Though the album lacks a unifying aesthetic, and a couple of pieces have a slight "interlude" quality, the strongest elements highlight Lipstate's unwillingness to place definitions or limitations on her music.

Tinged as they are by recent tragedy, each songs on In the End assumes a mournful, melancholic quality.

It feels like a coherent album as opposed to a loose collection of songs. There are stumbles, but given the band's history, they feel minor.

In order to continue to excel, he needs to move past the solipsistic and look outward. He raps better when he does.

On Impressions, Music Go Music have created a recreation of a bygone era with none of its character.

While El Pintor is no Turn on the Bright Lights or Antics, the record finds Interpol climbing out of their mediocre rut, slowly but surely.

Donoghue and Holland continue to be unmoved by the larger cultural forces around them, producing a record that doubles down on their best and, at times, worst impulses.

The handful of breaks from his patented gutter raps aren't enough to compensate for the monotony in his dozen interchangeable guns-and-butter records.

On Last Place, the band returns to the same well again, and while there is enough here to sustain some nostalgia, that well seems drier than ever before.

The result is an adventurous but inconsistent affair that suggests Clams Casino has plenty of ideas — and perhaps his masterpiece--still in him.

The record still meanders around a bit too much, in the way instrumental music can, not quite sure where it's heading when it should be soaring. When it does soar though, it hits some pretty giddy heights.

As much as these songs hit upon Mudhoney's winning elements, there's a lack of swing in the band's step.

While the tracks are still heavily Black Sabbath-influenced, unfiltered doom, they don't live up to the expectations of what Wino-era Saint Vitus should be capable of.

Though the triumph of 1000 Days is its fusion of light and dark, there are some moments that feel out of place: the murky noise on instrumental "Dovetail" is a bit harrowing against the gentle acoustics on the title track, while "Little Dream," a 38-second spurt of woozy punk, appears and disappears out of nowhere.

As there's been no sign of new material from Paradinas in the past half-decade, Challenge Me Foolish is just interesting and familiar enough to keep µ-Ziq fans satiated, even if it is inferior to Royal Astronomy.

The band manages not to compromise their sound, but on The Black Market, the formula is growing stale.

Images Du Futur feels like a great movie without an ending.

It's all a tad by the book, but the book is well loved and worth re-reading, so why not?

The production is top-notch, but Ghost rarely shifts into uncharted lyrical territory, holding back Sour Soul's otherwise consistent production.

Sum 41 in 2016 is a lot like their early 2000s pop punk peers Blink-182; they're fun, capable of writing at least a few songs worthy of an inevitably forthcoming "best-of" compilation and at their best when embracing their past.

Pollard races through each song with all the gusto of the late '90s. His enthusiasm, though charming as ever, falls just shy of justifying what often feels like a collection of chaotic, unfinished demos.

With the exception of Lil Durk's two verses, Thugga's extensive assortment of guests here falls flat, causing the second half of the tape to drag.

Phair is at her best when she confidently picks a lane. Soberish is uneven because of her indecision, but it's still her best album since 1998's Whitechocolatespaceegg.

Miracle Temple is still a wonderfully warm and welcoming record, but it never soars.

Unfortunately, The Official Body remains confined to rudimentary rock arrangements and rigid structures. It doesn't reconcile these contradictions until its final three tracks, which makes for restless, if brief, listening in its middle entries.

Despite the EP's virtues, that's a lot of excess fluff for a collection with just five tracks.

Ash still generate radio-friendly tunes on Kablammo!, but they lack the depth that they demonstrated at their peak, and sound a little like they're merely repeating their post-millennial releases at this point.

The biggest strength of Up On High may be its greatest weakness: it's a record that is exactly what it is trying to be, a folk rock album that feels so much like a folk rock album that you forget about it as soon as it ends. Vetiver's latest is an album that you can put on and not think too much about.