An album that speaks to “the grand sadness in life,” Revelator finds Houck further mastering his unique blend of ragged, experiment-y classicism intertwined with ethereal, lachrymose atmospherics. Houck sings from a woozy, worn headspace, but leads us to a place where dreams and reality mingle.

The second album since the departure of in-house expert Rostam Bastmanglij, Only God Was Above Us feels like a record made by a band once more comfortable in their skin while throwing in some pleasing new tricks. It’s a bold exploration of new sonic and lyrical territories, striking a balance between gritty realism and enduring hope.

Joe Pernice has been writing for a long time—most of his life, in fact—and has crafted a remarkable catalog that boldly reinterprets and recasts classic American pop. Who Will You Believe may be his most moving and nuanced album yet, showcasing a beautiful balance between sadness and moments of solemnity with warm humor and camaraderie.

Much of Sinkane's previous releases, it resists genre. It's pop. It's funk. It's electronic. It blends the gritty punk newness of a 70s and 80s New York with the steady, foundational soul of the rhythms of his native Sudan. It moves and travels through worlds and eras, through emotion and healing in, as Gallab puts it, his "love letter to Black music.”

While making Ohio Players, The Black Keys were also DJing dance parties in cities around the world, spinning 45s from their own eclectic and growing collections. The spirit of those parties infused Ohio Players’ DNA. “What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun,” says Patrick Carney.

With her sophomore album Mantras, Pruitt looks inward to explore such matters as gender identity, self-compassion or the lack thereof, and the struggle for peace in times of chaos and uncertainty—ultimately arriving at a body of work that speaks to the strength in undoing harmful self-beliefs and fully living your truth.

Sonically bold and ambitious, fiercely literate and imagistic, these songs dance around their theme, flowing through peaks and troughs of fervent psych-pop. It’s the singular work of a group of musicians whose confidence and abilities have not only scaled the heights of their ambitions but outstripped them. Luck has little to do with it.

On The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams, Ingested expand its creativity without sacrificing the ferocity that make it one of the most impressively destructive, technical death metal bands on the scene. This is proof that once Ingested sniff out a trail of musical blood, they ravenously follow it until they've uncovered a festering feast.