Zach Bryan’s up-close realism means that this album is hardly an escape from those cruelties, but Bryan’s careful presentation of his obvious songwriting talents makes it a gripping listen.

Do You Sleep at Night offers little in terms of actual ingenuity. Instead, it presents a smattering of existing tropes thrown at the wall with little in terms of depth.

Her excellent new Guts is another instant classic, with her most ambitious, intimate, and messy songs yet. Olivia’s pop-punk bangers are full of killer lines (“I wanna meet your mom, just to tell her her son sucks”) but she pushes deeper in powerful ballads like “Logical.” All over Guts, she’s so witty, so pissed off, so angsty at the same time, the way only a rock star can be. And this is the album of a truly brilliant rock star.

The songs on I Told Them… are sharply written but at times also tender, balancing seriousness with moments of levity. .... The album would have gone off without a hitch if Burna hadn’t decided to close it out by taking a shot at the people in his home country. On “Thank You,” an admittedly club-ready Afro-pop number, he accuses his fellow Nigerians of being ungrateful for what he’s done for the country’s image.

Jaguar II is a shining demonstration of the aptitude that made Monét a sought after collaborator, but here, in the album’s comfy old-school soul and sharp modern edge, she preserves something fresh and unique for herself.

Snow Angel allows Rapp to channel her larger-than-life emotions into twisty pop songs that take big swings while being keenly aware of the human at their core.

Hozier doesn’t just succeed in exploring that dark emotional world; his painful ascent makes the listener immediately want to climb with him. Even harder, he successfully delivers a third album that doesn’t shy away from any topic, even when he doesn’t have the answers. Hozier isn’t just growing as an artist, he’s being reborn.

You’re the One occasionally suffers from its lofty goals: “Who Are You Dreaming Of,” which sets her voice to luxurious orchestration ordinary reserved for pre-rock standards, feels oddly out of place. But on her most outward-looking record, Giddens melds the past and present, writing a bold new future for herself in the process.

Noname isn’t ambivalent at all here—she goes full blast. Sundial is the sound of an artist who hasn’t lost any of her passion for making music—or making trouble.

The reality is that while Scott is a masterful curator, he’s just an OK rapper. Those two realities are discordant for too many moments on Utopia.

Almost every track finds Post in some tortured posture like this, singing cheerily into a bottle he’s doomed to finish. They’re largely fine songs, and clever, but lighter than Post seems to want them to be.

Barbie the Album has something for everyone (Brandi Carlile’s loving bonus track cover of the Indigo Girls’ “Closer To Fine” is an especially sweet, sincere touch), and it neatly ties together the playful feminism of the film into an enjoyable musical experience.

So are Greta Van Fleet shameless imitators? Yep. Are they also carrying on a musical tradition that’s now endangered, like the young blues players still adhering to the basics of that genre long after we’ve lost Muddy and B.B.? Yes, that too. For defenders, you best show up with a pretty good broadsword.

The tracks are brief but potent and pugilistic, with the big hooks followed up by Leray’s flurry of verbal punches. As the record nears its close, though, the proceedings get more compelling, with Leray dropping her façade and letting things breathe a bit.

While You & I delves into Ora’s personal experiences and emotional triumphs, it does so in broader strokes. Though those confessional moments give a bit more insight into the life of Ora— her immigration experience, marriage and struggle to self-actualize — where she truly delivers is when she leans into experimentation on her euphoric EDM-lite and dance-pop. numbers.

The greatest adventure on Eye on the Bat is Palehound’s musical evolution: they’re sharper, punkier, and more fearless — roaring in the face of change.

The push and pull of passiveness and assertiveness on My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross feels organic at every turn. Sometimes the music can be a little too loose, careening like an out-of-control car (especially on the discordant “Go Ahead”), but the slackness is worth the freedom of hearing Anohni’s voice fly like the bird she became years ago.

Is it too much? Reader, it’s way too much. But it’s hard to say it doesn’t work when “too much” was clearly the point. It’s less “a swing and a miss” than “a swing that rips open a hole in the time-space continuum.”

It ["I Can See You"] and "When Emma Falls In Love," a glittery ballad about an alluring older-sister figure, are perhaps the best summations of the Taylor's Version project, bridging the years between Swift's youth and her present with the sort of tenderness that comes from paging through dog-eared scrapbooks and dusty photo albums.

Many of the songs, which she recorded with longtime collaborators John Parish and producer Flood, recall the downtempo energies of Let England Shake and her quiet 2007 album, White Chalk, and like those albums, the music here excels in its otherworldliness.

Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart is an example of strength and conviction—as well as friendship.

Such moments excepted ["Oh U Went" and "Wit the Racks"], the content of Business Is Business feels bland, especially for an expectations-thwarting artist like Thug.

Clarkson is at her strongest when she’s sticking to grunge guitars and power-pop anthems. Luckily, Chemistry is full of them and shows Clarkson — raw, unfiltered, and exorcizing her demons — is an artist at the top of her game.

Of course, even the weaker songs have their dance-floor potential. Petras is, above all else, a pure fan of pop music and the feeling it exudes. But in chasing her new status as the type of pop star who has Top 40 potential, she abandoned the freakishly forward-thinking personality that built her a base to begin with. Here, the beast has been tamed.

With 3D Country, Geese have not only avoided a sophomore slump, they’ve also delivered one of the better New York rock albums of the past few years, taking hand-me-down sounds and twisting them in ways only they could imagine.

A Gift and a Curse manages to expand on the high-end sound Gunna is known for, a vibe that has set him apart from Young Thug’s grittier, spacier music.

Life Under the Gun may frequently taste like candy, but, in the end, it’s a lollipop whittled into a shiv.

With Work of Art, he solidifies his status as a street-pop superstar.