Heaven is more like a classic Sunday morning album: a modest, extremely laid back paean to the comforts of domesticity in which every song sounds like it was recorded from a rocking chair.

In the end, a few weak verses are easy to brush aside on an album this likable.

The Sister is another fine record in Nadler's growing catalogue, yet one tied more to the well-trodden tropes (lyrically, stylistically) she's built her name on than we've grown accustomed.

The Dreamer is a very traditional record, straight-up pop with a tinge of alt-country. It's easy company, a warm and thoroughly enjoyable summer listen.

AlunaGeorge can still be both pop and provocative, they just haven't hit on a reason to be so quite yet.

Banks is often all the more mesmerizing when she leaves the beef on the back-burner and takes stock of her influences.

He's pushing himself ever so slightly, and while it might not be enough to draw in the unconverted, the rest of us will want to stick around for more.

El-P's always been ahead of the curve but Cancer for Cure isn't valuable for its prescience so much as its currency of the now and the way it unites rap head nostalgia for the future beats of the past with the beats of the present.

With El-P's help, Killer Mike has produced his first unquestionably great Album.

Everything that makes Shackleton's sound a singular one is on proud display through this extensive compilation of new material.

Vocals seem to serve The Diver much better the more they're respected as atmospheric elements in addition to interesting texts, and the band make good on that necessary compromise throughout.

There is a vital something absent; reassuringly, though, the greatness that eludes awE naturalE doesn't feel like something THEESatisfaction will never "morph" into.

The style of songwriting is remarkably similar to that found on Teen Dream. Yet neither suffers much for it.

When it's good, it doesn't get much better.

For the most part, it works.

A welcome new start for this talented band.

As far as drone or ambient records go, Black Mesa is accessible and melodious.

As is scene tradition, these three don't make it easy to find the proverbial diamonds in their artistic rough, but dispatches such as Imikuzushi make a frustrating journey seem that much more satisfying.

The first four or so tracks of Sees the Light hold their own in terms of melody and momentum....Unfortunately, Sees the Light devolves from there into full-on, committed homogeneity, songs blending into each other with little to set them apart

A textbook example of restrained, stylish writing, Here We Go Magic have found their muse: a 40-something producer from England who just knows well enough to get out of the way.

It is, itself, a joyful record, prickly and playful and sometimes downright bizarre, but never less than welcoming.

There really aren't any bad or outright boring songs here, though Castlemusic's very best moments are largely front-loaded.

It provides the kind of visceral excitement absent in so many of those other albums.

His [Kurt Ballou's] success here makes De Vermis Mysteriis the closest thing to a standout that the High on Fire catalog can claim, and the band makes good on what Ballou brings to the table.

Hair is more of a juicy stew than a straight-up throwback record.

YT // ST is a record of violence and of harmony alike, both musical and otherwise. A record that explores the shifting terrain between "A Star Over Pureland" and the scorched earth of a lightning strike. A lightning strike of a record.

It's not the sort of thing one pins their organic, folksy dreams upon, though you get the sense it was born out of that interest and perhaps lost its way over time.

Kill for Love may not be nearly as focused and razor-sharp as Night Drive, but it's twice as much fun and just as confidently personalized--just as purely Chromatics.