A LA SALA is Khruangbin's most stripped-down effort since their debut, but it isn't threadbare, and fans of the group should find it worthwhile.

Like Deacon before it, Grip suggests serpentwithfeet's confessions and declarations can take many forms, and its light, limber songs don't sacrifice any of his innovation or soul-baring.

While Echo Dancing is uneven, the hits outnumber the misses by a margin that qualifies this as a successful experiment.

Moves in the Field is more Philip Glass than John Cage (in fact, Glass' longtime engineer Dan Bora recorded and mixed the album), with Moran's thoughtful writing and restrained use of what could have been show-stopping technology creating an insulated world of understated, wintery elegance.

The amount of courage and skill on display is massive and apart from a few times where he falls off the high wire -- mainly when the balance tips too far to the inward-looking lyrically or he strays too close to played out trap territory -- this reboot just might win the band some new fans, while shedding none who have stayed the course thus far.

Gary Clark Jr.'s catalog shows he has the talent, intelligence, and vision to make a grand scale musical statement out of any style he chooses, and JPEG RAW only reinforces that notion; he's been creating some of the boldest and most interesting guitar-based music of his time, and this is as exciting and rewarding as anyone could hope.

If this isn't Shook's best album to date, it's very close.

Maybe Chastity Belt aren't always laughing and loving on this album, but the music is alive and eloquent, and this is a welcome return from an interesting, consistently rewarding quartet.

There are two expertly executed albums here, each highlighting just how this group has grown from being rascally jokesters to hardened, concerned members of society. As far as swan songs go, Heaven :x: Hell is a heartfelt goodbye to fans, an overly generous gift that aims to please the full spectrum of diehards and thank them for all their years of dedication.

While it won’t be able to please everyone, that’s not the point: this is an intensely personal statement about reclamation, belonging, and legacy, celebrating the past with hopes of changing the future. One can only hope Act III finds Bey going full rock.

On the whole, Interplay is interesting but inconsistent, landing more like a collection of ideas being fleshed out than a cohesive album experience. Ultimately, it's commendable that Ride continue to reach beyond their past, but the best moments of Interplay are the ones that remind the listener what made the band so unique to begin with.

The vibe is familiar but the sound is fresh and, better still, Evolution isn't ponderous: it's brisk and bright, keeping its focus squarely on the gifts that brought Crow into the Rock Hall.

The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow stands as one of his best late-career master works.

While arguably Sam Evian's strongest set of songs yet, he's nothing if not consistent, and Plunge sits well alongside project debut Premium (2016) while at the same time offering something a little "more so" thanks to a live-in-studio recording philosophy that shunned headphones and playback and kept overdubs to a minimum.

El Perro del Mar stares into chasms of being and nonbeing on Big Anonymous, calmly dictating back the horrors and revelations she sees in a steady voice.

This is an essential entry in Coltrane's catalog and a remarkable kick-off to Impulse's "Year of Alice."

Even more than any music that came before it, this album highlights Rosali's unique voice, one that communicates full-hearted intensity without ever resorting to heavy-handedness or overstatement.

Whether it's the caressing connectedness of "Evening Mood" or the air of pensive devotion on "Who Brings Me," this emotional immediacy makes Something in the Room She Moves an exciting and affecting addition to Holter's body of work.

On Real Power, Gossip don't try too hard to recapture the past or fit in with the sound of the sound of the 2020s, and that's what makes it a dignified, down-to-earth return.

Skip the dogs, stick to the weird, raw, and experimental songs and Glasgow Eyes might be considered one of the band's best albums in a very long time. Add them back and it makes for a frustrating and exhilarating listening experience that's brutally honest, completely ridiculous, and in some ways it sums up everything good and bad about the Jesus and Mary Chain all on one slab of plastic.

When the final piano twinkles of the heartbreaking ballad "Última" close the first half, the album shifts to mixtape mode with the flood of additional hits that pack the back end, making Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran a great two-for-one set that is essentially a short new album and a de facto "Greatest Hits 2022-2024."

For a band that often got lost in a hippie haze, this all-business approach pays off great dividends: it's easy to hear how the Robinsons are ideal collaborators, tempering each other's excesses and accentuating their shared love for the best of classic rock.

Some of the tracks on Three cover similar territory, but overall, the album is much more tightly focused than the abstract yet personal Sixteen Oceans.

Akoma represents another impressive step in Jlin's remarkable evolution as an artist.

Tigers Blood is the rarest of things: an album that feels familiar upon its surface and idiosyncratic in its details.

Bright Future is the type of no-filter album with enough variety and poignancy that each song is bound to be somebody's favorite.

Like the open-ended, amorphous production, the tunes all accentuate the record's general thrust of interior contentment. Musgraves, along with her regular collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, do manage to capture and sustain this delicate sensibility, creating a record that's every bit as pretty and memorable as gentle afternoon rain.

ScHoolboy Q flexes just how easy his craft is for him throughout Blue Lips, switching his styles without blinking while telling some of his most difficult truths.