Some things get better with age: The Mekons' latest features acoustic, pub-ready stompers such as 'Give Me Wine or Money' and 'Dickie Chalkie and Nobby.'

The music carries a convincing bad-guy energy that’s all the more potent for its sweet, often luscious textures. Its recklessness travels in a clear direction.

LaFarge backs it up with the joyful noise he and his bandmates bring to all 10 tracks

Certainly, there is no small number of Dylan completists who will lap up every shred of tape he ever used. But there emerges a feeling of diminishing returns for anyone not cursed with OCD--obsessive-compulsive-Dylanism--during a stretch on the second disc with nine consecutive versions of “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” Likewise the eight takes of “Buckets of Rain” on the fourth disc that are interrupted just long enough for a pair of performances of “Up to Me.”

An expertly crafted experimental pop album that at various points suggests the work of singer Kate Bush, the effects-drenched work of the Cocteau Twins and British art-rock band Talk Talk--all musicians who mix a certain sonic delicacy with studio heavy production--No Shape exudes confidence and vulnerability in equal measures.

The result is a border-blurring convergence, one likely to propel whatever dance floor is lucky enough to receive it.

The album is an artistic statement album with a capital "A," complete with an alter ego and theatrical flourishes that hint toward something of a funk-rock opera about death, spirituality and personal identity.

An album that reaches for something far more organic and immediate [than 2011's The King Of Limbs].

As eager as he seems to establish a new context--to lift himself out of the realm of branded lunchboxes and touch down among the real rock artistes--Styles never overplays his hand on this winningly relaxed collection.

A tidy eight tracks defined by restraint and intention. ... The back half of the record parts the clouds for some of the band’s more refined, savvy and uplifting pop yet.

Murphy skillfully layers his sounds for tracks that somehow feel dense and airy at the same time.

You can sense their attention to detail in “Dear World,” with a machine-tooled drum track that keeps shifting to emphasize unexpected beats, and “She’s Gone Away,” which features Maandig singing in ghostly harmony with Reznor, her voice nearly imperceptible in the mix.

On “xx” and “Coexist,” the xx was using sadness as a kind of shield; its stylish monotony kept you from regarding the players as real people open to real connection. Here, in contrast, the music’s dynamics make you feel closely involved in what they’re singing about--the highs as well as the lows. I See You presents a band willing to be seen.

Perhacs sings of universal truths and natural wonders, pondering sad winds and spiritual growth through lush, layered vocals and gusts of sound. “Eclipse of All Love” swirls with folk guitar and a sung duet between Perhacs and Sansone. Best are the Holter collaborations.

The nostalgia in the production — a blend of crisp digital synth textures and ringing grooves drawn directly from '90s house music — further bolsters the shadowed euphoria of a song like "Sour Candy," in which Gaga is joined by the K-pop girl group Blackpink; "Sine from Above," featuring Elton John, gets a similar friction from the interplay between their voices.

The songs are sleek and propulsive, with glistening melodic hooks that make even macho boasts feel sensual.

OG Ron C on Drank zeroes in on specific rhymed couplets and then loops them, and the effect makes the lines hum and resonate. ... Best, those that have wondered how soft rock singers Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins would sound chopped and screwed now have an answer.

As on her earlier records, Halsey can feel like something of a phantom on “Manic,” even when her writing is as vivid as it is in “Graveyard,” which deploys an appealingly creepy metaphor about following a lover way too deep. But her singing, with its pleading tone and its slightly raspy edges, is growing more expressive.

West Virginia singer, songwriter and guitarist Brad Paisley has proven himself a wizard at striking a canny balance among earnestness, whimsy, social awareness and party-hearty celebration. With Love and War he’s conjured another 16 tracks that skillfully traverse those lines.

Her singing is vivid enough on “Endless Summer Vacation” to make up for some mushy songwriting here and there.

“Exodus” has a distinctly grown-up quality, with thoughts of nostalgia and fatherhood. ... DMX sounds remarkably driven on “Exodus” — a man with life, not death, heavy on his mind.

Clocking in at just under 40 minutes, the album finds a pair of consistently evocative artists in full control of their powers.

A ten song rock record that draws on Segall’s strength as a catchy songwriter and riff manipulator.

Taken together, Malibu builds on the skills .Paak introduced on his first album, called "Venice."

Like avowed influences Van Morrison and Neil Young, Friedberger on New View travels in fluid, seamless melodies, and uses them in service of lyrics that revel in poeticism.

On her second album she manages to sound both futuristic and steeped in history.

Shamir's marriage of club-pop and dance music is striking, if hardly revolutionary on the surface. But the devil-may-care ease with which he plays with his sexuality and dances through the drama pushes the record into the sublime.

Alice is a studio album in the best sense. Erik Jimenez’s drumming jumps around in the stereo spectrum like he’s inside your headphones, and Ubovich’s double-tracked guitars duel for supremacy in the left and right channels. Taken at full volume, Alice rules.