It’s too early to say if the era of Alien Lanes is gone for good, but it is safe to say that this group lineup has helped add another tool to Pollard’s songwriting toolbox. Not to mix metaphors, but it’s a look that they wear well. Consider the transition successful.

Yes, goddam it, Cracker Island is as good as Demon Days.

Breaking the Balls of History continues this momentum of irrepressible songcraft. Carrying the torch for three decades now, Quasi have become one of the more enduring musical collaborations out of the Pacific Northwest, and this is a peak moment in their discography.

This is his most consistent, fully realized album since Brick by Brick (1990). It’s maybe even his best in more than four decades since New Values was released in 1979.

Like their first reunion album Wonky, Optical Delusion makes a case for Orbital remaining a creative working force without actually being their best work.

Acid Arab weave sand-blown Korg synth filigrees in ways that would make Dabke keyboard titan Razen Said proud. On ٣ (Trois), their third album (of course), the pulses quake, inviting us all to the post-pandemic party.

The sensation of incomprehension itself is part of the record’s charm. The music itself is suggestive, rapturous, mysterious, and mesmerizing. The lyrics set the mood. Each song works on its own. The connections between cuts may be vague, but they share an alluring magnetism.

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is one of these future classics. ... Engaging at every turn and carefully calibrated to its point of view, it represents art pop hitting yet another dizzy apex.

“Birdy From Another Realm”, feel like the well-trodden ground in the artist’s oeuvre. This can be a little jarring when set against the more creatively and emotionally ambitious tunes and, while perfectly pleasant, could stand in the way of the project as a cohesive experience. All of This Is Chance is nonetheless a beautiful and bold album that showcases an artist unafraid to develop her sound further, revealing more of herself in the process.

The careful precision her distinctive guitar playing and vocals bring to this project center Sunny War as one of the most promising and exciting voices in American roots music.

Black Belt Eagle Scout teaches us, guides, and inspires us, all the while dazzling us with lush atmospheres, seismic rhythms, and a voice that unfurls from another and perhaps a better world.

He can take the bleak and inhospitable subject matter and give it just enough life to make it a rewarding listen for those who partake. It’s a delicate and risky maneuver, but Cale has managed it here.

For those who appreciate a particular branch of dance-pop, Diamonds & Dancefloors is a euphoric escape from the harsh realities of adult life.

We’re hearing Junior Boys’ elegant growth and evolution with their sound. We’re constantly impressed with how Greenspan and his partner Matt Didemus create some moving sounds, pivoting away from their synth-funk past.

The rhythm-laden new record sounds more relaxed than their old ones. The band’s sound has matured.

If The Baby announced Samia as a vocalist and songwriter to watch, Honey makes it clear that we’ll be watching her for a long time. With ample self-awareness and a keen sense of the surreal, Samia has delivered a sonically dynamic voyage through the monstrous and merciful extremes of intimacy.

Every Acre showcases McEntire’s poetic worldview as she seeks to find meaning.

Slowing things down has traditionally been a mixed bag for We Are Scientists, but the more relaxed tracks here are big successes.

One Day equally recalls the strengths of Fucked Up’s critically acclaimed second record, The Chemistry of Common Life (2008), which received the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. ... One Day is in keeping with this spirit of invention and reinvention, by expanding the group’s sound while still maintaining an ethos of ongoing collaboration and collective commitment.

Strays reveals Price’s strong talents as a musician and a human being.

This album is for the traditionalists, who love bluegrass and country in its raw form and find its plainness attractive. These performers are talented and get things right. They are not as concerned with showing off as much as connecting with each other and the material.

The result is a batch of songs that feel like they’re poking at rock and pop conventions without being a full-on piss-take against rock music. This approach means Anywhere But Here is more rewarding the more it’s listened to.

Lessons for Mutants, is a hard one to review. That’s meant as a compliment. ... It is itself a mutant, or in any case, mutable. The more you play it, the less it consents to take shape.

The outward textures here are not raw rock but processed pop, more maximalist than anything the band has put forth since. Still, the bones are the same; this is as sincere a face of the group as on any of their international commercial releases, no matter how surprising its sounds. Tinariwen, it turns out, fares well in a number of different aesthetic frameworks, and Kel Tinariwen serves as a testament to their artistic strength.

They are as thoughtful and provocative as they are productive, as angry as they are respectful, and music and community-building is their chosen mode of focusing tension.

The best songs are the most personal ones, especially those that primary songwriter Williams composed in tribute to his love for his wife.

Reason in Decline is adventurous, bold, and oddly mature for a band of this vintage.

She sings the melodies (mostly) without catchy hooks so that the lyrics float on top of the instrumentation without giving the listener something on which to grab. The effect purposely blurs the distinctions between what is sung and what is heard. Think of the result as sort of a sonic impressionist painting. The blurring is intentional and purposeful. That said, a lot is going on in the music.