The sedation blurs the transition of space and time, and Mangan skillfully plays with the passing of each to create unexpected pacing that adds to the overall feel, giving the album moments that range from subdued melancholy to impassioned rock.

All in all, Girlpool is the kind of EP made for those moments when you feel big on the outside, but aren’t so sure on the inside.

The songs are solid and don’t mess around as much as the show. Though the non-stop, not exactly dancey indulgence groove ride of the whole first half, no pause until six songs in, might nag some.

Soft hits on some deeply buried emotions (“I left scraps inside of you” on Soft Opening; “If you feel a rusted heart/don’t let them know” on Rusty), but does it with such grace that it’s easy to convince yourself this is an album of all-forgiving love.

The album churns away on a mid-tempo path throughout, ethereal harmonies skimming past and back to Adebimpe’s yearning lead vocals being the main thread through it.

As convoluted as it may seem at first, there is merit to the deranged genius of Ariel Pink.

Brittle, spare yet maximalist in sound, Content Nausea is mostly successful, with a few key missteps.

Throughout DSU, Alex G fills in gaps and layers over his songs’ simple backbones with shy yet enthralling tweaks and shuffles.

The album’s 15 tracks don’t quite reach the 40-minute mark, but each track has a unique identity that both stands alone yet slips into the narrative of Xen.

Though Hemsworth’s style tends to favor chirping cheeriness, Alone For The First Time is solidly a winter album, and it’s just what we needed right now.

Refuse be fooled by the any cutesy pop leanings. La Isla Bonita is wonderful, but there are no all-inclusive resorts on this island.

There’s a good amount of experimentation here, and very few misfires.

Black Metal is Blunt’s most realized work yet, but it’s still shrouded in mystery. There’s no reason for that to change, and there’s not even a hint here that Blunt is anywhere near ready to fold.

Songs will reward repeated listens, and firmly establishes Deptford Goth as a talent to keep an eye on.

Now that Barrett’s had a solid touring duo together for awhile, and they’ve got a couple albums under their studded leather belt, the duo (Len Clark on skins) has that feeling of an act at its third album phase: assured, strong, but teetering on a decision to leave its comfort zone or not.

Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave will do more than satisfy existing fans of the band; new fans too would do well to start here.

The band’s adept at sustaining a singular sound throughout via rabid drumming, guitar fuzz at burning moss level and the fractured harmonies at freaky.

There aren’t any bad songs here, but ultimately Bazaar comes off more like a compilation album of great tracks than a carefully edited album.

Taiga marks Danilova’s own internal struggle to continue to carve out her own musical path. And so far, so good.

We Come From The Same Place is an album that often opts for the direct over the obscure, but taken as a whole it evokes something difficult to articulate about life and love. Both musically and lyrically, this album serves as definitive proof that this band is on a roll.

A New Testament is a charming, compelling and overwhelmingly genuine piece of work from an artist who seems determined to confound expectations.

Feel Something is never anything less than enthralling in its mushy melodies and gossamer vocals that’ll have many crushing on this record through the cold months.

If you can glaze over the four total minutes that those three aforementioned songs ["I Love You Ugly," "Madness," and "Demon From Hell"] occupy, what’s left is an all-around good time.

As a whole, the album is charming, but deeply moving. The instrumentation is often simple, as are the lyrics, and the result is a rewarding, slow-building work of serious depth, and a long overdue solo debut for one of the genre’s finest songwriters.

Ontario Gothic is an amazingly precise, contextually aware work that’s very easy to listen to as just beautiful music, but it’s also an album that asks the listener to try for more.

Weirdon is stacked with some hefty singles guaranteed to bring this band to an even wider audience, and it succeeds because it ups the ante in terms of songcraft and production, but never at the cost of the weirdness.

Too Bright is a near immaculate work. It’s bold but vulnerable and finds Hadreas taking risks in structure, content and sound.

Although the album loses some steam in its second side, it is light-years away from disappointing. Instead, it is proof that this band has aged well.