The result is a collection of demanding, disquieting and beautiful urban hymns that reveal their rewards on repeated listenings.

The Nashville-based, label-defying group has cooked up eight effervescent originals and added its stamp to a couple of Yuletide chestnuts. ... Boogie-woogie, Tex-Mex, heart-melting pop, retro blues--it’s all here in one irresistible package.

She's a mediocre singer with a very interesting voice, a fan of classic handmade pop and the ways laptops can serrate it, and a writer obsessed with sex and with sexing up obsession.

What arrives is a virtually seamless country rock album, with verses moving fluidly into choruses that travel unimpeded across sparkling, architecturally sophisticated bridges. ... Duffy doesn’t leave a single loose thread on “Placeholder.” Highly recommended.

The result is a sprawling, 75-minute immersion in the dynamic between Patterson Hood's Neil Young/Tom Petty-influenced folk and rock and Steve Cooley's mix of Rolling Stones, stone country and Band-flavored folk-rock.

The problem is that too many of these songs just don't swing - they happen and then they're done, but they don't stick in the head.

This is adult contemporary music that's enough fun for the kids and true-blue country without any trace of flag-waving or bigotry.

The duo lends each other gravitas and levity on this very curious but ultimately immersive LP.

At 66, Burke might have lost some vocal force and fullness, but his singing is agile, elastic and, most important, packed with sorrow and humor that pull you in no matter what the genre.

This successor represents a further evolution of her talent as both creator and interpreter.

It veers wildly among mechanized garage rock, ’80s-era soft pop, atmospheric dance music and lush acoustic balladry; one song strongly recalls Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” while another looks back to the Great American Songbook. ... Excellent, often thrilling album.

Nothing ever quite feels certain on Star Wars, an album in which one of pop-culture’s most recognizable phrases--and a 20-year-old band--is flipped into something wholly unpredictable.

At his best he spins these tales with a mix of literary craft and jazzman's cool, animating his narratives with vivid and colorful language. [5 Mar 2006]

Following a pair of brilliant EPs, Shabazz attacks with Black Up.

Frequently mining a trebly, contemplative territory, the album can initially feel somewhat monochromatic, but unexpected pleasures lie below the surface.

With deft, powerful strokes, the singer-songwriter chisels emotions, impressions, yearnings and regrets, giving these 13 songs exactly as much room as they need and no more.

The result on The Whole Love is a work by a group of exceptional musicians who, four years into their collaboration, have melded into one.

Any TVOTR fans hoping for a return to the band's heavier early days might have trouble with Nine Types of Light, an album full of such a brilliant clarity that the title could be referencing its track listing.

This Is Country Music still has a lot of what keeps Paisley at the head of the contemporary country class, but with several of the 15 songs merely competent, it could have been 30% stronger with a 30% edit.

If the force-of-nature power of his prime is often missing, in its place is an undeniable resolve and faith in his mission. [25 Jun 2006]

The result, by definition, breathes, which leads your ear initially to hear Björk’s voice as just another wind instrument; her lyrics don’t jump out the way they did in early stuff like “Hyperballad” or “Possibly Maybe.” But the words on “Utopia,” once they permeate your consciousness, are actually among her most intimate and affecting.

Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is Eagle’s seventh solo album, and builds on his hot 2014 work, “Dark Comedy.” The difference? Scope. Like the composer Stew did in his 2006 rock musical “Passing Strange,” Eagle makes grand narrative connections across “Brick Body Kids ...” and does so through his skills as a storyteller and rapper with a sublimely confident flow.

Crack the Skye is Mastodon's most involved album to date, relying on hyper-intricate guitar arrangements and production nuance in service of its freaky inter-dimensional mythology.

The album's impenetrable surfaces grow haunting after numerous listens: Stetson may never garner mainstream recognition like his Arcade Fire pals, but he proves undeniably compelling in his uncompromising musicality.

Though long and featuring a bounty of ideas, The Electric Lady is surprisingly slight.

Homme is one of the few singers and lyricists today who know that rock 'n' roll is built on a mix of menace and dark humor, and almost every track on ...Like Clockwork has a moment that makes you want to drive to Joshua Tree, pound some beers and start fires in the shape of pentagrams.

[A] lovely but searing new album that weaves 2016 racial, sexual and political tension into an album of immaculate, Prince-inspired funk and R&B.

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

Produced with his usual team of Mitchell Froom, Lenny Waronker and David Boucher, it’s a masterful collection so rich with sonic detail that you almost hope he never gets around to making “The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 4.”

Despite its undercurrent of outrage, Branches--which expands Pedro's folksy sound with creamy keyboards, processed drum beats and the occasional spritz of glam-rock guitar.

It's Albarn's evocative words, compelling if understated melodic sense and subdued vocals that are the emotional center, transcending the gimmick even more than on the first Gorillaz album. [22 May 2005]

Though America is an explosive document, half the time it's a lot of smoke and bang, and it treads on territory that others have explored more thoughtfully.

The most significant change is in Swift’s singing voice, a once-brittle instrument that of course has gotten deeper, huskier and more flexible since the late ’00s. But she only really takes advantage of that shift a couple of times. ... As for the lightweight bonus material, which she cut in the studio with her “Folklore” and “Evermore” collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, none of it argues that it deserved a place on “Fearless,” though “Mr. Perfectly Fine” comes close.

If "Nightmare" misses some of the poetry and exhilaration of "Whatever," it has something more important: authenticity and integrity.

Hamilton neither chases trends nor makes fetish of retro sounds and influences. Instead, he finds powerful common ground between vintage influences and modern production.

The album washes near the end with a series of spacey slow jams, but then Bilal clears away the atmospheric clutter for "Butterfly," a stark ballad built around his soaring falsetto and rippling piano by recent Grammy winner Robert Glasper.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, a truly marvelous album title if ever there was one, is danceable but only a little disco, synth-driven but clubland averse, an easy record to like but a more difficult one to love.

Though he gripes that fans are always bringing up Tribe, The Renaissance is a showcase for Q-Tip's cool and empathetic consciousness.

His voice raw, pitchy and quivering, Dylan croons his way through elegantly crafted songs with seeming disinterest in flawless takes or perfect pitch. Yet it's profound, thematically devastating and so well curated as to feel essential.

Fade is classic Yo La Tengo: honest, unpretentious and, above all, catchy.

As remarkably immediate as it is, though, 4:44 feels durable in a manner that few tweets do; it’s a collection of songs--sly but moving, both intricate and lucid--that we’ll be coming back to for years.

Doris features instrumental interludes, expanded mid-song diversions and enough surprise to warrant repeated--obsessive--evaluation.

Like her excellent previous album, “Over and Even” (2015), Shelley’s new one is a subtle venture that requires focused listening--put down your phone--to fully appreciate.

“Gaslighter” turns out to be the Chicks’ most intensely personal effort yet, with song after song apparently inspired by Maines’ 2019 divorce.

The album is also a fantastic summary of BTS’ accomplishments so far, and charts a path forward in a tumultuous but exciting new era for K-pop. It’s an album about being in a band, about the relationships that form and get tested in the crucible of insane fame, all set to some of the most genre-invigorating music of their career.

The upstart singer-songwriter brings plenty of the same feisty outsider sensibility that’s made her first two albums so refreshing.

Such guests hardly bring commercial cachet. What they add is a depth and dynamism that transcend genres, generations and language, transforming Los Lobos' trademark sound without throwing the band off its foundation.

While Earle's gruff voice is endearingly effective on his own tales of moral outrage and social empathy, it tends to imbue Van Zandt's deftly detailed songs with an unintentionally dour undercurrent.

"Silent Alarm" sometimes lapses into facelessness, but at its best it combines dynamic record-making and underlying passion with a rare focus. [10 Apr 2005]

Though fans of her exotica may miss her outlining connections between Earl Scruggs and Chinese pipa standards, City of Refuge is the best kind of crossover--one that anyone can find comfort in.

On her second album, Here With Me, the 28-year-old singer and songwriter extends the tradition of honest self-revelation she put forth convincingly in her excellent 2004 debut "The Ones We Never Knew," and this time she more openly explores the country music genes that are part of her estimable DNA.

Bun B's second solo record is an impressive late-career triumph, one with a poignancy and resonance worthy of his dedication and devotion to the memory of his departed friend.

Listen close and you can practically hear the frontman digging in his heels, pushing back on the idea of Spoon as a tidy lifestyle accessory.

He organically forges those into an utterly distinctive voice that takes what's come before and artfully moves it forward with the power of a certain steel-driving man.

She finds the plaintive center, the kind of soothing intimacy that almost seems like the way we'd sing to ourselves in times of trouble.

Breezy and sunset-hued, the tone of the album is calm--a reassuring piano buoys the melody one moment, and, later, delicate woodwinds fade a song to black.

It almost makes you wonder what would have happened if Television and Peter Frampton had worked together. That's a compliment. [11 Jun 2006]

These songs contain O's most expressive singing yet, and the tension between her vocal performances and the band's playing results in music richer in emotion than anything the trio has done since 'Maps,' its breakout hit from 2003.

Teebs may not be as acclaimed as Flying Lotus or labelmate Thundercat, but he's making music just as inspired.

Here Cherry proves that comeback [2012's That Cherry Thing] was no fluke.

Her new album features 11 songs, and there’s not a dud in the bunch.

Vancouver duo Brian King and David Prowse throw themselves into every song as if it's the last one they'll ever play. That go-for-broke attitude carries their third album, which is less about the songs than the sheer joy of playing them.

Other textures are so skillfully woven in that it's not till the record's last moment that we see all that could've been.

One of the most anticipated debut albums of the year is also one of the best.

There's a sense of timelessness rooted in rural America, along with a stripped-down musical ambience, that makes this a worthy companion to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand," for which Buddy was part of their touring band.

With 14 magnetic works, the album is so packed with vivid Bowie-isms that it seems like he's been storing away one plump specimen per year so that in the proverbial wintertime he'd be ready for a glorious feast.

These concoctions have inherent charm both from Guthrie's typically pithy, sometimes deceptively trenchant writer's eye and from the foursome's fittingly earnest musical settings.

Banga is both a return to form and her best album in many years.

Fans who look to Iyer solely for high-flying piano jazz might struggle to find familiar footing as the album's intricate sonic interplay takes some time to unpack. But Iyer's willingness to take listeners to places they've never heard remains something to behold.

Much of that quiet sturdiness derives from Van Etten's singing, which anchors the music even as Dessner fills out his gloomy arrangements with dense indie-noir details.

The sound is sterling, Richards’ guitar soaring effortlessly over the nimble rhythm section work by bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts.

Produced by Frank Liddell, Glenn Worf and Eric Masse, the music deepens that unsettled feeling with arrangements that feel raw--sometimes even incomplete--by current country standards. ... Yet none of this is the product of indifference or fuzzy thinking.

The 12 songs on “Memory” reveal musicians who have grown both as artists and technicians, even if their approach is as impatient as ever. ... They’ve dug deeper into their decade-long aesthetic, adding a more accomplished sound below while piling mounds of feathery stuff up top.

Though Acetone wouldn’t seem a likely band for such a treatment, the project makes a solid case for a historical update.

Featuring some of the Reverend's finest work in years, Green's latest is proof positive that as important as it is to show up, you still need to know how to lay it down.

The drama chronicled on Somewhere Else isn’t just rowdy, it’s borderline illicit.

It's music that balances with uncommon elegance the desire to observe with the need to engage.

One of the most fascinating things about the Stripes' fifth album is that on first listening it is likely to baffle fans of the Detroit duo as much as it will eventually delight them. [5 Jun 2005]

An ingeniously clever album. [13 Nov 2005]

It’s hard to imagine a more inviting dance record being released in 2013.

True to his transformer's nature, the sequel is better than the original.

The band's handiwork makes the simple beauty of pop rock appear fresh and new.

Throughout the album, which the singer produced with Kamau Kenyatta, Porter matches these cozy sentiments with modest, small-scale arrangements--mostly keys, bass and drums--that sound shaped more by the gigs he's played over the last three years than by any desire to experiment in the studio. But Porter’s resting state is a compelling one.

There's nothing cheap or flimsy about Soul. Each song seems constructed from the finest notes, honed to their perfect shapes.

“Club Future Nostalgia” calls to mind “The Immaculate Collection”: Like that 1990 classic — a greatest-hits comp sliced and diced by Madonna and producer Shep Pettibone to resemble a killer club set — Lipa’s record uses carefully designed pop tunes as raw material for a breathless new creation.

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

His sixth album is a left turn away from his menacing, comic-book-villain rap persona and toward his indie-curious, experimental, Stereolab-citing self. He mixes noodly, ’80s-sounding synth beats (“What’s Good”) with funky boom-bap (“Running Out of Time”), and draws on quiet-storm R&B (“Puppet”) and hallucinatory beat music (“Gone Gone/Thank You”). Crucially, Tyler’s aesthetic connects the work across disciplines.

Those with a patient appreciation for Cave's dramatic sense, and the ways in which his singular musical voice has evolved over years, will find much to focus on within.

The collection offers a fresh take on England's druid-rock legacy, blending electronics with the elemental skin and seeds of drums and shakers in a sound that's both atmospheric and richly textured.

He’s also got a distinctive, no nonsense style: lyrically direct without sacrificing a certain poeticism, willing to look directly at a topic and offer steely-eyed comment.

What’s inarguable is that she’s become one of the finest songwriters of her generation, with a lyrical and melodic flair that encourages an emotional investment in her music well beyond whatever it reflects of her real life. On “Chemtrails,” her singing reaches a new peak as well. ... But if the sound is familiar — think of the very sweet spot triangulated by Sandy Denny, k.d. lang and the Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album — the scenarios can still flatten you, as in the gorgeous “Wanderlust.”

The Books' first album in five years marks the most sophisticated collage yet from the audio-ransacking duo of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong.

Short Movie is no epic, but it's the most replayable LP of Marling's career.

Within these sparse, Rothko-esque works the artist dedicates deep, unflinching energy to documenting and hopefully exorcising his woes (or at least understanding them), delivering lines with wondrous cadence, zipping with a sing-song musicality that illuminates what surrounds it.

It’s a short record, clocking in at just over 20 minutes, but the Long Beach linguist crams in a lot of syllables and welcomes into the mix compadres including Earl Sweatshirt, Ty Dolla Sign and San Francisco legend E-40. Though he presents the material playfully, Staples has more on his mind than hot fun.

The Ecstatic flags in spots and the album's tricky samples take a while to absorb. But the 16-song collection offers proof that Mos Def can still be invigorated from a tight beat as much as a tightly written script.

The heart of the CD is filled with the compassion and craft that have made Springsteen such an invaluable figure in rock. [24 Apr 2005]

This is punk rock with a hip-hop face-lift, and the merger here is equally trippy ("Get Got") and noisily belligerent ("System Blower").