instead of songs about past lovers and immaturity, Motorists are using philosophical ideas as fuel for their jangly indie rock.

Balvin proves to be taking risks the whole way through. With JOSE, J Balvin offers stiff competition to Kanye and Drake's recent 20-plus song efforts with a far more consistent effort.

With Black Encyclopedia of the Air, Moor Mother uses her genre-agnostic style to tackle to world's most popular genre and make it undoubtedly her own.

This is an assured return.

Low's latest finds Sparkhawk and Parker at a thrillingly creative and intrepid peak, building off their experimental blueprint laid out with their 2015 LP Ones and Sixes and fully realized on Double Negative. Although HEY WHAT falls squarely in between the two, it's safe to say that no one is making music that sounds remotely similar to what Low is giving us.

The subdued star-crossed is unlikely to garner the same commercial success as Golden Hour. It isn't carried by standout singles or big beats, but the album isn't seeking that kind of external validation. It stands alone in its vulnerability.

If the band's previous tunes were like a knife fight, this feels more like blunt force trauma. They used to land quick jabs; now they're throwing haymakers. Yet No Taste is also more dynamic and measured in its violence.

CLB is a serviceable enough Drake album, but he has a number of prior projects that showcase his dynamic rap abilities and frenemy quarrels at a much higher calibre.

What Only Up suggests at its core is an opportunity to unite Toronto's hitherto fragmented music scene; rave music, hip-hop and bands can coexist, rebuild the scene anew and have a hell of a good time doing it.

It's certainly BTBAM's heaviest in a while, paying tribute to the BTBAM's watershed record without copy-pasting. It might fall short of wall-to-wall iconic status, but they already achieved that.

Though its creation process was an overarching performative event in itself, Ye still managed to (for the most part) control his narrative, and deliver his best body of work in recent memory. It's just hard not to think that some trimming and sequencing tweaks could have made this LP that much greater and his message that much more poignant.

There is a lot to chew on here, and that's what makes GLOW ON an album that will stay fresh after many replays.

From‌ ‌the‌ ‌desert-blues‌ ‌guitar‌ ‌that‌ ‌knits‌ ‌itself‌ ‌across‌ ‌the‌ ‌muscular‌ ‌coda‌ ‌of‌ ‌"Real‌ ‌Pain,"‌ ‌the‌ ‌way‌ ‌De‌ ‌Souza's‌ ‌voice‌ ‌condenses‌ ‌to‌ ‌a‌ ‌vein‌ ‌of‌ ‌skyward‌ ‌fluorescence‌ ‌on‌ ‌"Bad‌ ‌Dream"‌ ‌or‌ ‌the‌ ‌latticework‌ ‌rhythm‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌sparkling‌ ‌"Hold‌ ‌U," ‌Any‌ ‌Shape‌ ‌You‌ ‌Take‌‌ ‌is‌ ‌endlessly‌ ‌energized,‌ ‌each‌ ‌corroded‌ ‌riff‌ ‌and‌ ‌synth‌ ‌streak‌ ‌glowing‌ ‌with‌ ‌purpose.‌

De Doorn is not only a continuation, but also a rebirth of Amenra's pilgrimage of apocalyptic heaviness.

While Big Red Machine lacked immediate standouts, it was intriguing for its ponderous excursions.

It's to CHVRCHES' credit that Screen Violence doesn't suggest any shallow, put-down-your-phone answers to the questions it raises. Instead, the album makes an unflinching appraisal of present-day anxieties to summon the vitality needed to keep going, in spite of what keeps coming through the screen.

Although GUMBO'! does move with some inconsistency, Siifu nevertheless delivers a dynamic approach to his craft.

Though the tail end of the LP drags thanks to throwaway dirges like "Justice" and "Sometimes," Love Will Be Reborn is nonetheless as surprisingly and pleasingly intimate and stripped down of an album you're going to hear from someone as naturally theatrical as Martha Wainwright.

In its lyrics and tone, Infinite Granite is remarkably blue, and beautifully so. Some fans might not appreciate the direction the band has taken towards the light, but nevertheless, the heart of Deafheaven remains.

They've aged into something more pensive, monumental and vital. The party is over, and we need these empathetic folktales much more than any of us need to dance.

This is a collection of songs that wink at what previously made this band great and hint at some interesting paths forward, but ultimately declare that BNL have simply become unrequired listening.

The momentum of King's Disease II's eventual first half results in some lag to the finish line, but whether it's inspired singles ("Rare"), fresh collaborations, new ideas or bejeweled one-liners ("How you expect to get love if you don't show none?"), King Nas serves up another reminder that he's no pretender to the throne. The wild ambition has just evolved into calculated wisdom.

The band had already pushed well beyond their initial territory with Nearer My God. Draw Down the Moon transports them out of that world entirely and into a galaxy of their own.

Lingua Ignota comes off much more sombre and reflective, and Sinner Get Ready is nothing short of a strikingly effective album, sounding more like an incantation than a mere collection of songs.

Isaiah Rashad has returned as sharp as ever, delivering an album that houses some of the best material that he's ever released. The album never lulls over its 16-track runtime; instead, it finds an artist who's taken his time away from the spotlight back in a good space, building upon an already strong foundation to result in with the most complete project he's released.

It's not your typical upbeat pop album — instead, it's more reflective and subdued. Through it all, it stays true to the young artist that took over pop music in only a few short years.

Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, Antonoff's third album as Bleachers, is at best a heartfelt batch of tracks that are nice to experience in the moment, but rarely anytime after. This doesn't mean there aren't a few glimpses of the full potential of Bleachers' musical direction; they're just crowded by much of the same heard on records past.

Welcome 2 America is an incredible listen and an album that proves that even when Prince had reached his lowest point, he was still capable of creating magic. It's a tight, concise body of work that is a few missteps short of perfection but is still far and away his best release since 1987's Sign o' the Times.