Microtonic is the sound of a band faithfully heeding their muses.

Kamikaze is the sound of Eminem with his back against the wall, and this has led to some of his most invigorated writing in years--albeit with some troubling lyrical results. Whether he'll be able to maintain this level of energy into his next project is up for debate; for now though, any inspiration is promising.

Calvi thrashes, broils, sweats, cries and lusts through the EP, and returns to reality remarkably unscathed from Strange Weather. Kudos to Calvi.

Where You Stand picks up where you last left them--no matter where that was along the way.

The Album is a solid effort of accessible pop-rock, and to expect any more or less from Jonas Brothers would be foolhardy.

Comparing Happiness Not Included to their previous material is futile and mildly ridiculous, that push-pull of pop success, art-school background, and the resulting imposter syndrome which comes when all they wanted to be was a Throbbing Gristle you could dance to is a demon they’ve spent decades trying to escape from, whilst also courting, that unease creating the tension which is evident in all their output, including here.

At its high points, Saviors is a reminder of why you fell in love with Green Day, a triumphant outing that will surely silence the critics.

What makes Massey Fucking Hall an overall success is that it represents a particularly visceral aspect of live performance - not the communion with other fans, or the technical achievement that comes with a particularly slick stage show, but instead the primal joy of noisy, boisterous rock and roll.

Man Forever harnesses the power of repetitive drumbeat-drills and the misdirection of some innocuous silence and droning vocals to create a sort of synesthesia, blurring the lines between each piece’s individual components with clarity as yet unheard within Man Forever’s canon.

Shine A Light is by turns sombre and playful.

Despite its nostalgia-centric title, Time Flies is very much grounded in the present in respect to Brown’s approach to catharsis in her personal life, juxtaposed with escapism in a celebration of surviving adversity – a symbolic, innocuously upbeat chapter in Ladyhawke’s discography.

Throughout the highs and lows, the album ultimately invites listeners to join in Berrin’s cathartic journey and embrace their own complexities, searching for solace in a chaotic world.

There’s moments where creeping doubt, and a little bit of self-awareness, begin to set in--mainly on Franz’s part--but those aside, this is going to challenge Ezra Furman’s Perpetual Motion People for the title of the year’s finest pop oddball.

Anybody expecting wholesale reinvention on Many Moons, or even just the chance to hear Courtney attempt to scratch any experimental itch he might have had, are going to be let down; he’s probably never played it this safe before.

As well as a wide range of emotions, various musical styles are visited and executed with the causal confidence becoming synonymous with her output.

Garbage’s seventh record No Gods No Masters is their most direct and overtly critical to date, making for a visceral, re-energising listen.

An album both more mature and more realised than anything Hop Along have realised previously, Bark Your Head Off, Dog is a deft balance of quiet, folky meanderings and rousing slabs of indie rock, the two combining in to an amalgam that on paper, shouldn’t really work, but in practice cements Hop Along as far more than another quirky indie pop band, and elevates them in to another realm entirely.

While some of the artists brought onto the project feel more tactical than functional, when Ora is placed in the spotlight she tends to deliver.

If Uyai was Ibibio Sound Machine darting breathlessly from one sonic landscape to the next, Doko Mien is the band with a more focused approach and a sharpened sound, one that takes the best elements of their inimitable stylistic cocktail, and stamps it with a striking vibrancy and irresistible funk.

It may not astound, but like a visit from an understanding friend, it’s nice to have to lean on.

Myself in the Way opens with “Stone Station,” which teases a sound and feel similar to that of past records, but with an added flair of '80s inspired ethereal synths, to the point of almost sounding like a piece of the Stranger Things soundtrack.

What they have achieved here to a commendable extent, though musically the halves are far from polar opposites, is a compartmentalization of their dueling harsh and mellow impulses.

What held together the sounds from her previous records for me were the classical segments, the overarching concepts, the storytelling and the interludes between songs (admittedly these aren’t enormously popular or easily translatable to a live show), which are completely removed here. Given the switch in tone, it feels like Monae is more comfortable in her skin and her sound, but is this a good thing for the music?

Making mischief of one kind and another in a world gone wrong is what Osees do, and Abomination Revealed at Last is a solid rumpus.

The context, the lyrical content, and the overwhelming volume of their sound kicks and crashes through traumatic themes, providing a cathartic burst of anxious freedom. It’s a record designed to bite chunks out of its listeners, and will probably have the same effect when heard live.

The group may be battling their more indulgent tendencies at times, but Drive-By Truckers always find a path back towards redemption somewhere along the line.

At times, Gonzalez’s penchant for dramatizing and confessional nature work almost too well, and you get the feeling you’re hearing something that was only meant to be shared between two people.

Modern Fiction rarely devolves into out-and-out dourness, but it has a consistent, latent sense of melancholy, something Ducks Ltd. manage with impressive expertise, and which adds a welcome and affecting weight to their sound.