Even though she doesn't get the same kind of attention as some of her peers do, Angie Stone is a supreme talent, and this album really shows it.

Her voice is huskier, veined with the fine lines of age, but that only enhances the sultry sound of the Vineyard's favorite songbird.

With Med sud, the band proves its indie-pop potential while remaining rooted in its unique brand of spaced-out alt-rock.

One thing we do know after listening to Leucocyte--the Esbjorn Svensson Trio's grandest achievement--is that its leader had much more to say, much more to explore.

Heart devotees should appreciate these new updates on their classic sound.

For all of the scorching discordance (Gustafsson's ambitious "Sudden Movement"), there are also passages of divine lyricism ("Golden Heart," "What Reason"). A welcome return.

Some People Have Real Problems reveals the other Sia: plucky, bubbly, and growling purposefully through assertive pop songs.

A bright, challenging album.

The Cambridge collective employs its considerable--and considerably appealing--strengths with gleeful assurance. Euphoric cross-hatched harmonies; gobs of fuzzy, low-end guitars; and various embellishments (mellotron, organ, Casio synth guitar, etc.) make the whole shebang sound like one big, loopy carousel ride at a cracked carnival.

“Dirty Projectors” struggled toward hope, but Lamp-Lit Prose has found it, and at its end it opens toward new possibilities.

It's strong, supple stuff by a strong bunch of women.

He does what he does best, delivering finely wrought, elegantly arranged songs of subtle depth and rich musicality, many extending past five minutes without overstaying their welcome.

The band's sophomore disc, which teems with drama and dark dollops of piano that swarm beautifully around singer-guitarist Tom Smith's clarion-call voice, continues to make good on the hype while again drawing on the past.

The indie troubadour spins out his trademark blend of vintage country-folk that begs to be played on an old turntable and heard through the screen door. Fortunately, great music transcends its medium.

With electrifying cameos from Chicago’s Vince Staples and song-stealing Dreezy, these vital, relevant tracks remind how good Common can be when he’s focused.

An unfamiliar listener coming in cold to Yeasayer’s second full-length album probably wouldn’t make it too much further than the opener, “The Children.’’ It’s a choppy, dirge-like downer, the soundtrack to a spooky submarine’s descent into the abyss in cinematic slow motion. But it would be a tragic mistake to abandon ship on this avant-pop Brooklyn trio just before the fun starts.

Mockingbird Time revisits what made the Louris-Olson Jayhawks truly distinctive: the omnipresent, twining, joyous interplay of their voices. That pairing is here again in full force.

Using her piano, guitar, and rhythm tracks as both weapon and comforter, Nash skips lightly from ultra-contemporary hip-hop grooves to jaunty pop melodies that harken back to Motown and the Fab Four, all while retaining a keen lyrical eye for her own sense of joy, doubt, and power.

The 15 tracks on The Real Thing feature a slew of styles and producers--among them Scott Storch (DMX, 50 Cent), Adam Blackstone (the Roots), Om'Mas Keith (Jay-Z), and Shafiq Husayn (Jurassic 5)--all gathered in pursuit of a mission outlined on the album's gorgeous, abstract opener, a meditation on open-mindedness.

The band’s fifth record operates with a mercurial, decade-spanning dishevelment.

Wolf Eyes’ travels through the depths of noise and despair sound like they end up at a place where the gates read “Abandon All Hope,” but the group’s ability to put across its artistic vision with such totality should inspire at least a flicker of optimism.

Helm blends the secular and gospel worlds with an almost seamless precision. Fans of the Band will love this.

Now with her debut album, Immunity, Clairo has found her sound, one more elaborate and fitting for the lyrical prowess that made “Pretty Girl” such a hit. The album hits a gorgeous peak with the fifth song, “Bags.”

On Return to the Moon, their debut for 4AD, the duo play off each other’s strengths--Knopf’s kaleidoscopic art rock and Berninger’s impressionistic storytelling--to skim the best of both worlds.

With the help of producer Marc Shaiman (“Hairspray”), Midler is both reverent and mischievous on It’s the Girls.

Luckily for him, his band Destroyer more than makes up for his occasionally strained croak, and "Trouble in Dreams," their follow-up to 2006's acclaimed "Destroyer's Rubies," is an unqualified triumph.

The 12 songs are untamed thrill rides that recall some of New York’s rock innovators, particularly Lou Reed and Television.

The disc is an affirmation that life, and hip-hop, can indeed get better.