The band’s attempts to diversify their sound often fall short of growing out of their repetitive riffs, leading many of the tracks to blend together in a pleasant but rather predictable experience. However, the storytelling displays Kline’s openness to vulnerability.

It’s clear that the duo found catharsis in not just paying homage to their influences but versing alongside them through darker times.

Taken at face value it’s undoubtedly a beautifully crafted album of minimalist ambient electronic pop imbued with subtle elegance, replete with remarkably frank lyrics. ... Whilst lyrically Midnights doesn’t quite match the poetic grandeur of folklore and evermore, there’s plenty of fun to be had, even Swift’s less elegant rhymes don’t jar, served up as they are, with a knowing wink and delivered in an engaging, relatable conversational tone.

As fun as this record is (I mean, it’s a Carly Rae Jepsen record, which is basically the definition of “fun”), the loneliness and weight of the last three years definitely seem to be holding Jepsen back from reaching the euphoria of, say, “Cut to the Feeling” or “I Really Like You.” ... The Loneliest Time finds Jepsen taking a much needed (if small) step inward from the periphery she’s walked for a decade.

It’s a tough, heartfelt record that marries hard-edged, emotionally complex lyrics to skyscraping sounds and delivers a thrilling, vital whole. These feel like the perfect anthems for our times, the past be damned.

Dry Cleaning may not get mentioned in the same breath as other young London art-rock groups like black midi or Squid, but they should. Stumpwork proves that this band’s style has legs.

The Car is a deftly constructed, lavishly produced, smooth runner of an album that undoubtedly reaffirms Turner as one of the great romantic lyricists of his generation.

It’s a sweet embrace of an album that, even as it whispers to you it’s loss and longing, props you up with a caring and kindly hand.

At over an hour in length, the beauty of YTI⅃AƎЯ can drag its feet a little bit, but listeners will find no trouble in surrendering to the world Callahan lets them into.

Ballentine has shed the veil of her peers’ convention here entirely, creating something quietly uncompromising, unflinchingly strange, and otherworldly. It’s beautiful, moving, and utterly beguiling.

A collection pushing the boundaries of what constitutes Wild Pink’s sound without completely disassembling what they’ve quietly built over their three previous releases.

The true crime though of I Walked With You A Ways is that it’s over quicker than the fading moments of the Texas sunsets that color it. The album’s 30 minutes of triply tight writing, harmonies, and playing pass by way too quickly. Making the smart move here to sit a spell and marvel at the songs word-by-word and note-by-note.

For the NEU! Tribute, the duo’s material finds itself in good hands. The National provides the atmospheric “Im Glück” with a loose, easy rhythm for reconsidering the song’s possibilities. Yann Tiersen and IDLES intriguingly reframe “Lieber Honig” and “Negativland,” respectively, while Mogwai’s remix builds a new level of tension into “Super.”

Very low key, but oh-so-listenable.

Blue Rev is a sublime return and whilst there’s nothing quite as instant as “Archie, Marry Me,” tracks such as the glorious “Belinda Says” or the punky breakneck distortion of “Pomeranian Spinster” are as good if not better than anything they’ve previously released.

Lucky Me is an unquestionably accomplished debut and certainly marks Green out as singularly talented songwriter who isn’t afraid to confront her demons and if not actually beat them at least come to an uneasy truce, and reach a place of equanimity.

The band settled into an Austin studio for the album’s creation, and the rich textures throughout these 15 tracks reflect the time invested in their construction.

Derivative it may be, and it’s certainly overindulgent in parts, but in using old tropes to tell fresh stories The Will to Live manages to be both rambunctious and reflective, resulting in a hearty, heady feast of rock n’ roll.

Wagner seems literally incapable of running out of ideas, and The Bible has plenty of good ones.

A set of compelling, entertaining songs that may not thrill in the way vintage Pixies would, but give a great account of their subtler charms.

Fossora is less engaging than Utopia, Vulnicura, and Biophilia, and except for “Ovule,” “Ancestress,” and “Allow,” cannot compete with her 1990s and early 2000s output. However, it is worth a listen, as the experience is strikingly intimate, often intriguing, and largely natural in its rhythm.

The Aussie clearly has a lot of fun—the title track bounces along rather nicely, and “Thinking of Nina” is a winner. One could quibble over the inorganic details, but that’d miss the larger picture of My Boy’s growth.

Cool It Down may be only eight tracks long but there’s so much to admire that you certainly don’t feel short-changed, in fact, it reinforces just how much they have been missed. It’s great to have them back and in such sparkling form.

While most tracks on God Save the Animals are simply constructed, often built around either a rambling piano or twangy plucked melody, there are stunning moments of sudden sonic shifts and digital surprises.

DECIDE is a record about cycles and breaking them, about regrets and new beginnings, and finding the beauty in change. It doesn’t suggest decisiveness; it commands it.

EBM is a fine album and despite Smith’s predilection for dark portentous lyrics, it certainly sounds like the band had fun exploring the different possibilities the addition of Powers has afforded them.

Striking, passionate, devastating, and, ultimately, revitalizing, MOSS is a breath of fresh air, a stirring vision of young adulthood in blue.

Words & Music, May 1965 slots in somewhere between “for completists only” and “for more serious listeners” of Reed’s works. Having a chance to listen to early renditions of Velvet’s classics and getting a taste for Reed’s knack for writing a compelling lyric are well worth experiencing.