What elevates Antidawn to a work of genius is not just this dexterous use of materials, the intricate detail, the disciplined avoidance of obviousness. To me, this feels like an entirely new genre of field recording. Here, Bevan hasn’t merely documented uncanny fragments of nature or some grand scene; he’s come close to painting a sonic portrait of domestic life.

While Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is indeed a lot of things, if it’s anything in particular, it’s a flex. It’s a reassertion that the band can essentially do no wrong, and even when they get close, it’s easier to interpret them toeing the borders of brilliance.

It’s a fascinating project and a rewarding listen. Longtime fans of the band should get a kick out of this record, and hopefully, Tony Rice aficionados will appreciate the new interpretations of these songs.

There are moments where it feels like Los Bitchos could go prog-rock and follow a musical idea for another ten minutes, but they always manage to pull back and stick to pop song lengths for their tunes.

Good and Green Again sounds as if it might have been released any time over the last 50 years without aging a day. Without knowledge of the tracks’ origins, it will fool listeners into assuming it’s one of the sweetest singer-songwriter efforts of at least the past half-decade.

With its multi-layered arrangements and art-rock leanings, it’s miles away from the freaky folk of Me Oh My or Cyrk. But there were times I felt adrift in abstraction and wished for a simple rhyming couplet to ground me. I can hardly fault any artist for wanting to remake and challenge themselves, however, and Cate Le Bon does that successfully with Pompeii.

The disregard for conventional structure and instrumentation, combined with the adroit, sincere lyrics, makes Ants From Up There one of the richest and most emotionally-honest albums released by a young British band for quite some time.

These songs are like travel diaries full of passing observations and attempts to make sense of them within a grander picture. The album carries a somber tone. Loneliness and a longing for something distant, perhaps warmth and affection, permeate these songs.

It’s so fun, it’s so winkingly subversive, and we for sure cannot survive another multi-year wait between releases. This album is a hell of a Fix.

More than two decades since their debut, North Mississippi Allstars – who currently include the Dickinson brothers along with bassist Jesse Williams and vocalists Lamar Williams Jr. and Sharisse Norman — are still creating memorable music but from a decidedly more mellow state of mind. That’s evident from the first notes of the opening title track from their new album Set Sail.

Mitski frequently mixes the pre-COVID love song trope about the danger of opening one’s heart to a stranger with the more contemporary fear of just going out into the world. She keeps the details vague.

Ghost Stories is a hauntingly beautiful record about life after death—the real physical one as well as the end of friendships and love.

Despite being a songwriter who has decided that his crazy dreams just came and went, Mellencamp pours himself into his music with an undiminished passion. The album is a pleasure to listen to—even if for Mellencamp what used to hurt so good now just hurts.

The constant push and pull behind Der Lange Marsch can be a frightening thing, but it doesn’t have to be that and only that. It can also be absorbed as an album of excellent impressionist achievement, worthy of the GAS name.

The guest list is pretty starry and impressive. However, Alexander’s still the headliner on the album, and he has the charisma, charm, and talent that even with the incredible star power of Kylie and Sir Elton, the best moments are his own.

Imarhan have always been strongest for their subtleties, and never more so than on the immaculately crafted tracks of Aboogi. This group amplifies their and their neighbors’ local experiences as Kel Tamasheq citizens of the world, and the music they make in doing so dazzles every time.

11:11 will placate Pinegrove’s dedicated fanbase. It’s unclear whether it will harvest many new ‘pinenuts’, but it turns our faces to the flora, and in 2022 that’s far more rewarding than emo’s usual nebulous yearning.

It is a jarring, inventive, exciting, and compelling album that deserves and rewards multiple listens. Its creativity and complexity sketch out innovative new paths for this band as they approach one decade of artistry together. If The Alien Coast is any indication, we are in for boundary-defying joy in the future.

Vocals are delivered straight-forwardly, instrumental solos are kept to a minimum, and there’s a general sense of presenting things honestly in a documentary style. That fits the material which would most naturally be at home in a small-town church.

The final results are lushly layered and sophisticated. O’Donovan is often considered a singer-songwriter and folkie, but this release finds her music hard to pigeonhole as its connections to contemporary jazz and even classical music are clearly evident.

Fragments sounds too much like a victory lap to feel like a compelling artistic statement. There’s nothing wrong with being accessible, but Fragments just doesn’t bring enough new ideas to the table. The album represents a rare step back from one of the 21st century’s leading electronic luminaries.

Interestingly, the near-constant use of spoken word doesn’t ever become grating. The band have a knack for making their instrumentals minimalistic enough for the vocals to always feel natural while also unique.

Forfolks is Jeff Parker on his own, but it’s a selfless statement. Here the music, like life, thrives in collaboration, and context is everything. On Forfolks, the music is a shared consciousness that keeps expanding long after its closing notes.

Water is a dense and mutable project, a tour de force for what a thematic album can be.

The duo, who recorded during a very small window of opportunity during the pandemic shutdowns, show they are a synergistic pairing, creating music that seems more expansive than imaginable for just two musicians playing “live” in a studio without overdubs. Though the cuts are played with modern electronics, the songs are a thing apart from contemporary music, tapping ancient spirits and an emotional depth that modern pop seldom comes near.

Earthwork is a fitting representation of the music he’s created in various configurations over the years: unbounded, deeply meditative, and full of noisy swaths of inspiration.

New Decade may be the perfect distillation of this sonic alliance Phew created, existing as it does outside of any trends or genre tags. As a result, Phew continues to push forward by crawling deep inside.

The new Melvins LP – well, to be accurate, four of the Melvins’ new LPs – is again an expectation-defying wonder. It’s far from perfect and pristine, but we’ve come to love these guys without all the lines cleanly placed.