Not content to settle on one style of pop music, but rather preferring to float effortlessly between many, Hatchie is a credit to what is possible within the pop genre.

Everything Was Beautiful marks another career-best in Spiritualized’s euphoric discography.

(watch my moves) finds Vile connecting with his friends and idols alike, but more than anything, it finds him staying connected to himself—his identity as an artist.

It would’ve been nice to have more live material. ... We can look at Terror Twilight as the sound of Pavement coming unglued, but we can also hear the music as the sound of a band holding together—just barely well enough—to transcend their limitations and out-do themselves one last time.

It cements Tillman’s place among the best singer/songwriters around. It’s gorgeous. It’s heartbreaking. It’s timeless. It’s the sound of an artist who really went for it and succeeded wholeheartedly.

On their best songs, PUP have always built hooks that can carry entire albums. It’s just unfortunate to see those sing-alongs held back by THE UNRAVELING’s surrounding misfires.

While this old dog isn’t learning any new tricks, the band’s unmistakable chemistry shines, and each note is a glimpse into a youthful energy that hasn’t been seen in quite some time.

Though it has its moments, Fear of the Dawn isn’t quite wild enough.

Barrie is now a glistening, confident synth-pop act with tinges of folk, and the warm yet tentative hue that clouded Happy to Be Here is mostly gone.

Their songwriting is tight, their lyrics are brazen, smart and amusing, and they are at ease shifting through various indie styles. ... The duo often sound on Wet Leg as though their songs are intended primarily to entertain themselves, and each other. The rest of us are lucky to be along for the ride.

On Diaspora Problems, Soul Glo have caused a clearing in the forest with an album so boundless in its creativity that it cannot be ignored. This is the shape of hardcore that we had been promised.

Throughout the LP, Wallows show an ease in incorporating unexpected sonic textures and multi-genre influences while still remaining immediately recognizable, accomplishing what every band must hope to achieve on their sophomore album.

Camp Cope’s third album, Running with the Hurricane, trades that thundering punk for lighter fare. It’s brimming with just as much emotion, but the band this time focus more on personal triumphs and tribulations for inspiration, making their characteristically electrifying songs feel raw in a different way.

Warm Chris thrives in that new flexibility, using Harding’s expanded sound to consider the implications of professional and interpersonal performance in turns across its 10 tracks.

Midlake’s latest LP is a nice addition to their already impressive arsenal, but it would benefit from a more detailed kind of excavation.

Yumi Zouma play with a wider musical palette on these songs, which reach beyond the synth-pop sensibility that often characterized their earlier work. These songs are lusher, but in a low-key way

It’s not her discography’s lowest point, but it is her first misstep. When Charli achieves the perfect confluence of what she loves about pop music, and what we love about her music, it soars, creating some of her finest material to date. But when that balance is not achieved, the songs can feel generic or reductive.

On Broken Equipment, BODEGA don’t sugar-coat the intoxicating feeling New York can create when it gets into your blood. If you can survive the constant rent hikes, shady practices from shifty landlords, collapsing infrastructure, and a cyclical reshuffling of artistic epicenters and neighborhood fixtures, it’s an adrenaline high worth building a life around. This one’s for the ones able to hang on.

By connecting so well with one another, MICHELLE reach listeners in a singular and effortlessly listenable way.

This is probably the best Band of Horses album in 12 or maybe 15 years, after all—but when longtime fans listen to “Lights,” they’ll almost certainly hear echoes of “Weed Party,” a song from the band’s debut album.

Squeeze excels when it provides the perfect soundtrack for punching a hole in the wall, or at least fantasizing about it.

True to its title, Nightroamer is an album for shadow work, one that seems to relish meeting the darker parts of yourself head-on and admitting that you may be powerless to defeat them.

Empath’s mix of melody and noise is so effective, it’s not hard at all to squint a little bit at Visitor and see the potential for some sort of breakthrough success for this band.

Throughout five mesmerizing tracks, Texas Moon invites listeners into that special world. It’s a world where time moves at a delicate pace and where that classic American road trip detours through the scenic route.

What matters are the travails we endure to appreciate goodness. Life on Earth is a journey through the former toward the latter, and a dazzling shift from Hurray for the Riff Raff’s roots to their present.

Longtime Glass fans might observe parallels between PREY//IV’s sound and the music of the band in which she was emotionally abused. In continuing to explore that group’s abrasive, icy sound, she reclaims the power that her abuser attempted to steal from her. And in collaborating with her partner Jupiter io, formerly of noise-pop band HEALTH, she brings her own softer, foggier edge to the blistering rave music with which she’s often associated.

From the majestic opening notes of the title track to the last electronic flourish of closer “Modern Love Stories,” Once Twice Melody is the culmination of everything Beach House do best.

Heterosexuality can be an overwhelming listen, packed with emotion and production choices that leave you gasping for air , but it’s also deeply rewarding.