While lacking the immediate hooks of previous albums, this is an album best experienced as a whole, to add context to the listening experience rather than one to dip in and out of.

There is a deeply set melancholy in the DNA of Blu Wav, a palpable sense of emotional exhaustion. It’s there in the lush, pillowy arrangements that shroud almost every track, a darkly luxurious soundscape that seems to gently beckon the listener with an outstretched hand.

It’s an absolute stunner. Stylistically, fans will be reminded of many 2001-2005 highlights from the three-album run containing The World Won’t End, Yours, Mine, and Ours, and Discover a Lovelier You (all featuring crucial guitarist Peyton Pinkerton, who returns here).

The record is so well-worked, just so honed and master-crafted that it ends up sounding effortless.

Revelator is a careful but honest album, a lingering, languorous sojourn that offers strange solace even as its world falls apart.

It is at once an ambitious record and one that will sound like home to anyone who still associates Oxford commas with the band. It’s likely to bring in a new generation of fans, as well as perhaps pull some who’ve strayed back into their orbit.

For a record that’s taken so long to happen (and many thought probably wouldn’t), angeltape is a triumphant return and worth every second of the excessively long wait.

What cannot be contested is the way the album oozes with a confidence and sensibility that suggests its creators know this might just be the finest collection of songs they’ve released since their debut, Nowhere, back in 1990.

The organically formed melodies mask some of the lyrical turbulence going on under the surface, but like any music that matters that only furthers the album’s staying power.

There are subtle shifts in approaches that make every track here well worth exploring.

Bright Future slots in comfortably with everything she has done to date and brings a greater sense of being of a moment in time.

Although AUDIO VERTIGO may not be their finest work, the richly layered album-oriented rock is stacked with shrewd melodies and it’s nice to see Elbow stepping outside their comfort zone and reaching back a bit to reconnect with their daring and adventurous ways.

Tigers Blood is ultimately about the melding of its component parts into something unquestionably enticing rather than the analysis of its irretrievably mixed emotions.

Glasgow Eyes cements The Jesus and Mary Chain’s legacy as influential pioneers, but it’s more than just a nostalgic trip. It’s a testament to their ability to surprise, innovate, and craft music that still resonates even at this stage in their career.

he biggest shoes to fill are their own, and for much of Happiness Bastards, Chris and Rich Robinson acquit themselves admirably. The biggest takeaway might be that this is certainly not a band whose best days are behind them. One can only hope for more to come.

What’s largely great about Playing Favorites is just how FUN it is, a rambunctious rock ‘n’ roll record with a big heart and a smart mouth.

There’s nothing mind-blowing, nothing genre-bending or jolting on What Do We Do Now, just a bunch of familiar hooks, sad words, and sepia riffs, a thick blanket of lackadaisical warmth.

Ultimately, Underdressed at the Symphony’s greatest achievement is the balance it strikes between opposing elements: the familiar and the novel, humor and heartache, dreams and reality. While Webster maintains her stylistic singularity, she doesn’t sit in it; instead, she expands beyond it, keeping it in tow as she explores different sounds and sentiments.

Where’s My Utopia? is an album that overflows, both in excess and excellence, with the former sometimes costing the latter its due.

For every part of I Got Heaven that feels new, what remains is just as potent. The record finds the band radiating both love and fury, at their most powerful and at their most vulnerable.

As per the band’s recent promise to deliver “only bangers,” they fully deliver. Led by instant fan-favorite lead single “Cold Reactor,” these tracks include some of their catchiest and most memorable hooks.

It’s lively and vibrant, and puts under a spotlight the best impulses of Shygirl and her collaborators. Most importantly, Club Shy succeeds in its key goal: it makes you want to dance.

Loss of Life is MGMT’s most cinematic record to date, allowing the duo to grapple with mortality through meaningful introspection which reveals that, at the end of all things, there’s always love.

Wall of Eyes is just as good an effort as any Radiohead album, and rivals the work its members have done in other projects. It’s a complete joy to watch these artists work, for their creative expression is a treasure.

On TANGK, IDLES have broadened their horizons while retaining the guts and soul that made them. With prudence, craft, and ambition they’ve created something that borders on the monumental. Divisions be damned.

Though there is nothing neutral to be said about what Ducks Ltd. bring to bear on Harm’s Way, there is no doubt that the music the partnership produces is what our bodies were programmed to receive.

I think this album is perhaps their very best, or if not, at least tied with Lifes Rich Pageant (my favorite of the incredible 1982-1987 I.R.S. era), though at the time it confused me a bit. .... The vinyl is lovingly remastered by Kevin Gray and like the original, it’s a double LP that doesn’t come with a gatefold. The two-CD version also has a bonus disc containing their live set from the set of the TV show Party of Five.

With Weird Faith Madi Diaz once again gives all that she’s got, crafting a stormy and searching chronicle of falling headfirst into new love.