While it still falls short in holding attention from start to finish, Big Black Coat signals a welcome return. Junior Boys created their most uncomplicated album yet, which still holds their signature style, and with it comes a jagged body of music made soft to the touch thanks to Greenspan’s buttery vocals.

Lyrically, Barnett feels more accessible this time around, letting us share her anxiety when it comes to daily threats like toxic masculinity (“Nameless, Faceless”) and even scaling back the syllables (again on “Charity”) to simply reassure us that we’re not alone.

The real takeaway from this record should be that his band is officially worth the hype they have generated, and are capable of a whole lot more than we ever anticipated.

Even as he’s celebrating the wonder of America and all its spoils, there’s an undercurrent of razor cynicism that belies the joy. That’s the fun yin and yang that makes Americana such a rich listen.

There is an air of melancholy that cloaks her work, from The Saga of Mayflower May (2005) to Songs III: Bird on the Water (2007) to Little Hells (2009), and her self-titled record is no exception.

Flamagra isn’t the first Flying Lotus album that can be enjoyed from beginning to end, but it still feels special. There’s a unity among these songs that exude emotion, like the warm comfort provided by a flame.

Drunk is what we’ve come to expect from Thundercat, which is to say it’s a welcome release. On his third album, he embraces his sound, stereotypes and all, so that teenage humor lights up otherwise overly-heady bass.

A sentimental, succinct collection of independent tracks, all of which are raw, honest, and scrumptiously concocted.

My Finest Work Yet is a strong collection of music buoyed by Bird’s mastery as a musician, recognizable whistling melodies, and , thoughtful lyrics. He does get political and inevitably opens himself up to criticism for it, but he does so with a light touch that doesn’t overpower the songs. Even if listeners disagree with Bird’s views, they’ll still enjoy the music.

Pujol takes the advice of their own lyrics, though, and finds opportunities within this set framework to be creative.

The Wild is a worthy addition to Raekwon’s extensive discography and should comfortably take a position near the top of most fans’ lists.

It’s hard to critique punk music. You’re judging exactly how much someone doesn’t give a fuck and how well they are at expressing that. High Risk Behaviour is an album you can blast on the highway while going 90 or one that you can watch live and get drunk and crowd-surf to.

Production values may have been stepped up compared to its predecessors, but the album retains the same haunting charm.

While her songwriting hasn’t quite made the same leaps that prior records have shown, Out in the Storm offers a unique perspective: that of someone happier and stronger for the pain endured.

It's got that first-take impulsiveness to it, full of tics and eccentricities, and that lack of pretention lets us see Foxygen as the characters they truly are.

At this point, Win Butler is rock ‘n’ roll’s Christopher Nolan, a hyper-literate artist who crafts reliable, intelligent, and challenging blockbuster events that sweep our minds away. With the 85-minute Reflektor, he’s taken his most creative risks to date and at the cost of simply trusting what he sees, who he knows, and where he wants to go.

Ali backs his vitriol and vigor with '70s R&B soul-style beats and a flow that expresses his emotion without being guttural or angry.

Sun Coming Down is succinct without being rushed.

A self-assured sound married to self-analytical songwriting makes Jinx the masterful soundtrack to those seemingly endless, restless nights. If only my anxious thoughts were as lovely a listen.

For a band that just started writing pop songs, this sophomore LP is an impressive outing.

That ability to tell stories of varying depth and importance is what rap is really all about, and in that regard, Swet Shop Boys are ascending fast.

Director's Cut can be seen as new work, because some of these songs are very different to their earlier versions in tone and scale; both sets of work are equally brilliant, but here there is even more clarity of purpose,

Slime Season finds Thugger mastering new conduits to express his idiosyncrasies in addition to spreading like marmalade over familiar territory.

Dedicated to the late Vic Chesnutt, Mr. M will stand as one of Lambchop's finest, most cohesive, and easiest straight-through listens yet, despite its intermediate tendencies.

It’s this fusion of generations that partly makes Loud Bash such a fresh and exciting record. There’s plenty of Replacements hero worship going on with the loud, tumbling arrangements and sweeping vocal hooks, but that’s what being a teenager is all about.

Songs often exist to structure a moment of reflection, to set reality into a structure to breathe for a moment; noise, on the other hand, often embodies the lack of breath. That’s rarely as true as it is with the latest from Margaret Chardiet’s Pharmakon, Bestial Burden.

No Home Record roils with just the kind of catharsis we need in Bad Timeline America. Play it loud, play it often, play it again.

It is a mature and impressive collection that connects love and fear holistically.