Some of It Was True finds the Menzingers growing up, not too fast and not too slow.

Ghostly, graceful and deceptively deep, Goodnight Summerland establishes Deland's concise power as a songwriter. As her artistry continues to evolve, it's clear that there's more than one way for her to tell her trademark stories of the infinite worlds within our own.

There's rarely a moment on Jonny that feels regressive — for the first time since the Drums' debut 13 years ago, Pierce has mastered a way to bare both his chops and his emotions.

Music about climate disaster usually feels somewhat dogmatic and thematically grandiose. But on Tomorrow's Fire, Ella Williams of Squirrel Flower takes the wide scale of the apocalypse and taps into its most intimate and personal corners.

Paint My Bedroom Black is a shiny and haunted — but unwaveringly hopeful— collection that sees her carve out her own kohl-liner rimmed space in the modern pop pantheon.

At first glance, the record may read as a scattered amalgamation of journalled revelations, but measured by the careful consolidation of its many tiny details, it may be Woods's most intentional, fleshed-out project to date.

In its enhanced and alternate history, complete with more stunning liners by Mehr, this Let it Bleed edition tells the tale as beautifully, clearly, and boldly as fans of the Replacements could ever hope for.

While not as immediate as its predecessor, Void solidifies KEN Mode as one of Canada's most important heavy acts, a band that doesn't just rely on brute force to affect its audience.

Artistic, intelligent (but not overly intellectualized), and executed with a skill and care many of us can only hope to comprehend, The Enduring Spirit is this year's best metal album, and one of the best albums of 2023, period, full stop.

falling or flying may fall a bit short of the expectations set by her debut, but it does fly in the face of what you'd expect of someone on their second outing as a solo artist. It's a solid effort despite some missteps — among the clutter is some of the best material of Smith's young career.

Sit Down for Dinner proves the band is as compelling as ever, circling in and out of each other's vocals and rhythms with ease.

It's always amazing how the two rappers behind Armand Hammer can complement each other so seamlessly while also seeming to tread on two separate planes of existence — We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is alive with this unique balancing act.

As a group that have faced their growing pains together, Slow Pulp strike the perfect balance between soft, thoughtful and loud on Yard. Tangled up in nervousness about being either too selfish or too self-pitying, the band finds a way to wring out the drab fabric of discomfort until a bit of beauty trickles out.

Albums like Feel, Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavilion are typically considered Animal Collective's best works, yet they all lack the sustained presence of Isn't It Now? Lord only knows if it's the impact of Elevado or simply 20-odd years of musical chemistry coalescing into something new, but however it happened, Animal Collective found the now sound.

They haven't lost the heart of their sound, only shown it in a new light. If last year's Cruel Country was a nod to their country roots, then Cousin is a departure from those origins in favour of new sonic shores.

There's a pastoral feel to the album — the band recorded it all in an epic ten day session at a studio in the Welsh countryside, and you can hear that region's influence in everything here. It sounds wide open and unencumbered, full but never cluttered or dense.

The music — a mix of digital sound with electric and acoustic guitars and live (or at least live sounding) drums — complements their newfound humanist approach to songwriting. 2022's Glitch Princess shattered pop music into a million little pieces. Here Ćmiel has glued things back together, but the cracks are still visible in the way they pair genre tropes.

This is razor sharp pop — fine-tuned, sincere and defiant as all hell.

It's at the intersection of curiosity and vulnerability where she concocts her best work. Gentle Confrontation learns and preserves artifacts of the mind, appreciating special moments that many leave lost in time.

No Joy sounds far more artful and ambitious than anyone would have expected from this band a few years ago.

If all of the National's albums were placed in a Venn diagram, Laugh Track would sit at the direct centre — neither expanding the sound à la the sweeping expanse of 2019's I Am Easy to Find, nor fully retreating to the straight-up indie rock of 2007's The Boxer. Crucially, it re-establishes them as a group of long-time collaborators in line with one another, none of them standing out from the others.

It's one of their most streamlined and focused records yet.

End constitutes a worthy addition to Explosions in the Sky's discography, even if it doesn't really open a new chapter for them.

The record can be as self-lacerating as any of Mitski's past works — the skin-tingling bar room swing of "I Don't Like My Mind," with its frenetic binging and sorry purging, is an early gut punch — but it holds a steady, wisened resolve at its core, an acceptance of solitude and ache that sets it apart from the rest of her catalogue.

Mid Air champions feeling and shared connection. You'll remember it for a long while.

Though not without its standout moments, Rabbit Rabbit can sometimes feel a bit too stuck in its comfort zone to convert new listeners. Having said that, the band's snarling, no-nonsense demeanour — not to mention Dupuis being unafraid to tackle heavy topics like childhood trauma and violence — often makes up for the relative lack of sonic diversity.

HELLMODE more than likely delivers. The album is quintessential Rosenstock. Honestly though, so was No Dream, so was Post-, so was Worry, and so was We Cool? He's apparently incapable of making a bad record — even your least favourite Rosenstock album is, at the very least, good.

The Window finds Ratboys deservedly taking a confident step into a space they carved out for themselves.