It’s a hard album to dislike, and an equally hard one to love.

It’s a pleasure to report that country music’s ultimate good guy has once again crafted an excellent collection of new music with his 18th album.

Tracks like “Death Came,” “Dust,” and “Bitter Memory” have great lyrics, yet the clear conclusion is that Williams should’ve condensed her second self-released double-disc set since 2014 into one record--two is just too much.

The buoyancy at the center of the open-road-ready “Dopamine,” subtly urgent “Yr Not Far,” and chiming “Loose Ends” makes the 17 tracks drift by like a breeze on a particularly carefree spring day.

“When You Are Young,” “Pale Snow,” and “Learning to Be” sound transitional even at full length, struggling for traction and momentum. “I Don’t Know How to Reach You” is grand and gloriously dramatic, propulsive, and vaguely off in the best Suede tradition, guitarist Richard Oakes pinging in sad ecstasy in tandem with singer Brett Anderson’s preening, come-hither mope.

John and Taupin have long passed the point of having anything to prove, and if Wonderful Crazy Night doesn’t offer much in the way of instantly gratifying pop hit-making, it’s got craft and joie de vivre to spare--which for artists of their vintage is admirable in its own right.

Hunter keeps on doing what he does, and on Hold On! he’s doing it as well as he ever has.

The album doesn’t shy from its broad ambitions, offering a glossy club jam (“Kno One”) and an after-hours groove (“One Thing”), tracks that require Gates to ease back his flow and craft a knockout hook to carry the song, something he also does on the anthemic “2 Phones.” But as a lyricist, Gates is closer to Ghostface Killah or Beanie Sigel.

This delightful album revisits artists that Miller recorded during cruises in 2014 and 2015.

Gumption exhibits a mastery of texture and tension that’s surely a harbinger for the exciting career Miller has ahead.

While Sia has declared her awareness of the cheese factor in her hired-gun material, with its broad themes of self-empowerment and survival, she has a real gift for making it palatable.

The often elliptical lyrics are both penetrating and hypnotic--the sounds of words are as vital as their meaning.

With its sense of unease, quiet, and longing, much of Anti is unlikely to grab ears on first listen or play well to Rihanna’s broadest base of fans. But it is an interesting artistic curveball in her heretofore hits-driven career.

The 11 tracks, all co-written by the Osbornes, expertly capture TJ’s beguiling baritone and John’s nimble fretwork, with fewer concessions to pop-country trends than might be expected from a major-label act.

A sudden turn to classic rock feels like one of the weirdest moves of Tortoise’s career--but it also feels so right.

Adhering to basic rock formalism, the all-women quartet captures a raw primitivism that’s undeniably appealing in an era when most mainstream rock acts are as manicured as Bravo housewives. Unfortunately, too many songs like “I’ll Be Your Man,” a sleepy (hungover?) stab at hooky, sunshine rock, seem like first drafts.

The band is brawny yet nimble, wriggling and writhing in a groove one moment, pivoting into pummel mode the next.

At the heart of the mood is something that only comes naturally: the plaintive croon of hand-in-glove brotherly harmonies.

His latest release, Fortune, weds his marvelous lyrical economy to music that ranges from spare acoustic guitar to a clanging junkyard sound, and proves once again that he’s a ringmaster at turning misery into art.

Subtle hints at emotional undercurrents enhance the potency of Friedberger’s lyrics.

Bachelor doesn’t always hit.... But Urie’s charm and willingness to maximize his songs’ pop-spectacle quotient make Bachelor an often-delightful accompaniment to 2016’s earliest, chilliest weeks.

The wounded “Better Place” and soothing “Superman” stand out, showing how Platten’s songwriting skills can be used to tease out emotional subtleties. But too often here she’s battling stuffed-to-the-gills arrangements.

Tthese renditions make this whole more than the sum of its estimable parts.

The album is dense and intriguing, neither a straightforward rock record nor so wildly experimental as to be inaccessible.

A sublime, succinct overview of the composer’s sprawling catalog.

Thorn’s ability to craft a full character portrait from just a few lines is starkest on the tracks from her 2010 album, “Love and Its Opposite.”

Few of the new tracks reach that level of greatness [of his classic hits], and flimsy lyrics mar a couple. But several worm their way into the ear endearingly.

A singular listening experience, Kannon is best consumed at extreme volume and with an open mind.