Prawn have shaped themselves into a band who offer more than lyrics, but counseling. And Kingfisher is catharsis created not through grit, but melody.

A tangle of influences and contemporaries; yet she manages to keep space in which her frail breath of a singing voice can survive.

It’s disheartening that the album isn’t the game-changing record Fallon promised, and it’s too bad that it doesn’t have the thesis-statement cohesion of albums like The 59 Sound and American Slang. But the songs are still great, the production is still excellent, and the performances of the band members have rarely been in finer form.

Coming in at 11 tracks, Gemini, Her Majesty doesn't contain a single song that you'll want to skip.

The band has continued to expand and refine their ADD-riddle pop-punk into something more substantial and LP3 chronicles the growth in songwriting while maintaining the spastic charm of the band's earlier releases.

Self-production is no small feat, but with years of experience, they made an impeccable sounding record.

What Antonoff has accomplished with Bleachers that he hasn’t yet with fun. or never did with Steel Train is create an album that inspires as much as it transports. It’s so sure and precise in its vision that it almost feels like a concept album without a concept.

There are absolutely stunning passages on here to be sure, but as a whole the record fails to really take your breath away like one would hope.

FreeBase may not find 2 Chainz making any big leaps forward, but what it does offer is a refinement of some of the things people love from 2 Chainz. The beats are top shelf, his flow is versatile but never overly complex, and his lyrics are humorous, if a little unremarkable.

Lowborn is a fairly strong record on a song-for-song basis, and the added emotional heft of it being a swansong helps to elevate it above the weaker entries in the band’s catalog--even despite its numerous issues.

The EP is five songs of huge, intricate, explosive guitar work, thumping drums that refuse to take a rest, Day and O'Connor's signature call-and-return vocals, the occasional necessary breakdown and gang vocal portion, and the catchiest choruses FYS has ever penned.

Nikki-Nack is an outstanding successor to W h o k i l l and the year’s most memorable pop album yet.

Fullbright’s first record, From the Ground Up, scored a surprise Grammy nomination in the Americana category two years ago, but don’t be surprised when Songs starts topping EOTY lists in December.

For a record that trades heavily in production experiments foreign to both parties, Royksopp and Robyn by and large succeed at creating what they set out to--a monument.

Just Be Free is a wonderfully functional album, displaying Queen Freedia at her very best.

With From Parts Unknown, Every Time I Die have hit the Ultimate Splash on its competition, absolutely cementing its legacy as one of the greatest heavy bands of our generation.

As long as they keep crafting albums as fresh, loose and fun as Remedy, chances are they’ll keep this truck roaring for another two decades.

This record is guaranteed to indiscriminately piss off both kinds of Black Keys fans: the diehard purists yearning for the blues rock halcyon days and the recent devotees primed for another round of hooky singles.

With A U R O R A, Ben Frost has crafted an unimpeachable story of weathering the most abrasive elements of existence and emerging stronger for the trials endured.

Once More 'Round the Sun is the band's most accessible record yet in a lot of ways. The choruses are catchier, the guitar solos are flashier, and the production, while not too overdone, isn't too raw to leave any recognizable barrier to entry.

One man’s suffering becomes our communal celebration, so to speak. It's a fine role for one of the year's best albums to play.

All of this makes for an interesting listen, even if the record can tend to drag on a little bit toward the end.

At the end of the day, Rise of The Lion was the record that Miss May I needed to make in order to continue as a band.02

Hebrews isn't the return to form listeners may have been expecting from Say Anything; instead it's something entirely better.

It’s been too long since we’ve heard a great acoustic album where the vocals, lyrics, and guitar work all work to complement the other parts perfectly. On Clouded, This Wild Life achieve just that, resulting in what will end up being one of the most impressive debut albums of the year.

There's no real logical conclusion as to what it all means, and The Roots understand that. That's part of why they made the album so short; so that you can put the time in and come to a conclusion yourself.

Its not as bare bones as NLDW, but it's every bit as in-your-face and aggressive as you would expect from a Death Grips record.

It has all of the right things going for it to make anyone even slightly interested in metal sit up and take notice.