Powerful drums drive most tracks, joined by a host of other instruments: kora strummed to perfection, ferocious electric guitars, and, of course, each and every voice. Every member gets ample opportunity to shine.

What we’ve all come to need is balance and perspective before death, and Pelican provides that with perfect precision.

An album commanded by machines, few releases could tap into our terrifying mortality like this.

Once I Was an Eagle is a bold work that, in theory, shouldn’t work--a lengthy, near-concept album about emotional availability--but Marling makes it into one of the year’s essential releases.

This record seems to outweigh the previous album in terms of quality and depth.

He truly has made his best album to date in the process.

IRM is a swirling mess of sounds and signifiers, tied together in how irresistible it all is.

Yamagata's voice is one of those rare gifts, a vocal quality that is instantly recognizable and distinctive, yet somehow classic, with an incredible range that covers both the sensual lows and the tender, melancholy highs.

Nothing on America feels forced, and notably, Deacon never loses that underlying essence of fun that has followed him throughout his career.

Robyn's Honey is the lead contender for best pop album of 2018.

No other album made by the countless electronic composers delves this deeply into places people fear to face.

Living Theatre is the perfect intersection of nature and artifice, the very definition of what organic music can and should sound like, and it is a beautiful thing to behold.

Allo Darlin' and Europe indeed do have what it takes to be a band and album that mean so much to the particular people to whom they mean so much to.

Still, swirling in there with Yorke's apocalyptic surrealisms and his band's tricky rhythms, there's a beating heart that feels almost animal. If The King of Limbs doesn't feel alive to you at first, give it some time to wake up.

It’s better than much of what has come out thus far this year.

What really distinguishes Apologies to the Queen Mary from just another ambitious rock album though, is the dynamic and accessible songwriting -- and the voices that propel those songs from the streets to the stratosphere.

Caveat emptor: for anyone thinking of shelling out $40-to-$60, be warned that the extra Stones material and the DVD are both less than 30 minutes in length. For Stones enthusiasts, this newly unearthed bounty is essential and price should be no object.

Each song is a story. And that’s greatness in this kind of music.

It’s an album worthy of Radiohead’s peerless catalog, a rich addition to what is the most vital and important string of rock albums of the last 30 years.

It is a first album that sounds like it came from an artist who has been doing this for years and years. ... Lost & Found is a revelation.

This is a work that blends a preoccupation with both the maudlin and mundane with the musical sensibility of the Factory Records collection.

A top-notch set chronicling one of the most important phases of Coltrane's career.

A soulful, sad, yet ultimately hopeful document largely about putting a brave face in the midst of a dissolving relationship, indulging influences from Bill Fay to Charles Wright to Steve Miller, Sky Blue Sky is the rare, mature album where said maturity is seldom compromised by banality.

Singer Theo Hutchcraft's voice is dramatic but elegant and carries each melody with a sense of purpose. His delivery is calm and composed, but he lets the words he has written speak for themselves; there's no ambiguity in these words.

never has he put together something as perfectly formed and structured as this. It’s a journey from the inside out; it slowly unravels its form until the pieces are mere threads, floating in the breeze.

Concept albums can often be difficult affairs, more geared towards scratching their creators self indulgent itch than providing listeners with an enjoyable experience. While Mount Eerie is not on the same level as The Wall or Tommy, it is a remarkable effort by a brilliantly talented band.

Clearly the product of a great deal of work and expressive of a fascinating atmosphere of weight and tension, Acrobats is one of the finest returns of the year.

The album is the natural progression and refining of everything the band has done prior to it; it encapsulates and exemplifies all at once.