Throughout, the music has a sort of cloudy yet optimistic feel to it that the artist has described as “happy melancholia” – reminiscent of Fred Again’s masterful “Real Life” albums without necessarily sounding like them – and an innate musicality.

If the sound had a home base, it would probably be the Northern English industrial city of Leeds, which not coincidentally is also home to several major universities and spawned such major acts in the genre as Gang of Four, the Mekons, Delta 5 and more. On “Angeltape,” the quartet Drahla has revived that sound with a striking level of authenticity.

There’s no shortage of the unmistakable sound that brought the group so many fans in the first place. All three are excellent musicians, but Spear is a marvel, playing with a fluid style that incorporates multiple influences, from rock to African to blues to funk to Duane Eddy twang, with an innate sense of melody that carries the entire band. Yet he never overplays.

No apology necessary: “Only God Was Above Us” is an essential chapter in the band’s still-evolving sound and career.

“Act II” feels a lot like a 27-course meal, difficult to describe in whole, but endlessly easy to digest, serving by serving. .... As a whole, “Cowboy Carter” is a masterpiece of sophisticated vocal arranging, laid out on top of mostly fairly stark band tracks.

For the most part, Metro makes more of the duo’s first volume than Future does. Then again, there are stunningly soulful and richly melodic tracks such as “Running Outta Time” (co-produced with Zaytoven and Chris XZ) where the rapper sounds clear as a bell, passionate and hungry, with the backing of simple hammering piano and a slow, grinding organ.

Tyla never abandons her sound in her debut. Instead, she makes her boldest stylistic choices as subtle as possible, cementing her growing status as a pop star.

Minor deviations aside, “Tigers Blood” functions as a seamless extension and advancement of the aesthetic Crutchfield perfected on “Saint Cloud,” her Americana masterpiece that stands as one of the few artifacts worth revisiting from March 2020.

Her mastery in hitmaking is on full display. .... “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” is the updated testament to her successful track record. She rejoices in the experimentation and liberation of the new school she helped build.

It isn’t the most groundbreaking album in his discography, but it’s the clearest vision that he’s presented in years. Its songs are mercurial yet intentional, each its own bizarre sector of a larger blueprint, and the 16-song set is often musically great, from the Brazilian funk sample on “Paperwork” to the bellowing horns of “Problematic.” .... Lyrically, however, those hoping for West to seriously reconcile with his public controversies will come up short on “Vultures 1,” where in characteristically antagonist form, he leans into them.

Timberlake doesn’t reconcile with remorse across the suitable yet uneven “Everything I Thought It Was”; rather, he quickly gestures towards it on opener “Memphis” and moves on.

For listeners up for an adventure — for an album that reveals itself gradually, continues to surprise after several listens and takes you places you didn’t necessarily know you wanted to go — there are many rewards in store.

The topical shifts can be as jarring as the sonic variance, but through her conviction, adaptability, and deft vibes control, Whack makes it all cohesive while sustaining the energy of her best releases. .... With the release of the stellar “World Wide Whack,” all theoretical outcomes can recede into the glory of the real thing.

Are the songs treasures? By and large, yes — although I’m not nearly enough of an inveterate audiophile or compulsive A/B tester to really want to compare two or three versions of each of them.

Nearly every one of the 16 tracks begins with delicate finger-picking, and then stays there, flying proudly in the face of “there needs to be a banger” convention and staying committed to the acoustic bit. It’s uncompromising in that way, and all the lovelier for its confidence that you’ll turn up the volume, so she doesn’t have to.

If there’s a more innovative and exciting rock album coming in 2024, we can’t wait to hear it.

Ultimately, with “Loss of Life,” the group seems to feel more comfortable than ever in its own skin, unshackled to trends or preconceived notions about how some may feel they should sound.

There’s no question whose album this is, and like so many female superstars, Grande is tragically underrated as a musician. She’s not only a virtuoso singer but a skilled vocal arranger and producer whose multitracked backing voices are like songs on their own, embellishing and responding to her lead like a troupe of attuned dancers.

“New Blue Sun” is ecstatic and dreamy, even when, at the times, its sounds are ferocious and fearful. If André 3000 wasn’t going to release a chattering, rap-filled hip-hop album this time out, “New Blue Sun” may count as that theoretical project’s intriguing instrumental equal.

There’s a whiff of wistful nostalgia in seeing PinkPantheress veer away from micropop, but artists need to evolve and she’s exploring rather than conforming. “Heaven Knows” is a big chapter in what is hopefully a long story.

The song’s beginning will be breathtaking for fans: It opens with a familiar Beatles count-in, following by classic Lennonesque piano chords and a strummed acoustic guitar, and then — that voice, pristine, singing “I know it’s true, it’s all because of you,” and following an unmistakably Lennon melody. .... In the end, “Now and Then” is not a lost Beatles classic. But to paraphrase McCartney’s famous quote regarding criticism of the “White Album,” “It’s a bloody new Beatles song, shut up!”

Some of the most interesting material is the pile of stray tracks toward the end of the studio segment, which the producers have done a masterful job of presenting. The songs are stylistically diverse and offer an expanded view of what this band and this musician were capable of. .... But we saved the best for last: The live set consists mostly of songs from the “Diamonds and Pearls” album, but it finds the band in peak form and stretching out as they roar through a 90-minute set.

After delivering a record of such unrestrained joy and fun, my only quibble is with “Tension’s” title, though maybe what she’s referring to is not just that great second single but the challenge she issues for the rest of the industry keep up with what continues to be an impeccable run.

If not nearly as cocky and confident as the seasoned soul who wrote an album as lyrically clever as “Midnights.” You still get a good dose of her seminal earnestness in these tracks, but there’s a lot more of the woman who knew somebody was trouble when he walked in, and went for it anyway.

Any time “Dogs” finds itself, a lull is just around the corner, in large part because of its ungainly length.

Listening to this gargantuan boxed set, it’s hard not to get the sense that if Lambert had been healthy, he might have been able to focus Townshend’s brilliant, beautiful, exciting songs into a concept as coherent as “Tommy.” “Who’s Next/ Life House” shows how tantalizingly close they came.

The oddly beautiful instrumental title track, which is a gentle, simple melody played on a keyboard that sounds like a combination of a computerized church organ and a ghostly merry-go-round — and perfectly evokes the digital spirituality of its title, and the contrasts of where James Blake the artist is at this point in his always-explorative musical career.

There’s a lot of Erykah Badu and a lot of early ‘70s Stevie Wonder in her singing and grooves, and while it generally moves in a in an unhurried, low-key pace, Sol shows she can open up and (almost) belt when she’s so inclined.