FLOOD

For their 13th album, the longrunning alt-country group leans their mid-tempo rock melodies through Cate Le Bon’s layered production approach.

This new collection of B-sides from the Modesto group’s 2003 LP reexamines the prophetic promise of the crumbling computer age that the original album showcased so well.

Recorded last summer at the annual event in Rhode Island, the Canadian-American songwriting icon’s first live set in two decades showcases her infectious performance personality.

The Norwegian producer’s sixth album finds him jettisoning his slow-orbit jams of the past for propulsive beats and a lighter production mix.

With the help of a 41-piece orchestra, this demure-yet-dazzling eighth LP is more intimate in scope when compared to the Icelandic band’s yawning post-rock discography.

The Atlanta emcee leans into gospel and soul influences on his first LP since co-founding the more electronic-infused Run the Jewels a decade ago.

This Yoshimi-era EP of fan-favorite demos is a warm piece of rock mythos finally made available to collectors as a cotton-candy pink curio.

Birthed from dreams and the Biblical book of Psalms, the nocturnal characteristics of Simon’s new 33-minute acoustic tone poem are another fork in the path for the songwriter.

Tim Rutili’s eighth album under the moniker spans a wide thematic landscape like a good short story collection, digging into the same experimental-folk loam he’s sifted through since the mid-’90s.

The reissue features crisp remastered audio and an intriguing bonus EP to complement this moonless fairy tale of chiming alien transmissions and chamber-folk malice.

The steadfast indie rock group’s production toolbox is fully refined on their ninth effort, providing more surprises in the melodic trap doors between tender and somber.

The Canadian songwriter continues to play a series of wild cards on her sixth album, which mostly lives up to its name.

The Canadian group’s ninth album builds off the adventurous power-pop sound floating around its predecessor while zooming in on themes of isolation and emotional upheaval.

The songwriter supergroup’s full-length debut screams out its manic heartaches and unrolls stories with a quiet resonance—and just plain rips as an indie-rock record.

These 12 tracks all point back to a pop artist not afraid to take some wild swings on her second album for her given name.

Katherine Paul finds a new sense of space within Swinomish traditional pow-wow music on her fourth LP as she explores themes of homecomings and reawakenings of mind and soul.

On his sixth album, the Saskatchewan-born songwriter continues to stub out his standby concepts of interpersonal trauma like used cigarettes.

The Toronto hardcore-punk ensemble’s sixth album is the sound of restraining a powerful creative behemoth that wants to rip through the walls at any minute.

The songwriter’s fourth album is quite a desert trek, visiting longtime landmarks of country, rock, honky-tonk melodrama, and ’70s psychedelics along the way.

Victoria Bergsman’s incomparable alto range is the central draw for this wintery five-song collection of Colin Blunstone covers pulling from The Zombies frontman’s first two solo albums.

This limited-release singles collection housed in a wooden packing crate showcases a celebrated musician who didn’t rest on his laurels after The Beatles came to a formalized end.

There’s certainly magic in some of the songs on Young’s 42nd album, but many of its moments are well-worn journeys through the past with a bit less punch and panache.

This electronics-heavy introduction to Chris Letissier’s new identity adds some transitory suaveness and sparkle to a well-established pop career.

Actors Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb discuss James Gray’s semi-autobiographical film, their friendship on and offscreen, and more.

The exploratory minimalist songwriter’s third album is a cluster of nine nocturnal vapors released with the stark atmosphere of a folk-horror film.

This seventh LP grabs the French rockers’ usual bag of pop tricks and gives it a good shake, the 10 tracks breezing by with little room to stop and contemplate the contours of each one.

The UK group’s second LP snaps their post-punk mold into digestible moments of alt-rock, punk blues, and classic sophomore album experimentalism.

Along with his friend and collaborator Wilson, we look back on 20 years of Waits’ conjoined-twin albums Alice and Blood Money.

The eighth studio album from the alt-rock vets mostly sticks to its promise of bigger, bolder tracks, providing a handful of fluttering highs among their near-four-decade discography.

Doug Martsch discusses keeping it fresh after 30 years, his reflective ninth album When the Wind Forgets Your Name, and a quarantine love for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Joe Goddard discusses evolving the spectacle of their recorded output and refining their craft on the band’s eighth studio album.

This remixed odds and ends collection is longer, denser, more disorderly, and less refined than the composer’s solo effort from last year.

These colorful, multilayered songs flow from Noah Lennox and Pete Kember as they avoid the prickliness of other pandemic releases.

On his second album in less than four months, White leans into his softer side, oftentimes overshadowed by his blistering electric guitar solos.

The London trio’s third album is full of hallucinogenic scenes where jazz, prog, electronic, and punk pretzel around each other until it looks like one musical gordian knot.

Nika Roza Danilova also discusses getting to know herself in a new way through her latest collection of gothic songs.

The Real Estate vocalist’s second solo LP can coast by in one moment before jolting you back to bygone days with a sharp turn of phrase or instrumental U-turn.

On his intimate sophomore effort, Strange is thankfully still not settling into one particular style as he soundtracks self-examinations on pained familial histories.

By ramping down the production value, the Swedish songwriter puts a strict focus on the small, captured moments, akin to studying a lover’s face for context clues.

This sixth album often finds a veteran band charging atop vigorous, surging melodies and not being afraid to just lean into the groove again.

The duo’s fourth LP is a multitude of things at one time, and that’s both its downfall and its triumph.

Varying in length, tone, and setting, these 10 tracks sound like a new era for both Carey Mercer’s singing and his backing trio that have pushed him along.

Dan Bejar’s emotionally rumpled pandemic album wanders through a diverse set of genres, requiring the listener to look at it from all angles.

The metal experimentalists work ’90s alt rock and ambient space-rock experimentation into the mix on their fifth LP.

The odd experiments, melodic dead ends, and other outtakes on this compilation are geared toward diehard fans of the monumental 1999 album.

Claire Cottrill’s sophomore effort is a strong footfall out of the music industry quicksand and a way to wash the past and online naysayers away.

There’s nothing too shocking on the duo’s first album in a decade, and there are still plenty of cozy vibes.

This 49-track space odyssey is a precarious and complicated release, like a a laugh escaping the mouth of someone too tired of weeping.

The group’s 11th album is an agreeable, yet predictable, verse-chorus rock album with plenty of pop accoutrements.

The Brooklyn trio’s sixth LP is an elegant metamorphosis for a group that seemed crystallized within its mid-’00s indie-rock styles.

Finn and Nicolay talk reveling in the six-piece setup, their passion for live residencies, and 8th album “Open Door Policy.”

“New Fragility” builds up a better framework for CYHSY as an Alec Ounsworth solo project.

The latest, truly masterful statement from Tamara Lindeman blooms beyond her Americana roots.

Much of the Pumpkins’ overstuffed 11th album is merely a faded approximation of ’90s rock.

The constant theme on Calexico’s new holiday album is friends and family celebrating the good times.

The group’s sixth album is a long exhale after the excited breathing and bare-chested songcraft heard on their last three records.

“The Ascension” is an unrelenting release that asks a lot of its listeners, but it gives back plenty as well.

The band’s sixth album sounds like a bigger, hi-fidelity bite of the “Sam’s Town” apple.

Sophie Allison follows up “color theory” with a compilation featuring Jay Som, SASAMI, and more.

The piano is the torch guiding Jones through the darkness on her eighth solo album.

Sumney brings shards of art rock, R&B, classical, electronic, jazz, and soul into one beautiful piece of musical kintsugi.

Thundercat continues to alchemize his inimitable style as a honeyed singer, whipsmart producer, and lithe bassist.

A track-by-track ranking of the album that made me realize it was OK to be anxious.

Mackenzie Scott has always been a sharp and economical lyricist with a variety of personas at her disposal.

The cousins discuss inverting genre tropes, their first embarrassing movie, and the evergreen influence of “Columbo.”

The Nashville guitarist continues his streak as an accomplished folk storyteller with or without words.

The Numero Group focuses its lens on the pivotal country music made between 1969 and 1980, when many smaller musicians were directly inspired by Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

This isn’t Music Appreciation 101.

Jack Tatum leans further into the synth-pop landscape than ever before on his third album as Wild Nothing, “Life of Pause.”

On “Commontime,” the brothers Brewis double down on this concept by settling into a few more, well, common time signatures alongside their usual pop-funk trappings.

“Jet Plane and Oxbow”’s fist-raising peaks are sadly rare, but the craft of the production is still worthy of admiration.

In the fall of 2014, Parquet Courts announced a tour with fellow New York band PC Worship under the nondescript stage name PCPC.

The result is “Dreams of Childhood,” a charity spoken-word album whose proceeds go to La Casa de la Cultura de la Calle (The Street House of Culture).

Welcome back, Bradford. Long live, Deerhunter!

With “Have You in My Wilderness,” Holter’s musical worlds continue to engross.

The group’s previous calling cards—swelling brass or the romantic swoop of an orchestra’s strings—are only seldom heard throughout “No No No.”

Shana Cleveland, leader of the Seattle surf-rock band, talks about being inspired by the emotional riptides of life.

“The Expanding Flower Planet” is a sun-dappled, cosmic exploration of moods that succeeds, not in spite of, but partially because of its obfuscated nature.

Each of Ezra Furman’s solo releases is a ball of condensed energy that explodes several times over before the final song is done.

The band’s third album, “Currents,” is spacey, intricately layered, and soulful.

The real draw is, and will always be, “Black Mountain”’s original eight tracks, which still stand up to scrutiny a decade later.

No Joy has injected just enough ferocious punk and hallucinatory melodicism into “More Faithful” to leave listeners drenched in sound and wanting more.

Throughout his time fronting the cult indie-pop bands The Unicorns and Islands, Nick Thorburn has showcased a strong penchant for melody across multiple disparate genres.

Kristian Matsson’s fourth album as The Tallest Man on Earth, “Dark Bird Is Home,” is a release full of growth for himself and a test of his capable backing band.

“Sound & Color” once again showcases the stomping power of Howard and her band, but the LP can be an uneven listen at times.

Paired with brutally honest lyrics, Crutchfield is the voice of brute force mixed with instability on “Ivy Tripp”—like a person taking a long, hard look into a mirror and smashing a fist into it.

With “Sometimes I Sit,” Barnett sidesteps any quaint expectations and delivers a true debut album that can surprise listeners with its depth and universality.

After a move to Los Angeles and personal explorations into poetry writing and film, Marling’s new music feels more electric and cinematic.

Jesso may proudly wear his influences, but he possesses a candor not usually heard from other indie artists.

New Brunswick, New Jersey’s Screaming Females have blazed a post-punk trail for nine years and their latest record, “Rose Mountain,” attests that the band has no intentions to cease their gripping punk odyssey.

From the soulful gospel of “When You’re Smiling and Astride Me” to the cherubic synth-pop of “True Affection,” this kaleidoscope of a release is brimming with ideas both batty and inspired.

Karen Dalton, Linda Perhacs, and Nico are often mentioned in the same breath as Jessica Pratt. Although those artists were touchstones for listeners trying to describe her first release, this new set of recordings sees her traveling further down her own special kind of rabbit hole.

The Decemberists’ seventh album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World sees the Portland folkies beginning to rebuild after hitting reset on their prog-rock dalliances with 2011’s decidedly rootsy The King Is Dead.

Killer Mike and El-P are rappers that go together like cereal and milk. The veteran firebrands thankfully show no sign of stopping any time soon.

Ware crafts very urbane pop music using very modern electronic and dance sensibilities as the backbone.

The thirteen-year career of indie-pop duo The Rosebuds was established on the romantic relationship between Kelly Crisp and Ivan Howard, who began the group in the midst of courting, wed at the zenith of their career, and kept limping along after a messy divorce.

Brooklyn-via-Alabama trio Bear in Heaven continue to melt down their prog and electro sensibilities into a white-hot core for their fourth album Time Is Over One Day Old. The verve of the group’s 2009 breakthrough release Beast Rest Forth Mouth even returns to some extent.

Australian pop marvel Sia Furler wrote some of the biggest songs of the past five years, including Beyoncé’s “Pretty Hurts” and Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” but she continues to kick against all preconceived celebrity notions on her sixth album, 1000 Forms of Fear.