The two halves of the project couldn’t be more at odds with one another, making it easy to wonder why the decision to drop them not quite all together, but together for all intents and purposes nonetheless, was made. There’s a vivid line of demarcation between the narrative of chaotic implosion and the gentle piecing back together that happens later.

COWBOY CARTER is a worthy entry in an ambitious trilogy, but it isn’t a country album. It’s a Beyoncé album, and what that means keeps getting bigger.

Song after song, Interplay is the sound four people acting on one shared instinct, and it feels like sunshine beaming on skin.

The interplay between Crutchfield and Lenderman’s voices makes the tunes all the more memorable, and his guitar work on tracks like “Evil Spawn” adds a certain bite to Waxahatchee’s sound that helps distinguish the record from its predecessor. It’s such subtle shifts that make Tigers Blood so remarkable.

Everything I Thought It Was feels less like a terrible Justin Timberlake album and more like wasted potential. Man of the Woods was terrible, but at least he took a risk. This one is fine, frictionless, and overwhelmingly safe.

There aren’t any real misses on Deeper Well, and the record feels more like a dreamy mood piece or conversation with a friend than an attempt to round up a collection of chart-ready singles or social media-friendly soundbytes. Musgraves was far more interested in asking the bigger questions — and it doesn’t even seem to matter too much which answers she found. The deep dive was the point.

eternal sunshine is a place for her to process and reflect; she might not be fully in her healing era, but she’s picking herself up and preparing for whatever’s next.

IDLES have been uncompromising with their sonic language. They still seem to make songs the only way they know how: from a place of both liberation and pain. Their album of love songs can only sound like this, because they know that to truly love unconditionally is easier said than done.

Vultures 1 won’t be the worst hip-hop album of the year, but it’s repetitive, redundant, and far too impressed with itself to be enjoyed by anyone but true believers.

For anyone thinking Everybody Can’t Go might soften Benny’s razor blade edges, you can rest at ease. If anything, the album adds more layers to the formula and digs deeper into the man behind the persona.

Wall of Eyes is the sound of a more confident, collaborative The Smile, a version of the band willing to let their ideas ferment, even at the expense of immediacy.

The bright spots in the album are truly dazzling, while some of the b-sides aren’t very memorable in comparison, and for that reason, the album feels quite top-heavy — the first five tracks are clear bangers, but the energy dips through the back half of the record.

Hackney Diamonds might not be an album that’ll stand the test of time à la Exile on Main St. or Sticky Fingers, but they’ve managed to successfully keep the boat afloat for one more album, and that in itself is a mini miracle.

It’s still a relatively safe album, all things considered, but for Blink-182, new ground isn’t necessary.

Though not specifically a jazz project, V has indeed embraced all the hallmarks of the genre: bluesy lyrics, strong rhythms, great instrumentalists, and a spirit of creative freedom.

There’s a world where rerecording Dark Side of the Moon works, but this redux is too misguided, too indulgent, and too up Waters’ behind to take all that seriously.

Javelin is indeed a wondrous meeting of the human and the synthetic, of stripped-down immediacy and lush, impressionistic extravagance.

They let the songs take them where they seemed to want to go, not steering the ship as much as they were content with drifting off to sea. Many (if not most!) of the songs here are perfectly nice, if a little sleepy.

The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We finds Mitski at her most peaceful, hopeful, and, yes, loving.

Rodrigo certainly has the capacity for the kinds of nuanced choices that match her vulnerability with active, novel sonics, and GUTS proves that she’s willing and able to embrace the grey areas that these big emotions inhabit. But her fearlessness with a pen in her hand deserves to be matched by the overall presentation of these songs, making it all the more satisfying when she lets these songs bubble up and burst.

Growing older can be sad, but Blur know that light arrives after darkness. Across 10 songs, you can hear them each trying to find it, hand in hand, harmony after harmony.

This record transports listeners through an intensely vivid journey, presenting a different side to PJ Harvey’s creative genius, one that proves profound art cannot be forced.

Here, QOTSA play it pretty safe. That might have been a necessary step to help Homme feel sheltered enough to show off his still-fresh wounds, but, on the whole it keeps the evolution of the band from reaching that next crucial step forward.

It’s a delicious amount of fun and presumably would’ve felt like a treat had it arrived any time of year — but for The Age of Pleasure to become available just as summer truly begins to heat up feels intentional.

While the writing on Weathervanes is carefully crafted and wildly impressive, what sets the record apart in a discography full of tattoo-worthy couplets is the contributions of The 400 Unit. They’ve undoubtedly been an integral part of Isbell’s past few efforts, but the band has never sounded so locked into an album’s singular vision.

It’s a bit of cruel irony that in the face of so much adversity, the band has somehow managed to helm their most creative and compelling album in over 20 years. It may be hard for the band to recognize it, but believe it or not, Foo Fighters are learning to live again.

First Two Pages of Frankenstein is by no means subversive – but it’s worth at least keeping on the bookshelf for whenever you, too, feel lost.

The story he set out to tell ends up linear and cohesive, remarkably so, even for people who don’t speak Korean and experience the album first solely as a sonic journey. ... This collection is a body of work people will turn to for years to come.