Continues Sivan’s trajectory toward a more mature sound with some genuinely ambitious moves

Even with just one spin, it becomes evident that the album seems more like three distinct EPs, and one single, that have been collected. This might seem a weird way of assessing music, but the album clearly shifts gears after every three songs

As effective as Winter may be when it comes to playing frontman – for Geese or some other ensemble – he’s equally effective, if not more so, by himself, alone under the proverbial spotlight, his songs brimming with mystery, grief, and flashes of humor

Sixteen tracks and not a single guest. That is unusual for a major-label pop album in 2026 and it is clearly deliberate, particularly from someone whose breakout single was built around a rapper’s verse

Over these nine songs, Protomartyr again nudge the sonic boundaries of post-punk, all the while confronting sublime emotional states and urgent sociocultural issues

A true gem, indeed

The sequencing leaves something to be desired. Halfway in, Violins slows to a crawl and there’s barely enough momentum to salvage the pace by “Fur Elise”

It’s a beautiful album from an artist at their absolute peak who understands that acceptance of the darkness is good enough

Pugnello is, in many ways, a revolutionary work: defiant, radical, offensive, revealing, violent. It’s a record like a manifesto: demanding and archaic, but also deeply honest in its earnestness and self-awareness.

Ride Lonesome puts Beck firmly into the saddle – let’s hope he’s defying expectations next time

There’s still some awkwardness hanging over from her early days, but that’s part of growth – part of evolution. For now, it’s not so much a case of “let her burn”, but “let her grow”

The album affirms Strings as an old-school devotee, even as it equips him to further translate bluegrass for a younger and more eclectically minded audience

The vocals are more inhuman, the rhythms more enforced, the guitar riffs more complex and alien. Yet within all this darkness, beauty still resides: you want to sing along to every track of this journey towards eternal human autumn

There is not a single bad song here, no awkward moment or overtly familiar riff, as time allows for minor details to suddenly step forward, and the songs blossom beautifully in consequence

Whatever the case is with lyrics, it all simply works as they fit into the Dinosaur Jr. sound like a very loud silk glove, putting There Near among some of the best albums they have recorded so far

His love of country-western is on display and there ain’t nobody who can get in his way of showing it

In lesser hands it could all have been a glorified mess, but, again, Wagner pulls things of, this time with full, gentle, force

As much as the Whigs can be said to have a classic sound – volume-pedal swells, wah-inflected slide guitar, open strings – the album embraces those sonics without being self-referential

There are four or five songs here better than anything on their debut. There are also four or five that a firmer hand would have cut, which would have left something leaner, stranger and harder to ignore

An album of entirely “Paradise Runner” clones could have done more damage than good. Yet the sense remains that reserves exist, that these songs of Devotion are the end of the beginning