After almost two decades of being a band, you would have thought that New Years Day would have achieved everything they ever dreamed of, but they’re not quite done yet. After a five-year hiatus, the rock quintet back with their fifth studio album. There’s no fat or gristle to chew through here, Half Black Heart is a lean, mean sound machine.

Gangbusters Melody Club is a joyous jigsaw puzzle of an album-- the band’s most dancefloor-friendly to date. The trio pack more influences than ever before into their elegant earworm songs. The jazz and swing for which they became famous over a decade ago is back with a bang, alongside their love of House, Electronica and Big Beat.

Sheer Mag capitalize on a decade’s worth of devotion to their own collective spirit—a spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the larger-than-life glamour of concert halls—emerging with a dense work of gripping emotions, massive hooks, and masterfully constructed power-pop anthems.

The Bruce Hornsby and yMusic collaboration explores seafaring themes, sounds and metaphors encapsulated in progressive chamber music and Hornsby's vocals. It’s an album about water and the ways we live with, in or against it… Hornsby and yMusic as you have never heard them, but also instantly identifiable in their own ways.

Julian Lage returns with Speak To Me, his remarkable fourth release for Blue Note, which finds the guitar virtuoso broadening his sonic palette in collaboration with esteemed producer Joe Henry who enhances Lage’s trademark melodic lyricism on this wide-ranging set of compelling new originals.

Over ten ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting alternative pop, I Got Heaven is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an unfeeling and unkind world. It’s a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive.

Pissed Jeans are known for their feral vocals, biting lyrics, buzzsaw guitars, and unhinged live shows, and their sixth album is no exception. These songs skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood, and when viewed through frontman Matt Korvette’s scowl, everything takes on a level of violent absurdity.

Few if any outfits in country and roots music can make their music rise to the epic and weighty level that Shane Smith and the Saints achieve. Norther showcases the full spectrum of their style that seamlessly blends elements of country, Americana, Southern rock, folk, and a little honky-tonk with soaring four-part harmonies and Smith’s striking baritone vocals.