It’s a treasure trove for the faithful and a comprehensive baptism for the brave newbie.

With just enough experimentation to hint at new and future directions, while seamlessly blending improvisation and smartly conceived songs, Hypermagic Mountain is Lightning Bolt's finest achievement to date.

The result of this incredible journey, Memorial, is the first landmark post-metal release since Isis’ Panopticon, Russian Circles’ greatest achievement, and unquestioningly one of 2013’s true artistic masterpieces.

Make no mistake, her risks are still very within the context of a 4/4 pop structure, but she still finds such color and joy in her surroundings it's hard not to get swept up in her energy. Such risk-staking, however, can still lead to a few moments that could've used a bit more polish.

Like Volume 8 in the Bootleg Series, Tell Tale Signs, which gave us a new context for Dylan's recent output, The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 give us a new frame for his genesis.

Less immediate than her debut but not as challenging as her most recent work, Divers is an ideal distillation of everything that makes Joanna Newsom one of the most unceasingly fascinating musicians working today.

There are no glaring missteps, and it’s generally a very good effort from a singer who could have crumbled under the pressure of heightened expectations, but instead continues on the path she forged for herself.

For its epic length, the collection occasionally (rarely) drags, but when it does, it doesn't for long.

Hayter's already dynamic aesthetic. Her thoughtful amalgam of opera, neoclassical darkwave, and death industrial continues to produce theatrical yet still intimate pieces. But above all, Hayter's uncompromised voice tells a necessary story that contests the dominant narratives of women's trauma. Her vivid, brutal portrayal of the enduring effects of misogyny and domestic abuse strictly reveals the gruesome realities of it.

For all of Blount’s intelligence on the record, it might be this heart that comes through strongest.

It’s an impressive record to listen to--the compositions are even more beautiful than Ekstasis, even though they’re often more fragmented--but it’s also a frightening depiction of what it feels like to have a whole population making you up in its head.

Waits has given us another brilliant album in Bad as Me, his best in a long while (maybe since 1992's Bone Machine), but he also lays down a gauntlet.

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.

With Dream Weapon, Genghis Tron don’t so much transition as achieve transcendence of everything they once were. And the change is so fully realized that it renders notions of genre loyalism utterly moot.

Masseduction doesn’t always sound comfortable letting its artifice crumble, and its half-hearted attempts at social commentary cause it to sag at times. It might not be the preeminent masterpiece many are already making it out to be, but the album does have some great moments, and it bodes good things for the trajectory of St. Vincent’s ongoing career.

Put simply, Accelerando is an album filled with highlights.

It's not an easy feat to sustain good, entertaining pop music during 15 tracks (plus one remix track) without fading into boredom. TWICE prove they’re more than capable.

Saint Cloud, like Car Wheels, finds an artist operating at the top of her game, embracing, as Crutchfield put it, "the contradictions and the unknown" to produce a thrilling and inspirational work.

There’s a sense of purpose here, of direction and clarity, shafts of accessibility that relegate the din to the background without ever compromising the potentially hostile underbelly of the band’s core sound.

Throughout Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, Little Simz continues to swaggeringly craft her bio, relating how she navigated myriad challenges, never losing sight of her goals.

It may sound strange and unwieldy on first (or second or third) exposure, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with an album of surpassing intricacy, filled with an abundance of musical nooks and crannies, the likes of which reward sustained attention and concentrated effort on the part of the listener.

Film Music is a beautiful package, even if it is, in the grand scheme of things, one-sided.

Brutalism is bracing, caustic, and relentless from the speed-tweaked industrial drum beat that lights the fuse of “Heel Heal” to the final confessions of “Slow Savage” at the end. It is also one of the more clever and articulate rock records you will hear this year.

Sometimes I Sit is not just tighter and more cohesive as it should be, but it’s a more confidently proficient work as well.

How viable their politics actually are is a debate for another day, but as a hip-hop record in 2017, few will come close to creating such an enthralling and vital listen.

With a mix of analogue synths, warped acoustic instruments and an unmatched passion for effects pedals, West has produced easily one of the most vivid and soul-stirring electronic albums of the year.

Some of the most euphoric, mind-blowingly beautiful music we have heard in years.

Jeff Rosenstock's POST- is a frustrating, yet important, journey into American society to be sure, but its eventual optimism makes it worth remembering in the current soundtrack of our country trying to make a change.