This may be Harvey’s weakest album in some time, but its sonic ambition reaffirms how exciting the artist remains.

Benjamin Curtis and School of Seven Bells have ensured that they won’t be forgotten any time soon.

All Across the Land is one of Blitzen’s best transcriptions of their live gigs.

Can we please just agree that the ‘80s revivalism movement has run its course?

Judging from their new double live album, the power trio’s longevity cannot be attributed to them getting better as they age.

[xrr rating=2.75/5]Justin Townes Earle has daddy issues. He plainly sings about his strained relationship with dad on 2009’s “Mama’s Eyes,” crooning, “I ain’t fooling no one/ I am my father’s son,” and actually named his new album Absent Fathers. It’s tempting to psychoanalyze the son of alt-country legend Steve Earle as he follows in his father’s footsteps, like Ken Griffeys …

[xrr rating=3.5/5]Mark Lanegan has one of those voices that is distinct from the first note. It’s not quite Tom Waits’ blackened croak, but it has the gritty edge of an old worn-out boot trying singing Johnny Cash covers. Lanegan’s voice has a power all its own that’s been obvious from the heyday of Screaming Trees, and Josh Homme put Lanegan’s …

[xrr rating=2.75/5]Don’t look now, but Eels’ Mr. E is beautifully blue again. On the heels of 2013’s Wonderful, Glorious, which was infused with harder rock elements, gruffer vocals and a far more uplifting tone than is common for Eels, The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett finds the band’s mastermind reaching inward once more and raising the quivering mess he …

[xrr rating=4.0/5]On Post Tropical, former folk guitarist James Vincent McMorrow navigates uncharted waters to reach a new musical horizon. Compared to Early in the Morning, this album eschews its predecessor’s acoustic guitar and raspy vocals and instead relies on resonant synths and tranquil lyrics. Post Tropical introduces an entirely new side of McMorrow, the side whose major influences include R&B, …

[xrr rating=3.75/5]Since their 2008 breakthrough album, Furr, Blitzen Trapper have bordered on rudderless. While that album was arguably the Portland band at their most eclectic, jumping from folky acoustic numbers to fuzz rock to piano ballads, it seems that trying to narrow their palette has only diminished them. The two records that followed Furr, Destroyer of the Void and American …