Amidst blistering tritone riffs and arpeggiated chords is a group keener to explore sonic harmony than crank the distortion. Crack the Skye is an epic trek across the space-time continuum, entirely on Mastodon’s terms.

Texas Piano Man is exactly what it sounds like: a cross between country-blues and piano-pop. Ellis surely knows his way around the keys, and his fifth studio album is funny, frank and alive. It’s a storyful, self-realized album that also happens to be a hell-of-a good time to listen to.

What could be unwieldy becomes a vast patchwork of influences buoying empowerment.

To say Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is a textural album is probably stating the obvious, but it very much is, in a way where the individual tracks feel simultaneously adventurous and tamed.

While how i’m feeling now is by no means Charli’s most genre-pushing work, nor an indication of the creative potential she has left, it will be remembered as a quintessential 2020 album—not just because of its unique recording constraints, but because of the passion, authenticity and work ethic interwoven in every fuzzy beat and every sprightly, lovelorn lilt of Charli’s most intimate vocal work to date.

Yellow & Green casts off the shackles of expectation while simultaneously taking a measured step in the direction of accessibility.

It’s the one of the best QOTSA records to date.

Despite all the tenebrosity, or maybe because of it, Hoop is chasing human connection on this album, which teems with delicate acoustics and sneaky electronic elements. She seems wholly concerned with examining empathy—even for gross internet trolls—in a world deprived of it, and there are few quests as noble.

Wilds is all killer and no filler, not taking itself all that seriously—instead, it opens up and gives us honest glimpses into how a relationship came together and failed, without forgetting to showcase the parts where hopeful sparks just never really had it in them to turn aflame in the first place.

At times, Houck’s revelations can get lost into an aimless fog of luscious sounds created by these music industry veterans—especially evident on “Fences,” where Phosphorescent’s meditations on a relationship in decay get obscured by a samesy blur of pedal steel and organ. .... But the upside of Revelator’s polished and highly cohesive sound is that even relatively minor switch-ups can prove thrilling by comparison.

It took a few listens for In Conflict to really hit, but, like a friendship that grows deeper with time, I can’t imagine not having the album around now.

ÁTTA is a welcome return to form and beyond for the band, ten years removed from their last studio release, and their partnership with a 41-piece orchestra is both logical and awe-striking.

As easy as it is to enjoy, there is something fleeting in its pleasures, as if it isn’t quite complete without occupying the same spaces as the band.

The result is a rich, nuanced pop album that feels like something French from the late ’60s.

While far from a masterpiece, Ty Segall provides a neatly packaged summary for why the singer is a modern rock ‘n’ roll treasure.

Europe continues down the path set in 2010 and pushes forward with humble richness.

She’s embracing herself, her heartbreak, her sarcasm and taking time to dance, slowly, with her feelings.

For all its careful historical detail and empathetic characterizations, Canary is decidedly topical: This historical setting becomes a means for a band of bookish young men to understand their own place and time.

It’s a long way from his turns as go-to Disney film composer, but on Dark Matter, Newman’s versatility, as ever, transcends pigeonholing and illuminates the smart aleck-y nature (with the emphasis on smart) of one of the world’s great songwriters once again.

Broken Social Scene builds on gentle nuances, compounding its effect incrementally with each track.

Producer Brian Deck understands that Beam's music is fragile. [Apr/May 2005, p.132]

At Weddings is filled with such a powerful, saintly aura that even the most ugly subject matters can spur flawless, beautiful results.

This is an artfully conceived and executed, heartfelt and evocative work, and I suspect it's precisely the kind of album Garvey and his mates wanted to make, and in the U.K. - where it was released in early March - the reviews have been uniformly rhapsodic.

These are some of the sweetest and sauciest love songs ever recorded, and no one should have any doubt that he means every word of them. This set should also lay to rest any questions about the importance of Half Japanese.

The Waiting Room already feels like Tindersticks’ strongest and most adventurous release since the hiatus.

Warm Chris thrives in that new flexibility, using Harding’s expanded sound to consider the implications of professional and interpersonal performance in turns across its 10 tracks.

It is the details that make Prophet explode.

It’s frank and fresh in its fashion, carrying darkness and unguarded emotions on crests of S-tier artistry.