It’s a poignant, reflective, and very often frank portrayal of humanity’s dual impulses authored by someone who has lived several chapters, yet knows the story is constantly being rewritten.

These musicians would soon part ways for a variety of endeavors, and Coltrane's assemblage of his classic quartet with McCoy Tyner allows a noteworthy development after his work with Kelly. At this moment, though, nothing sounded more exciting than these five musicians thriving in one strange final tour.

Now he is ready to expose the new form of Objekt, and it results in one of the most impressive records of this year.

This new work is rather stunning in its shedding of skins and plowing of new furrows. The influences have either been thoroughly shrugged off or thoroughly absorbed, and what we get here is a frankly remarkable set of ten songs that lead us from our comfort zone almost imperceptibly to a very very strange place, and then once more out of the woods and back to more recognizable territory.

The band has never sounded stronger on record as they do here.

While aspects of the band's creative vision have been altered and their sound has further evolved, the core elements remain intact. The asphyxiating sound has been augmented with the inclusion of longer, heavier sludge influenced moments. ... They truly deliver.

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.

Sometimes Cash is a little wordy and other times Leventhal’s melodies kind of drift off, but mostly the two mesh together well.

Balanced, not bombastic, long-practiced, and utterly identifiable even when playing across different styles--that's a great band. And Historicity is the album they had to make.

Many of Jenkins’ observations grow more excellent from further rumination and will likely stick with the listener long after the closing chirps of “The Ramble”.

It’s easy to say this is a post-Hüsker Dü album, but the story of Workbook is a more complicated one than that, and 25 years later it still plays like a story worth hearing.

Glittered with transcendent brilliance, gilded shadows do not hide the empowered dramatic turn of Perfume Genius’s Too Bright.

<A HREF="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/5161/los-lobos-the-town-and-the-city/" TARGET="_blank">Review #1:</A> Stands as one of the band’s best efforts. [score=70]; <A HREF="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/5257/los-lobos-the-town-and-the-city1/" TARGET="_blank">Review #2:</A> The Town and the City is just as tight and adventurous as anything else coming out this year. [score=90]

Guppy is a special release. It has powers: the power to transport you back to some of your most formative experiences, but also the power to let you know that you’re nowhere near done having them yet.

We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is an incredible offering in both a prolific and boundary-pushing career for the New York rappers. Building on their gifts as MCs and lyricists, Billy Woods and Elucid have further cemented their place in alternative hip hop as one of the headiest yet most exciting groups right now.

Engulfing is a word that could describe the record as a whole and Big|Brave’s sound in general. That is not unfamiliar terrain for them, but they have refined their sound into a powerful stormfront that strikes aggressively but with a gracefulness that welcomes the listener into the electrified space the band create.

World Without Tears is a complex, multifaceted album that musically highlights Williams's continued blurring of musical genres and poetic lyrics.

Things finds Low's measured atmospherics and gentle melodies further enhanced by layers of instrumentation -- for instance, cello, violin, piano, mellotron and trumpet. Moreover, it finds the band's melancholy and affecting textures coalescing even more into traditional song structures.

It's ultimately a deep, unsettlingly immersive experience, yet it sanctions an almost unbearable intensity to be buoyed by a hard-won acceptance.

Somewhere in its utter hugeness, it breaks down barriers between listener and music, between sound and reaction to that sound.

This remastered version includes seven bonus tracks. One is an alternate version of “Jenny”; the other six are additional songs recorded for this album and unreleased until now. Thematically and musically they fit in well.

Mitski’s career has been one of anonymous toil followed by intense critical promise with Bury Me at Makeout Creek, at last delivered upon with blinding clarity in Puberty 2.

It’s hard not to make connections, which is a testament to the power of these songs themselves and the way Fussell’s approach to recording them illuminates that power.

Arca likewise refuses to ossify into a legible and easily recognizable shape, defying our expectations of the artist’s output while remaining untethered even to a clearly delineated internal logic. All of this evasion paradoxically pays off, and the resulting album is both emotionally enrapturing and conceptually thrilling.

Summertime ‘06 is the kind of coming-of-age story that’s common to hip-hop, but Staples delivers his account with a furious passion and refreshing insight.

The melding of Plant’s hard rock vocals and Krauss’ sweet sound requires them both to stretch their talents in unexpected ways. The new album’s triumph lies in the fact that they both seem to do this so effortlessly.

Their work, especially that displayed on Refinement, stands as some of the more original and evocative music being produced today, smart and technical without sacrificing atmosphere and feeling.

Let’s Stay Friends is a fitting fourth album for Les Savy Fav. Assured and confident in an established style, the band also finds new ways to express its visions of frustration and celebration.