracks a slightly sultry groove.

This diversity in delivery is the savior of the first half of the record which pales slightly to the second.

Those seeking out a Julia Holter live album aren’t looking for pop thrills, but rather mature, sophisticated compositions performed by accomplished, unbound musicians. It is here in spades.

To be sure, his willingness to descend into darkness, both regarding the world and within himself, is a large part of the man's appeal, but here he seems to have misunderstood, or simply ignored, what makes him truly great.

The Far Field is a triumph--it shows Future Islands refusing to buckle under newfound pressure, and instead creating another stellar record to add to their burgeoning catalogue.

Write In sees them continuing to demonstrate just how deceptively subtle their shifts in sound and approach can be, and the depth of their songcraft reveals itself over repeated listens in ways it never did before.

Despite its otherwise grim title, it plumbs emotional depths even further and creates a more vivid and exciting picture of what Clark is capable of this late in his career, and why all of the hype surrounding him from the beginning was more than credible.

All in all, this is a solid solo debut form Coco Hames. The lyrics are superb and the compositions are clean.

Diet Cig’s debut album Swear I’m Good At This is a reclamation of female sexual agency, a physical mandate for equality, a gauntlet-throwing promise for world domination, and the most fun I’ve had with a punk album this year.

It’s A Myth an easily enjoyable release that doesn’t waste any of its brief and surprising burst.

It’s a challenging but rewarding listen which uncovers itself most rewardingly when given full attention on a dark and melancholic night.

Impressions is a special record, coloured by climbing compositions as cavernous spaces of reflective quiet. It’s deeply feeling, and deeply felt.

You Only Lie 2wice is a reflection of past mistakes, a declaration of dreams for his family’s future and a time stamp for the strenuous reality of an artist who nearly lost it all on his way to gaining it all.

It may not hit the mark every time, but her adventurous, unapologetic approach to driving pop forwards to exciting new ground should be praised.

If your life needs to be stripped of its bombast for a little while, Real Estate remain a steadfast companion for a little R&R. Just don’t beat yourself up if you can’t sit through the whole thing.

The result is a thrilling trip into a time and a place where nothing is really quite as it seems and the glamorous mask is slipping away.

It may not be one you play often, but it's also one you will never forget. It's omnipresent. Words fail.

Overall Hot Thoughts doubles down on what we already knew: that Spoon are a band always looking to push themselves, a fact that seems to be getting more acute with each passing album, and it should be celebrated.

Beneath their gilded surface, everything here has been explored numerous times by the man himself before, far more memorably.

Overall, Paradise is a safe bridge from HOPELESSNESS, where the singer is able to express herself in another wide collection of musical manifestos.

Salutations is good, but it is apparent it could have been better. Rather than swing for the fences, Conor and crew settled for a base hit that didn’t move any runners on base.

It’s emotionally rich, and intelligent, and purposeful, and firmly cohesive.

This album is just a few puzzle pieces shy of being great, and that’s a damn shame.