Michelle Branch is no poet, but Hopeless Romantic tells her story with enough variance to stay engaging.

While The New Pornographers’ appealing quirks abound, their melodic gifts rightfully steal the show.

The fact that they’ve been cranking out albums as good as this for nearly half a century is a legacy worth appreciating for a really long time.

Even with a slower string of songs on the middle of Side B, Highway Queen shows Lane as a growing artist and burgeoning force for women in country music.

The alleged crime is only mentioned obliquely, but through its elision it becomes a kind of omni-crime that encompasses all the wrongs Gibbs has ever committed: in the streets, in relationships and in fatherhood.

While it won’t fill the void left all those years ago in the mighty Leviathan’s wake and features a few gratingly saccharine moments, Emperor of Sand is full of passionate performances and serves as one of Mastodon’s most surprising and relatable releases yet

Co-produced by Kim Buie and Jordan Lehning, the introspective work finds the great American songwriter, who has had hits on the country, pop, rock and Americana charts, settling into his place as an elder statesman by surveying the path that brought him here.

Automaton is a pop/funk/acid jazz/disco/proto-house opus that succeeds in discounting the band’s growing pains within the confines of both fame and pop music.

Her best-sounding record yet, it shines a bright light on Holter’s strong, clear voice and literate piano--plus occasional electric piano and harpsichord--giving plenty of space to longtime accompanists Devin Hoff (double bass) and Corey Fogel (percussion), and new collaborator Dina Maccabee (viola).

More weirdness would’ve given the album some welcome variety, though likely at the expense of potency. Given the facts on the ground, that’s a tradeoff our heroes just weren’t willing to make.

Though the message in all the static and clanking chains isn’t humanist, there is a humanity that comes through in everything she does. There is a spirituality too, though it’s the kind that is rooted in the material world.

Triplicate allows us to experience the rare and intimate pleasure of listening to an artist connect with, and express the subtle and infinite joys suggested by a great song.

Mann has earned her reputation as a master songwriter on the coherence of her artistic choices. As in good short stories, every element in her songs works to support a single theme.

Ultimately, while some might complain about the lack of original material offered in deference to so many concert inclusions, Fairport fans can cheer the fact that 50:50@50 is the band’s best effort in at least two decades.

Drake’s consistent use of global beats and international artists carry the bulk of the weight throughout More Life. Elements of grime and British street culture, along with trap, Caribbean dancehall and Afrobeat give a warmth and freshness that keeps the mood brisk.

They are beautifully and simply arranged, but it is not an entertaining album to listen to in any conventional sense, nor can it be shaken off easily. It is, however, the kind of album that makes all others seem frivolous while you’re hearing it.

An artist well suited to take center stage, Ruthie Foster has more fully and forcibly arrived.

Salutations expands Oberst’s raw scratch solo Ruminations’ 10 songs into a messier, more glorious celebration of squalor and self-indulgence with a self-loathing chaser.

There’s still no substitute for the adrenalizing power of the Hold Steady at its best, but the nuance of Finn’s solo songwriting, and the subtler sense of musical adventurism he has come to embrace on his own work, make these songs essential, too.

As far as where Ultramega OK stands in the Soundgarden catalog, it still doesn’t hold up to later records, but it does contain some of their best songs.

It’s an occasionally comical throwback to when they were at their biggest, with a few good-not-great moments. One can only hope they chill out and come up with something better in a few years.

Offers is a delectable batch of baked goods, and an improvement upon their comparatively undercooked debut.

All Spoon albums have some great songs and tasteful production touches, but Hot Thoughts might be the first time they didn’t do another year’s slightly tweaked version of Girls Can Tell. To arrive at such a worthwhile new vista roughly 24 years in is a pretty serious achievement, and all with no more overt fanfare than a humble presentation of one of their best offerings.

That contrast of vicious agit-prop and palatable pop [on ["Jesus Will Kill You"] isn’t quite as pronounced on the other songs, which take on a more nuanced, often more personal feel.

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.

In Mind, then, is an album caught in a moment of transition, perched halfway between reinvention and diminishing returns. Album number five will prove which side holds sway.

The production on Damage and Joy is so clean and crisp that it makes the Mary Chain’s trademark clamor sound really purposeful (and nobody likes a tryhard). Second, the the Reids’ lyrics are so on-the-nose unremarkable (on “Mood Rider,” they rhyme “lust,” “must,” and “dust”) that they lose all ability to connect. Still, Damage and Joy is hardly unlistenable.

Heartworms is an understated and charming production of orchestral rock, surfy riffs cresting summery melodies and experimental streaks of reverb.