Maybe Hackman just needed a little break before delivering her most compelling album to date.

Ryder-Jones still favors tranquil ballads and laid-back pop songs more than anything else, but the intimate, detailed arrangements and overall sonic scope of Iechyd Da are transformative.

On Orquídeas, Uchis remains true to herself by restlessly expanding her music's stylistic reach, embracing the past as instructor to the present. It is as aesthetically appealing as it is musically adventurous.

It sees her collaborate with German producer DJ Koze on a measured and balanced collection that takes in deep house, art pop, disco, and soul.

The album reshuffles a deck of familiar reference points, but it still deals a hand that's engaging and holds a bothered beauty of its own.

At its best, the album is as potent and apposite as Solange's A Seat at the Table, Laura Mvula's Pink Noise, and Little Simz's No Thank You.

Revealing McRae as a potent voice and keen ear that can deliver emotion and excitement in equal measure.

Pink Friday 2 lacks the cohesion and self-editing that would make it a rightful follow-up to her 2010 mainstream arrival. As it stands, Pink Friday 2 is another collection of Nicki Minaj songs, most of them exhilarating and fun, but some forgettable or awkwardly placed.

It's an especially dreamy -- and seductive -- album and one that seems to find comfort in collaboration.

RAT WARS' abrupt pivots make a visceral impact, but they're never distracting -- they're just more proof that well into their second decade, HEALTH are still discovering formidable expressions of hurting and being hurt.

No one interested in the bleeding edge of New Wave should be without 1978's Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and 1980's Freedom of Choice, but if you're looking for a concise yet thorough summation of one of the smartest and most inventive bands of their time, 50 Years of De-Evolution 1973-2023 will fill the void nicely.

The starkness of the arrangements helps draw attention to the distance between the origin of a song and Young's present. Now creeping toward 80, Young doesn't sound fragile yet his vocals display some age-related raggedness. Embracing his weathered, keening voice, Young highlights the tender yearning that runs throughout these songs.

There's a tactile, analog atmosphere to Regal and White Denim's work, marked by woozy synths, vibraphones, and sundry guitar sounds, like on the intro to "Blood," where their shiny guitar and keyboard hits sounds unexpectedly like the opening to a '70s-era TV sitcom like Three's Company. Elsewhere, they conjure a kinetically thrilling, '80s post-punk energy on "Tivoli" and slide into the summery, Stevie Wonder-esque romanticism of "Idle Later."

Not every track on Welcome 2 Collegrove is essential, and the quality gets spottier in the final quarter, but the album stays consistently fun if not entirely engaging.

What makes I/O unique, even special, is that the process of searching isn't central to the finished product. There's no restlessness here, only acceptance, a quality that gives I/O a quiet power that can't help but build over time.

2023's The First Time is a 20-song album that more or less revisits the tones and styles Laroi laid out over the three previous years.

Blockbusta is not without its instances of fun and excitement, but for the most part, Busta Rhymes sounds like he's reaching for something different on almost every track and not quite grabbing ahold of any of it.

Voir Dire pushes the bounds of both Alchemist's old school warmth and Earl's heady verses, landing someplace new that neither would have gotten to on their own.

The Complete Budokan 1978 essentially reveals Dylan sets the record straight about his music at the time, while opening a gauzy curtain on the artist at life's crossroads. This missing link is a monumental addition to Dylan's discography.

"Nothing on Me" adds more variety yet by coming into view as if Cleo and company have found a sweet spot segueing out of a cover of D'Angelo's "Spanish Joint." "Love Will Lead You There," just voice and guitar, closes out the album on a serene note of togetherness.

Anches en Maat isn't one of Grails' more intense records, but it does a fine job of capturing the certain type of melancholy cinematic vibe that they've been exploring for much of their career.

It's not entirely the same rowdy, lascivious joyriding that made up some of his celebrated early work, but the album's fearless expression of a full emotional spectrum makes it remarkable and at times shatteringly beautiful.

This glorious, vulnerable set offers pure collaborative inspiration at once strident and vulnerable, minimal, and aesthetically expansive.

This mix of warmth and wariness permeates Hadsel and, despite its idiosyncratic inspirations and unorthodox instrumentation, may well make it a timely and timeless destination for those who relate to its juxtaposition of comfort and alienation.

It's another page in Vile's ongoing catalog of daydreams and stoned musings, in its best moments reaching the same levels of quality as his fully considered albums.

Moving way beyond their debut, Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. is the sound of artistic maturation and sonic expansion, a logical culmination of what they were trying to do in the first place.

A stately and soulful set of songs rooted in the bittersweetness of nostalgia and adulthood.

Burton's falsetto feels like part of the tapestry masterminded by Quesada, never quite pulling attention to either his words or melodies. While this ultimately means that Chronicles of a Diamond doesn't leave enough hooks behind to linger in the memory, the pulsating, colorful vibrations it creates as its spins are certainly an enjoyable way to get lost in the ether for a half hour or so.