I believe that if you can get past the record’s obvious shortcomings, there is quite a bit of beauty to be found.

The Order of Time is unique and presents a confident and dynamic songwriter and performer with a rich background in stylistic and regional influences.

The best songs on Chris are the outliers, the ones that are either fully intellectually-engaging or completely poppy. The songs in the middle, that plainly try to balance between the two, only underwhelm because of how common they feel.

The best thing about Rat Conspiracy is the reminder that this stuff feels fresh now, cutting edge, even timeless.

Daunting and at times exhausting, A Seat at the Table is still an undeniably important work.

Last Exit, while being one of the year's most cutting-edge releases, is, most importantly, a warm, friendly, entirely accessible pop album.

The music itself feels like a sort of cocoon enclosing the singer. It doesn't use reverb and distant samples in the way ambient music does, to suggest the world opening up around it. It leaves great amounts of space between the beats, as A Seat at the Table does, and then ties up the ends with searching synth chords (jazz band Standing on the Corner backs her for much of the album). The sense of engulfment is uncanny.

Half of the album is magnificent, and stylistically contradistinct, while the other half exists in some offbeat and off-putting terrain that will either elude its listeners, or alienate them.

Merriweather Post Pavilion finds Animal Collective tight and sharp, and it suits them. Animal Collective’s music is for everyone’s world.

Whether or not Songs for the Deaf manages to break through to the ever-fickle TRL crowd remains to be seen; those people with the patience to sit through this remarkable album a few times, though, will know the score.

This is a deep, darkly beautiful work. The interplay between these two men is exceedingly rare in any type of music. Ali and Toumani is profound and powerful, with a soft accumulating force, like the individual drips of ice that form a river.

Those who bought the album first time round may well feel tempted by the goodies on offer in the second disc. But for those unacquainted with High Land Hard Rain, or know Aztec Camera only from their 1988 hit “Somewhere In My Heart”, you are in for a treat.

They’re Calling Me Home memorializes and breathes new life into a set of songs that feel familiar and entirely unexpected.

Hell Hath No Fury stands as one of the most entertaining releases of the year, patched with glorious lyrical play, blinging exercises in fantasy and a jaunty half-seriousness.

The results are less like a rarities collection and more like an unlikely greatest hits album.

We're not left with the emotional impact I feel Saigon desired, but we are left with supreme evidence Atlantic should have put this album out years ago.

The best "new" material here are the 15 demos, 11 of which were previously unreleased, that were recorded at Blackberry Way Studios in Minneapolis during the summer of 1986. ... And covers songs such as Billy Swan's "I Can Help" and B-sides like "Election Day" have merit. One might quibble and not include every track on this compilation, but old fans will find many diversions here.

Our flaws are what make us more experienced, relatable individuals, so by learning to embrace the power in their weakest points, HAIM have created their best work to date.

It is hard to say that the “rehearsal” tracks will be accessible to many more than hardcore Soundgarden fans or musicians who can relate to the start-stop and voiceover style of pushing through a song and trying to get it right, but then again, it’s hard to imagine many outside-of-hardcore fans of the band forking over the $90-plus it costs to buy this collection. Those that have the money and the interest should definitely do so, however.

Anthology is a welcome reissue, and will more than make you happy to have experienced it.

Released through Cherry Red Records, and coupled with a gorgeous book of notes and commentary from Henderson, the compilation reminds listeners of the importance of an “exciting”, “shambolic” period, one in which today’s music was born.

Musgrave just paints a picture of their shared solitude, and she lets us see our absurd selves in the lives of others.

This time she kicks butt as a world-class singer with excellent material and a top-notch band all working together.

The 16 tunes comprising her latest song cycle oscillate gracefully around piano keyboards and introduce a series of portraits of fictional and real-life characters (from a terrified child with a traumatized best friend to a ghost scrutinizing her enemies at her funeral) to complement her reflections on the social distancing of quarantine time.

Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years gets to the heart of this matter comprehensively, dishing up all three albums and a modest peek behind the curtain. The packaging is lovely, and the Mescaleros never made a bad album.

The Dirty South is an absolute gem, and The Complete Dirty South is an upgrade over the original version. However, it may be that this edition only appeals to Drive-By Truckers’ hardcore fans. The physical two-CD set is wonderful and the best available version of the record.

Beyond serving as an excellent follow up to The World Won't End, Yours, Mine & Ours reveals a whole new side to the Pernice Brothers.

The Shins dare to take some chances on this CD, and their boldness winds up elevating this album over their first one by a considerable margin.