This cosmopolitan quartet has streamlined ska, post-punk, chamber music and Afropop into a glorious ultramodern groove.

An impressive concoction of stark minimalism. From its cryptic cover art to its ethereal soundtrack, The Sister is Nadler's journey to self-assurance, in which she paints an intricate portrait of longing and reflection, blurring its sullen edges with shades of hope and prosperity.

Now Only is still as wrenching and direct as its predecessor, but concerns itself, at times, with the bitter truth that, sooner rather than later, he’ll be gone, too.

Though Kveikur is more anxious and busy than a lot of their past output, it still possesses the heavenly quality all their other records so admirably held on to as well.

His harrowed and ongoing metamorphosis into a butterfly is the narrative he’s chosen and is the story he’ll likely will stick with for the foreseeable future, but untitled unmastered shows that the holes in his willed chrysalis might be more interesting than the beauty promised by the cocoon.

By channeling her anxiety into wonderful, shaggy, relatable and supremely catchy songs, she’s made Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit one of the most compulsively listenable albums to come out so far this year.

Nothing feels even remotely stale, and many of these tracks manage to actually improve upon their original counterparts--no small feat, considering the fact that these are some of the finest songs ever written.

Rise Again is an indispensable recording from one of the world's most important living artists.

This album not only surpasses its predecessor but raises the bar for any band, indie or otherwise, mining the past for inspiration.

It retains the beautiful melancholy of For Emma, but in nearly every way, it's just more. More layered, more diverse, more interesting.

Teen Men is about as kicked-back and comfortable as a debut LP can hope to be, seemingly confident that it will be making itself right at home in the ears of all who hear it.

The result is an audacious delight, delivering aural odysseys that slither in and out of the territory of heavy-lidded dance-club bangers, junkie-punk ragers, symphonic Baroque-pop gems, plaintive guitar-rockers and myriad lessons from the Marc Bolan school of glam-rock depravity.

On their debut, Friko have cemented themselves as one of the most distinguished up-and-coming voices in all of indie-rock.

It’s an album custom-made for deep headphone listening, and Tuttle and his cohorts pack the stereo field with incident and instrument.

Second Hand Heart is put together like a great live set.... The album also realizes that rare goal of gaining steam and strength as it carries forward.

The album is ultimately the most cathartic and uplifting that songwriter Peter Silberman has crafted, indicating the demons he has long wrestled with may be tiring, if not nearing defeat.

Overflowing with a confidently relaxed cool and an absolute lack of pretense or veneer, Lo Tom’s debut somehow feels both enthusiastically self-assured and deceptively effortless.

When Tinariwen plays gigs, however, they offer a raucous, rowdy live show that lends itself more to shimmying and grooving, rather then translating and contemplating. Live In Paris, even with its questionable sequencing and skip lags between songs, begins to explore that.

LaVere could rest on her lyrics alone, which are witty and feisty enough to stand on their own, but by giving her band boundless license to indulge any whim or eccentricity, she has crafted a well-rounded album that is already among the year's best.

YNA_AYT is without a doubt the best work of Sorority Noise’s still-nascent career, and an early frontrunner for one of the best albums of 2017. It is emotionally complex, yet full of uplifting melodies that feel designed to pull the listener--or at least Boucher--out of the dark corners of the mind.

They show they don’t need to burn down what they’ve built and start over—they can grow outward, not just upward. These songs are some of the best and most inventive they’ve done, and they prove that Porridge Radio, while always burning brightly, are no mere flash in the pan.

While it’s absolutely and unapologetically meant as an addition to the discourse on inequality and lack of diversity that’s been ruling Nashville and country music (country radio in particular) for decades now, it’s also a country classic, no matter which way you spin it. The genre’s best talents, both men and women, have gathered, and they succeeded in creating a multi-generational, monumental music event.

For all its darker and uneasy lyrical content, this is still a record that begs to be blasted on road trips and at rooftop parties.

Brandi Carlile has always aimed high. On By the Way, I Forgive You, she aims higher than ever before, this time with her best songs and exquisite production on her side.

The War on Drugs have continuously grown into fuller and more realized versions of themselves. I Don’t Live Here Anymore is fitting for their newest form: revered musicians with over a decade of quality music under their belts who never lost sight of the prize.

Seldom have classical delicacy, rock attitude and pop vitality coexisted with such improbable ease.

She found it in herself to make yet another gorgeous, melancholy, old-souled record.

Instead of offering up another vaguely-feminist cash-grab or a haphazard political patch job, Shopping continue to do what they do best, using their bass lines and unique perspective to provide a source of kinship, understanding and an outlet to vent general frustration.