The lack of variance in tempo across the hour-long sequence makes Heart on My Sleeve downright torpid at points. All upticks are welcome -- the one with an incongruous Kirk Franklin appearance included -- but slow and low is undeniably the singer's forte.

In the wake of crossover dance acts who scored after the success of On a Mission, Katy B remains in a class of her own.

A record of quiet fire, fueled by an electric/acoustic guitar dynamic and the determined waver in Molina's vocals, which have strengthened considerably since Songs: Ohia.

A moody, intense, dramatic, and orchestrated second full-length tour de force.

Macklemore's a mix of all of the above with some distinctive qualities, and with Lewis putting that kaleidoscope style underneath, The Heist winds up a rich combination of fresh and familiar.

He acknowledges and celebrates musical difference, allows for those tensions to reveal themselves inside his music, and creates a dialogue that uses rhythm and harmony as unifying signifiers in his political language. Brilliant.

Much like Deftones, NIN, and Tool successfully coexist alongside their respective sibling projects, Puciato, Eustis, and Alexander have created a refreshing entity to foster an alternative outlet for their emotions and creativity with satisfying results.

It's an aural lava lamp, kicking up slow-bursting explosions of texture and sound.

The album is charmingly pretentious, confounding, and a good time all at once. Closer "Pebbles" is the only song here borrowed from their debut EP, Gothenburg, released six months earlier.

Austra may have traded some of Feel It Break's compelling rawness for a more polished approach on Olympia, but Future Politics' rare balance of poise and intensity makes it their most accomplished and emotionally satisfying album yet.

They are just as vital, exciting, and necessary as they were in the beginning and this record stands with their best work.

It just feels like a lively, deeply felt Pretenders album, one that has better songs and better performances than usual.

Fans will find that Key to the Kuffs goes from confusing letdown to intriguing mystery after just a couple listens.

Even if People or the Gun does nothing to break new barriers musically, fans of their early work will be pleased to hear a return to form.

While Midnight Soul Serenade may not be the best Heavy Trash album (their debut takes that honor), it's still some of the best rock & roll around. Anywhere, anytime.

The ambient stuff is nice, too -- different than what Fruit Bats fans are used to, perhaps, but proof that Johnson knows how to stretch his legs without losing his balance.

Once it's clear that anything can happen, the lack of a common sound makes each track an exciting new proposition, allowing the listener to feel a sense of discovery despite the fact that they've been listening to Quasi for as long as two decades now.

Houndmouth have the right touch and impressive chops, but this album makes it clear they needs a songwriter who can make their music seem fresh even as it's modeled on the past.

The cumulative result is a messy, colorful modern pop record that is greater than the sum of its parts.

His ideas are expressed in a far more succinct manner, but they offer similarly powerful commentary, and the album's starkness works to its advantage, driving the tracks' points so they hit home.

It has a similarly big-screen and disparate, primarily beat-less approach to ambient music [as 2016's Under The Sun]. Each track evokes a distinct scene.

Compared to the debut, the songs are a little tighter in structure, communicate more, and bounce from style to style -- whereas Lost & Found presented an evolved, commercially minded brand of street soul -- with introspective R&B always somewhere in the mix.

The style of music being obscure to modern listeners makes this project's viability a good one, and La Llama reveals material of quality from a great ensemble of musicians.

Nude Beach aren't starting a revolution with II, but its well-crafted songs and raw-edged execution are just too damn joy-inspiring to deny.

This is the most pleasing Usher album in over a decade. In terms of ability, agility, and creativity, Usher's vocals still crush the commercial competition.

With the Mountain Goats, John Darnielle has created a vehicle where he finds ways to surprise the listener in fine ways each time out, and Bleed Out is more proof that he's one of the best storytellers indie rock has ever produced.

It's their seamless and agreeable blend of rock & roll, country, and Roky Erickson-style psychedelia, matched with a keen lyrical wit, that makes them fascinating to both sides of the pond.

The soundtrack to the Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious is a welcome surprise. Selections from the past (a bunch of old hits plus some wonderfully raw demos) and the present (Jay-Z's infectious collabo with Santogold) along with a hint of the legacy's future (an appearance from Biggie's son, Christopher "CJ" Wallace, Jr.) are sequenced in a way that avoids any of the bombast or misguided majesty of Born Again or Duets.

While Far is far from bad, it doesn't quite live up to expectations, either, based on all the talent involved in making it and how fully Spektor expressed herself on "Begin to Hope."

For her second solo album, the Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer slapped together an album-full of songs about Australia and New Zealand to coincide with her 2011 tour of the Australian continent.

All of this is worthy of re-visitation or discovery.

It's hard to argue against the use of the 2009 remasters, as this is the best the Beatles have ever sounded. And not only does this sound good, it looks good, so it's a handsome way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Beatlemania, although anybody who owns the 2009 boxes in addition to the 2004 and 2006 sets may find it hard to justify another purchase.

Despite its varying sonic proclivities, Modern Ruin is a punk album at heart, but that Carter ends this latest salvo with hope for a better, more empathy-driven future for his child shows that he's capable of more than just mosh pit-inducing invective.

More a gentle expansion than a reformulation, The Mighty Thread should appeal to established fans and other daydreamers.

Ultraviolence thrives for the most part in its density, meant clearly to be absorbed as an entire experience, with even its weaker pieces contributing to a mood that's consumptive, sexy, and as eerie as big-budget pop music gets.

Let's Go Eat the Factory is hardly a triumph, but it's a step in the right direction for Pollard, as well as confirmation that this group of friendly reprobates still has some good work left in them.

It would be unfair to call Black Hours a missed opportunity; even if its glimpses at fresher musical territory are tantalizing, Leithauser carries on the Walkmen's tradition in ways that fans will welcome.

While the album slowly gathers components and rhythmic complexity as it progresses, it remains cautionary in tone and, for Son Lux, restrained.

Each song is snappy, playful, and stylish, and that's what makes Dancing with Daggers work so well.

The final product is intelligent and often fascinating, but it doesn't deliver like the Afghan Whigs do at their best, and ultimately comes off as a brave but somewhat unsatisfying experiment.

Here, on Blood and Candle Smoke, he's perfected this method of songwriting and learned to record in a completely new way, to boot.

The Drop Beneath is another strong step toward Eternal Summers being a band like Bettie or Velocity Girl, the kind that other bands will look to for inspiration 20 years later.

They're old-fashioned, but in the best sense: they're in it for the long haul, which the superb Warpaint proves beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Dir en Grey are a band in their own genre at this point, and Dum Spiro Spero is the farthest-reaching testament to establish that as fact more than opinion.

The album is a bit too pretty and polished for its own good, with the kind of approach that fades into the background at times, but there's no arguing the quality and thoughtfulness that Calder put into this work, and if you like the notion of indie pop as ambient music, then this may be just the album you've been looking for.

A skillful debut by musicians with notable prior credits, they've settled into something intriguing and distinct out of the gate.

While newer production tricks add some kick to DaBaby's formula, stagnant lyrics and monotonous flows present him as an artist unwilling to change; swamped by slushy imitations of his best work, the gems on Kirk aren't given the platform to shine.

If I Am Only My Thoughts is the work of a band already at the top of their game, and anyone looking for music that wraps them in a warm blanket of intricate sound and a calming embrace of restrained emotion could do a whole lot worse.

Immediate without sounding dumbed-down, Mr. Beast shows the band at the peak of their powers.

A skillful balance of harshness and beauty, Discipline + Desire is a welcome reintroduction to a band that is among the best at keeping this sound not just alive, but vital.

Eagulls' density and intensity sometimes border on exhausting, but the album is an undeniably bracing beginning.

Here Come the Tears is what Coming Up would have been if Butler had stuck around: it's cinematic and bright, lush and passionate, halfway between the incessantly catchy pop that wound up on Coming Up and the sighing romanticism and larger-than-life sweep of Dog Man Star.

Though it's a little perverse for the band to bury its explosive moments, it proves that there's more to Past Lives than rehashing the Blood Brothers' legacy. They're still finding their footing on Tapestry of Webs, but they're going interesting places.

With Collider, Roberts proves himself an essential part of the R&R landscape.

Ultimately, while Frampton is never allowed to settle into one aesthetic sound on Red--moving from electronic pop to dance-rock to folk-pop--her honey-sweet voice and emotionally compelling delivery are enough to carry you along for the ride.

Improvisations is probably easier to enjoy, with the extended format offering a more broadly sympathetic palette for Osborne's forbiddingly austere aesthetic.

What Happened to the La Las kicks off the new partnership with a mix of heady Southern rock and rootsy, festival-friendly funk.

Everything Touching is far more direct, less convoluted, often shamelessly anthemic.

While Breaking Dawn isn't one of the more dynamic Twilight Saga soundtracks, it is one of the more emotive ones, and just may help fans get some closure as one of the biggest film franchises of the 2000s and 2010s comes to a close.

As an entryway into the burgeoning psych scene that's been developing in Chile, you couldn't ask for a more accessible album than Noctuary, and niggling issues aside, the Holydrug Couple's breezy, slow-motion beach party jams are something that psych fans will definitely want to explore for themselves.

To be fair, the band still sounds like they could break into "Breathe" at any moment, but there's a sense of adventure and a vulnerability to Antiphon that suggests that this latest incarnation of the group is more interested in what's beyond the Dark Side of the Moon than it is standing in its shadow.

††† is a solid effort that stands on its own merit rather than simply cruising on the cultural cache of its members.

While Shortwave Nights might not be for everyone, Hiss Tracts have made an album of experimental music that feels like it was made to engage rather than alienate, casting aside inscrutability to create something surprisingly fragile and soulful.

In the end, it's clear that the Arkells want to be a big band and they've put themselves out there in a big way with High Noon.

If his bitterness is unavoidable in the lyrics or in his voice, his music softens his bite, turning these tunes into melancholy laments instead of invective, so there winds up being a bit of a needed cushion to Mellencamp's straight talk on Plain Spoken.

There are a couple moments where the album gets overly somber, and the saxophone solo on "Kelly" should have been left on the cutting-room floor, but for the most part Sky City is a promising, quietly satisfying debut.

While the collection doesn't come with the purposeful feel of Donuts, it flows extremely well for a beat tape, and one released nine years after the artist passed.

Kid Wave may bear their fair share of '90s mystique, but they prove that quality always wins out and these sturdy songs are built to last.

I Long to See You is well worth investigating even if, at times, it is overly tentative.

Luxury Alone is a rare blend of vulnerability and beauty that puts Weird Dreams on a new level.

Underneath its simmering shimmer Different Days offers spins on classic pop, electronic soul, and late-night chill. Perhaps it's quiet exploration, but the Charlatans embrace the elastic possibilities of new avenues here, and the results are rewarding.

Forgiving those space fillers, Scum remains a great pleasure, the product of a young mind brimming with ideas coupled with enough youthful bravery to take such risks.

Wizard Bloody Wizard doesn't break any new ground for this band, but innovation has never been what these folks are about. Instead, their albums are offerings to the gods of the blacklight poster and the bong, and on that level, Electric Wizard appear to have made their masters very happy indeed.

Dark, dangerous, and addictive, Nihilistic Glamour Shots is a strong opening statement from Cabbage, jolting listeners with sly humor, anti-establishment sneer, and enough sonic variation to hypnotize and invigorate.

A quarter of an hour shorter than In My Mind, 1123 is nonetheless overloaded with cosmetic, stream-baiting features and disruptive diversions. ... It's no coincidence that the album's hottest three-song stretch involves no guests and plays to BJ's strengths with slow-bumping retro-modern grooves that are played and programmed.

If this album could stand a bit of editing to make it more concise, it leaves no doubt they have the talent and vision to be an artist who is going to be around for a while, and it's fascinating to imagine where they can go next. Terra Firma shows where they are now is already pretty impressive.

Songs My Friends Wrote delivers what a good covers record should: it works on its own terms and piques interest in the original versions.

It expertly combines these global roots traditions with hip urban sounds in a distinctive mix that's at once contemporary and timeless. Well worth the long wait, this is the kind of creative, far-reaching, accessible album that comes along once in a generation.

Revamped is great fun, and fans of both sides of Lovato's sonic personality will appreciate this bonus diversion from the main catalog.

Though it's a little long and a couple songs veer toward filler, it's a return to form for of Montreal and more than justifies the hype and attention their live show has garnered.

FIDLAR strike out in a variety of different directions, landing some new tricks but slamming a lot more. The result is a scattershot collection that just doesn't hang together very well.

Perhaps they should stick to singles.

Let It Come Down is another masterfully made Spiritualized album, but its very ambitions sometimes overwhelm it.

Home Acres never breaks any new barriers and it's less cerebral than earlier outings, but it’s a good, consistent listen that showcases the band in their comfort zone.

K'NAAN's a rock-solid songwriter with a charismatic delivery that rains down sparks of cool guy and clever.

So basically, it's another weird, great White Fence album, only the bass is a little clearer, the drums a bit louder, and there's less tape hiss. Only die-hard four-track fanatics could complain about that.

While both sides [of the album] are well executed, neither makes as much of an impact as it has in the past. It may not be ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead's most exciting album, but there are still enough bright moments here to keep fans engaged.

The Runaway Found is an incredibly focused first album, giving evidence of how serious the Veils are about composing a stylish, quality sound.

The unlikely marriage of cold, Bowie-in-Berlin-esque funk and maximized random sound snippets comes off as the most natural and lovely expression of hopeful despair imaginable. Much of the record follows this incredibly nuanced path, giving it uniquely brittle atmosphere, and ranking among the band's best work.

Despite [a] couple of dragging moments, Coal Miner's Daughter is for the most part filled with solid, respectful versions of excellent songs and serves as a worthy tribute to an enduring icon.

Kraus and her various collaborators throughout--notably Christophe Albertijn, who both performed and recorded the overall effort--are a bit more plugged in overall, but if the feeling of the the album is misty folk-rock at many points, it's the folk that still predominates throughout.

Dominated by unrelenting synthesized bellowing battling slashing guitar figures and femur-snapping drumming, Pop. 1280 summon a hellish wall of sonic abuse that manages to also be curiously compelling, a neo-industrial attack that starts in high gear and never stops pouring fire and brimstone on the listener.

Consistently hypnotic, yet rich with sneaky melodic shifts, Sister's rich sonic architecture, which includes Bettinson's anodyne vocals and stream of consciousness wordsmithing, is its greatest selling point.

The simple guitar leads and shared lead vocals of Cosials and Perrote are charming in their ramshackle way and their quirky back-and-forth interplay is the glue that holds it all together.

Ultimate Painting may not reach the commercial heights of either guy's main band, but it is fully the equal and in some ways more interesting. Certainly if you're a fan of Veronica Falls or Mazes, you'll want to check this out right away.

Disenchantment with the state of rap, and society as a whole, is a major underlying theme, but the statements never feel too preachy or in your face. Instead, the vocal freestyles hover just slightly above the music, delivered in an amorphous mumble that matches the sonic abyss of the background perfectly.

Despite these small tweaks to his established, well-oiled formula, Hypnophobia feels like a natural follow-up to Cabinet, with Gardner not looking to do much of anything new.

On BLUE LIPS, Lo refines her unmistakable sounds and moods more satisfyingly than she did on Lady Wood, and transforms betrayal and denial into some of her finest songs.