The only way that Lowly lives up to their name is their humility to push themselves to give more to their listeners--something they do exceptionally well on Hifalutin.

The brief set overall evokes some of the same feelings as 9th's Black Radio Recovered remix of "Afro Blue," Kendrick's "These Walls," and much of Martin's Velvet Portraits, all connected and nutritive recordings offering solace and strength. There's no crosstalk, just completed thoughts.

Overall, it feels less like a comeback and more like the latest chapter in the ongoing saga Skinner has been spinning since 2002.

At times, the mood is so sustained that the album resembles one slowly evolving song. At its finest, though, Dream Talk is an alluring reminder of the power of visions and fantasies from a group that's mastered how to bring them to life.

The duo... have actually improved, and the album sports stronger songs, a fuller sound, more emotional weight, and an exuberant soul that spills out of the speakers like milk and cake at a kid's birthday party.

Silver is the work of a band with a very clear vision and the skills to make it work like a dream.

This stop on the journey is pretty magical.

In sum, those who had trouble with To the Bone, Wilson's well-executed homage to the progressive pop of Kate Bush, Tears for Fears, and Peter Gabriel, may have even more with this. Most fans, however, especially more recent ones, shouldn't find The Future Bites an inconsistent entry in Wilson's catalog, but an arguably minor one that steps sideways instead of forward.

Yes, I'm a Witch Too may be somewhat uneven, but its wildly different tracks reaffirm that Ono's music contains multitudes.

The best moments are bathed in a warm radiance that fosters a comforting, uplifting mood.... However, the content isn't exclusively cerebral, uplifting, and/or surreal.

Nada Surf show they can play well with others on If I Had a Hi-Fi, though they'd do well to apply the lessons learned here to some new tunes for their next album.

Devout will undoubtedly resonate with former ravers who have now grown up, started families, and face problems dealing with relationships and parenthood (and whose taste in music has drifted closer to introspective pop and R&B rather than dance music). For other listeners, however, the sentiments might fall flat, and the album might be too sparse, sluggish, and sad to really latch onto.

It's a sound that demands your surrender, which you don't mind giving in to.

Like Homesongs, this record reveals more with each listen, burrowing its way into your consciousness and becoming a welcome part of your musical DNA.

Even if it's not quite as fully realized as some of their other albums, King's Mouth boasts enough beautiful music and striking imagery to make it well worth hearing, especially for Flaming Lips fans who miss the music they made in the 2000s.

The downside of Reprieve is that it isn't as musically arresting as earlier albums like Out of Range, and DiFranco, on a song like "Millennium Theater," can be rather obvious.

The duo’s effective use of reverbs and filters works wonders here, transporting the listener through an array of the same kinds of sounds, but they're treated whole-heartedly and differently with each moment.

The key to 3 is that the group might be less noisy, but ultimately they're no less weird, and if the album sounds like they're still making sense of their new configuration, their eyes are still on the buzzy prize, and this is a great, challenging, off-center rock album.

With Planet's Mad, Baauer charts a journey that elicits emotion through physical response, channeling rage and frustration through his songs in a cathartic release that plays like musical therapy for a galaxy's worth of ills.

Black Forest is a little less scuzzy and raw than the band's earlier work, but it passes the test: the later at night and the louder you play it, the better it sounds.

While Versions may be too tasteful-seeming for die-hard fans of early Zola Jesus, the album's undeniable beauty reveals another accomplished facet to Danilova's music.

Volume 14 of the Kompakt label's Pop Ambient series contains a surprising amount of material that is aggressive, almost piercing--certainly less lulling--compared to gentler series highlights like Donnacha Costello's "Dry Retch" and Triola's "AG Penthouse."

B-sides and rarities collections can often help give fans insight into their favorite artists' creative processes, or at the very least, provide either a light snack between releases or a post-retirement victory lap, but when an artist as prolific as Stephin Merritt decides to clean house, it can be a little underwhelming.

A tighter, cleaner band than the scruffy renegades of the '80s, but still the same band, which is evident here in ways it never was on the perfectly fine R.E.M. Live. That was a production. This is rock & roll.

This new direction is one that suits the band well, and although it may seem like they've put their bar rock days in their rear view mirror, it's seems pretty clear that the band is heading toward a big, arena rock future.

Though it blisters with intensity, it boasts well-written songs illustrated by canny production, played with confident recklessness and vulnerable honesty.

It's challenging and confrontational, but it's still engaging and relatable. Bracing and personal, What One Becomes is some of Turner's most intense work yet.

It's mature music played with the energy and passion of youth, full of experience and tenderness but never complacent. It's no wonder that the band have inspired so much devotion since they have never lost the inspiration behind their music and Crybaby is one more shining example of that.

Expansive and enveloping at the same time, this set of songs puts Warpaint's past and future in perfect balance--one of the best things a band can do on their second album.

Approach Rap Album One is an acquired taste that's worth acquiring because it isn't for everyone, but it's excellent.

Neither as endearingly fragile nor as transcendently healing as his previous two volumes, Abundance is nonetheless a fulfilling and soulful work, worthy of the Red River Dialect canon.

Add the Night Marchers to Speedo's roll of triumphs and feel free to rank See You in Magic as one of his finest moments. It's really that good.

This is the kind of album that drifts by like a lazy white cloud on a beautiful summer day, leaving only positive feelings in its wake.

These songs never hit their mark as a result, aiming for the relaxed pitch of an afternoon siesta and often sounding closer to a snoozefest instead.

While it may lack the dark, muscular, apocalyptic machismo that permeates the majority of metal's subgenres, it's more often than not a hell of a lot of fun.

Highlights include the folky "Sneak Out the Back Door," the jaunty, joyous-sounding, and lovely "Blind Eye" (which sounds just a little bit like vintage Donovan without the hippy-dippy lyrics), and the oddly hopeful (for Sexsmith, anyway) "Life After a Broken Heart," although the whole album feels like a uniform meditation on aging, mortality, and the affirming wish to go forward in spite of what's been.

The quality of the record is still on par with the first part, so anyone who enjoyed the previous record will certainly find more to love here.

Mostly though, the album is a successful blending of the past and present, with every new idea working out just right, with the end result being an album that capitalizes on the Liminañas' many established strengths and sends them shooting off in new directions that prove just as satisfying.

Blood In, Blood Out, much like Cannibal Corpse's 2014 offering Skeletal Domain, sounds remarkably dialed-in for a band so long in the tooth, and while it doesn't break any new ground for the stalwart rockers, it certainly does little to tarnish their reputation as thrash royalty.

Champs deliver a handful of cinematic anthems, including "Desire" and "The Balfron Tower," which, much like the duo's island home, are at once breezy and haunting.

No Sad Songs is a quintessentially solid and affective offering from the band, and with the continued rise of indie folk stylings well into the 21st century, the Nick Drake-inspired approach they've been loyal to since the '80s might not be embraced by the masses but should at least find itself in fashion.

As a whole, Sun Leads Me On is a far more confident-sounding animal than 2012's Dark Eyes, with the band coming off less like a hastily assembled, albeit talented, group of strangers, and more like a road-tested, yet well-rested army of four.

There are plenty of bands doing roughly the same thing as Ringo Deathstarr, but there are few who do it as well as they do. Pure Mood is proof of that.

[Jocie Adams'] musical eclecticism gives Arc Iris a leg up as they vanquish trendiness in favor of free-flowing exploration.

He still seems to jot down his thoughts in a stream-of-consciousness manner without trying to force them to rhyme, and he hasn't particularly made more of an effort to sing in tune, but his songs are still a joy to listen to because of his easygoing manner and casual, occasionally funny lyrics.

Although not for the casual music listener, the song ["Legacy of Neglect"] and the album work not only because of Leonard's good melodic and dramatic instincts, but because he is equally charismatic with both quiet acoustic song and outraged, off-balance rock. In this way, the album's riveting album rock-slash-exasperated art rock is reminiscent of figures like Bowie and Reed while remaining completely idiosyncratic.

It's hard to believe it took so long for Iron & Wine to document their live incarnation, but it is easy to believe that now that they finally have, it's as sophisticated, burnished, and emotionally true as this.

It is an unabashedly lush, deeply textured pop record that makes no apologies for its radio-friendliness or its adornments.

The result of this collaboration is a set of sophisticated, textured psychedelic soul and jazzy synth pop with no shortage of elegant grooves and melodies. The new sound may be a surprise, but it could also be the sound of summer.

This is the kind of debut that lurches into the grungy excess befitting trashcan fires, anachronistic outsider idolization, and massive Feeder collections assembled inside Southern Californian suburbs.

It’s by no means a landmark, and it’s not close to their best; it’s just well-done.

Where You Want to Be is definitely a solid album -- especially considering that it was recorded so soon after half the band was replaced -- but crafting something a little more unique would take Taking Back Sunday's music that much farther.

On Eating Us, Black Moth Super Rainbow prove that they can grow up a little without growing boring, and still deliver exactly the same amount of unhealthy sweetness as before.

Sunset/Sunrise shows that with a bit of judiciously placed accompaniment and a more ambitious use of the studio, the duo can add depth and gravity to music that was fine stuff to begin with.

Evans' fans will eat this up as welcome return to form. However, a more critical listen will reveal this set as a concession to Nashville's ever more restrictive, formulaic studio system.

Much like Prodigy's return to their rave-era prime on Invaders Must Die, it feels a touch forced, but what remains clear is that the Hartnolls still have the ability to make magic more than 20 years after their debut.

Mature Themes just reveals more levels with more listening.

Between the airless coldness of lunar ambience and the waving freak flag of their most high-power jams, White Hills' voice becomes more defined and more deliberate on this set of songs.

Gary McClure knows how to write a strong melody and a great hook, and he's no slouch on guitar; those are gifts that would serve him well under any circumstances, but on American Wrestlers he's shown that he can make a great record with any old junk at his disposal, and quite simply, that's just what he's done here

The duo's work here complements what they've done beside Chrisette Michele, Alicia Keys, Tamia, and especially Elle Varner.

For anyone who appreciates the original, this offers a deeper revelation of the process in and context of Reid's classic.

While sharp musical contrasts may be nothing new for Odonis Odonis, they've never sounded as meaningful as they do here. Post Plague is some of their most urgent -- and satisfying--music to date.

There's no mistaking Foreverland for anything other than the work of an artist who has chosen to give up his fight with the not-so-cruel-after-all mistress that is contentment.

A broadening of consciousness blends nicely with Yak's gut-level execution, resulting in an uncannily absorbing slice of neo-psychedelia.

What You See Is What You Get is a solid album, proudly made just the way they used to back in the 1990s.

While much of Moveys sticks to swaying, midrange tempos, they pick up the pace halfway through, on "At It Again," though the song hangs on to the, by then, well-established hazy, ruminative demeanor. Later, the ambling "Montana" incorporates slide guitar and harmonica without leaving this sighing, world-weary state.

V is definitely a "more of the same" album, but Föllakzoid and Schmidt's human-machine fusion of minimal techno and space rock is still a unique sound that nobody has replicated, other than them.

Dee Dee had to change, the change was good, and it led to a fine, grown-up guitar pop record.

Thanks to Zdar's sure-handed co-production, Bainbridge's skills at synthesizing the past and present, and a batch of songs that really stick to you after a couple listens, World, You Need a Change of Mind ends up being a very pleasing, very interesting record.

Perfect Hair contains all the usual reasons Busdriver is wonderful, just with a little more sugar baked in.

Appealing ideas and sounds, but the songs tend to be rather blah, suggesting that the LP's cancellation had more to do with the fact that Gaye had yet to find an album within his sessions than anything to do with it being too controversial for its time. Still, it's worth a listen to hear Gaye stretch out and figure out how to move forward: surrounded by Detroit and L.A. studio pros, he's making supple soul, even if it's not especially deep.

Dave Cloud was a unique talent whose work was not for all tastes, but there's a mad joy and untethered emotional freedom in Today Is the Day That They Take Me Away that would be the envy of nearly any artist, and on that score, this album puts much of Nashville's better-known product to shame.

The joy TRAAMS have in pulling their songs taut and then letting them fly--an approach that shines particularly brightly on "Bite Mark"--is more palpable than ever on Modern Dancing, and the fun is infectious.

It's one thing to make a great debut album, and quite another to make an equally effective follow-up. Night Moves have done just that on Pennied Days, an indie pop marvel well worth your attention.

Despite the haunting narrative tied to the album, Viola Beach remains the sound of youth, hope, and possibility.

Whether it showcases a singer with a guitar or circular improvisations on a theme, most of Day of the Dead follows a similarly understated, tasteful path and, ultimately, that's what's impressive about it: it is a tribute to the Grateful Dead as sonic adventurers, pioneering new avenues into space and beyond.

Keep It Together may not feature the emotional dynamics or track-by-track genius of Lost and Gone Forever, but it has something that its predecessor didn't: an unabashed pop anthem that dares you to sit still.

If the livelier numbers initially make the strongest impression -- whether it's Al Anderson's sunny pop opener "Love's Gonna Make It Alright" or a pair of fleet-footed blues in "Lone Star Blues" and "Blue Marlin Blues" -- it's the introspective moments that anchor the album and lend it a measure of gravity.

Spooky Action at a Distance might be more low-key than some of Pundt's other work with and without Lotus Plaza, but it's still a great showcase for his winsome songs.

With Burials, Havok and AFI don't just bury the castle of wrecked relationships, they put to rest any notions that they aren't kings of their dystopian rock kingdom.

Surfing Strange is a picture of a band not in transition, but in an especially quick process of maturation. The results end up being no less instantly exciting, but more lasting and poignant than what came before.

Altogether, the material is mature, technically proficient as ever, lively, and sounds rough and real; it’s hard to imagine Individ won’t be a hit with fans, intermittent or long-standing.

File this one next to C-Murder's Truest $#!@ I Ever Said as it's a gripping prison album that is embracing freedom upon its release, but know that this is a much more polished effort.

It's music for meditative mornings or for afternoons in need of a dose of consolation and comfort.

A much darker, more ambitious set of songs than the Knife's previous work.

Whether or not you prefer the rowdier version of Harper and his band, it is inarguable that this recording is a concentrated effort coming down on the side of a couple of musical notions that weave together artfully and meaningfully.

Quite a few people are doing this kind of music in 2013; precious few are doing it this well.

Stylish and yearning, Love Yourself: Tear is BTS at a polished and focused peak, cohesive enough to feel like it was conceived in one particular period rather than cobbled together like some of their previous releases.

Rose's own songwriting gifts are on ample display throughout Own Side Now, with lyrics that show a knack for poetic turns and artful understatement in equal measure -- a combination too seldom found in young songwriters' work -- and humble but hummable melodies that make the most of her grounding in both alt-country and pop.

Listeners who came of age during the alt-rock revolution and were disappointed, even outraged, at Liz Phair's Matrix makeover in 2003 should find In Exile Deo is exactly what they were looking for.

Compared to "Hello Young Lovers," Exotic Creatures does sound a little starker at points, but it's often also subtler and slyer, tempering bombast in favor of sprightly but also uneasy melodies on songs like 'The Director Never Yelled "Cut'"

The knack for adding that sudden feeling of positive release is perhaps best summed up by the title of another song with a similar touch: "Rising."

Brutal, unrestrained, and unapologetically ferocious, Utilitarian proves Napalm Death certainly aren't going to mellow with age, and fans of their merciless sound wouldn't want them any other way.

Two Wounded Birds is a well-crafted and powerful debut from a band that arrived in full control of both its sound and its songs.

It's chock-full seductive, attractive melodies and sweet singing, but its lyrics are searing enough in their emotional and spiritual honesty, that they cut to the bone. Great.

Far from seeming aimless, the spaciness is controlled: guitars and bass build to occasional crescendos that then fall back to earth, and the prolonged periods of murmuring electronics do not lack texture or tension. It's this almost cinematic pacing that gives IN///PARALLEL its unique appeal.

Oldham's brand of folk music is certainly old enough and weird enough, but there are noticeably fewer moments of beauty and fewer lyrical revelations than on his best material.

The EP is fine, by all means, but it's definitely not the Aphex release to reach for if you're expecting to be challenged or blown away by something utterly unique or exciting.