This Lost Themes run is the best legacy sequel in this exhaustive era of legacy sequels, and if we’re lucky, the credits will never roll.

The Double Cross captures the band at their best, with well-written, catchy, and smiley songs that still hold a lot of depth to them, but seem tailor made for summer listening with the top down.

Eraserland is a somewhat indulgent listen. While it can occasionally lash out for a moment (“Moon Landing”), it might be best to tighten up the compositions for the next go-round.

You may love or hate the record but you won't ignore it.

On Kamikaze, as on their 2013 breakout album Blowout, the band comes across like the Adderall-fueled offspring of The Beastie Boys and proto-punks The Heartbreakers, both groups defined as much by their attitude as by their actual music.

This is the sound of a band learning to work together again after nearly half a decade apart and finding that they aren’t as rusty as they might think.

Sound Kapital exemplifies form mirroring content and vice versa. The electro-industrial synthesizers and drum machines convey the Handsome Furs' lyrical convictions better than the band's earlier, less bombastic combinations of synths and guitar.

Once you’ve finished Kavinsky’s OutRun, you’ll want to buckle up and ride again.

Local Natives’ original components are still in fine working order, but evolution shouldn’t sound this unnatural. They tried, but their discomfort with the equipment stops the songs from fluorescing.

20/20 succeeds because it’s groove-based, which is to say, it’s neither pop-based nor logic-based.

Kim Gordon’s voice may have been the spark that lit the blaze, but now she’s using a guitar to conjure up sonic waves to keep pushing us forward.

It's a great mini-dose of Lekman charm that should be welcome to anyone that's been missing him these four years.

They may not be quite the same scrappy art rock brats that made Pink Flag and Chairs Missing underground classics, but they’re no less thoughtful and inventive in their songwriting approach.

It will take a truly patient listener to not just sit through the album, but to parse McCombs’ language and internalize the spare arrangements.

A Wasteland Companion finds the melancholic Ward in fine form, and with this effort, he only further establishes his legacy as one of our under-appreciated greats.

Frantic and poetic, Pura Vida Conspiracy is another open window into gypsy culture that, for reasons unbeknownst to us, feels and looks like home.

The 12-song project is the Brooklyn native’s most well-rounded release to date.

Some of the songs’ differences are sanded down, all glossed together in ultra-professional production.

She makes the listener feel close to her time and time again throughout the album, from the blinding light of guitar-led anthems like “Lottery” and “I Get No Joy” to the pure fun of “Going Gone” and the almost terrifying gravity and proximity of “If I Die”. It’s this vulnerability that makes her approach feels so real, and that demands that we attend to her music and take something real away from it.

Some could argue that the Cool Kids abandoned their original minimalism on When Fish Ride Bicycles. However, they've contemporized their old-school influences for a wider audience. By incorporating both well-known names and lesser-known artists, the Cool Kids are finally in a position to get major exposure.

Crab Day marks a considerable step forward, appealing to existing fans while also announcing a huge period of growth.

The slinky electric guitar, complex rhythms, mix of languages, and shimmery dance jam mentality wrap things up perfectly, lines blurred in the interest of the world's best party.

Smallhans is an electronic purist's dream and reestablishes Lindstrøm as an innovative producer who is capable of powerful work.

It’s simply a beautiful little record that anyone can enjoy.

Seeker is an exciting and treasurable return for Cronin, as the four-year hiatus since MCIII has resulted in some of the best songwriting and musicianship of his solo career. Sure, some of it blends together after a while, but every piece of the puzzle earns its place as well.

It’s a slick and glossy record, even at its most unhinged.

Cyrus has always been more interesting — eclectic, provocative, upending expectations — as a public figure than as a musician. But on songs like “Midnight Sky”, Cyrus has found a sonic mode where listeners can more fully hear her distinctive voice and unruly perspective. Like her hero Elvis Presley perhaps, Plastic Hearts proves that Cyrus can be derivative and still be an original.

Expectations are high, sure, but the group has reassured their true believers with a solid cornerstone of an EP.