This guy has masterminded a lot of great Belgian records, playing a defining role in the way they sounded, yet now that he goes the length of making his own LP, that sound seems to lose all of its personality.

In this time when it's almost rare for me to put on a new [R]ock record, I seem to unconsciously make an exception for slightly overblown, cliché driven and semi-serious tough guy acts like the album put forward by Alex Cameron last year, and now King Tuff's long-awaited return. I don't know why THIS is my weak spot, but it is.

Ruban Nielson set out to find a balance between his psychedelic & guitar-driven sophomore album and the funky follow-up that was Multi-Love and while there is a lot more to Sex & Food, that perfect mixture especially is what makes this such a pleasant journey - a journey across the globe, if you will.

Kali Uchis is a gem of the genre, there's no doubt about that, but on her full-length debut, not all songs succeed in lingering. There's straight-up (yet very tasteful) bangers like After The Storm, Just A Stranger and In My Dreams, but there's also a bunch of white noise that is just a tad too lucid and transparent for my taste. When it's good, it's really fucking good, I just wish it was good more often.

WHY IS THIS SO SHORT?

I've seen this being described as Amen Dunes' daytime or his summer record, a statement which I second and an atmosphere I am a big fan of (though it doesn't top his previous, more intimate nighttime record Love).

This is not a bad record, but it's a Preoccupations record and a Preoccupations record that's "not bad" is a disappointment.

Once White shuts up, this album is kind of groovy at times. Unfortunately, he sings, he raps, and talks - a lot. Or rather, he rambles. Most of the songs on here aren't even finished and on one of the very few that is, he's just twaddling endlessly about how it's sad to keeps dogs as pets. Well, at least he tried.

In itself, this isn't a remarkable recording. Yet, I assume this Myths-series is more about the amalgamation of two artists' distinct styles and in that case, compared to earlier efforts by Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood and Devonte Hyntes & Connan Mockasin, Myths 003 does stand out. It's warm and original, there's a pleasant flow and consistency to its songs, and it's exactly what you'd want a fusion of Woods and Dungen to sound like.

This album had me groovin' while listening to a fucking TLC song without any sense of guilt, which I consider a significant accomplishment.

It's seventy-five fucking minutes, but miles away from a snoozefest, for how can it ever be with Ty Segall. After every instant of relaxation, the hellbent funkiness that Segall displays on this record smacks you in the face blissfully. Admittedly, I took me several attempts (I don't know why), but Freedom's Goblin got me in the end. His best album in years? Yeah, probably.

I think, now that the world has started to move on, without Elverum, this companion piece to A Crow Looked At Me hits me even harder, or at least in a different, equally devastating way.

I like a good coming-of-age film, and this, to me, is its musical equivalent. I don't necessarily relate to the specifics, yet as is the case with most good coming-of-age films, that's also not really what is required.

There's not a lot of substance to this record, but there is one virtue to Afterpartees' sophomore album that makes me want to listen to songs like Somewhere and Call Out Your Name over and over and over and over again: the band's having fun -- good, old-fashioned, uncomplicated fun, and I'm here for it.

I have not ventured all too deep into the world of ambient. Water Memory, in fact, might be one of the first records in the genre that I have listened to in its entirety. Thus, there is hardly anything witty for me to say about this, other than: wow.

Unlikely Friends isn't going to blow anyone's mind, but it'll probably get your feet moving and your head bobbing along, wherever whenever, because these bastards from Seattle know how to write rollicking, compelling and uplifting indie rock tunes, goddammit.

Granted, I rarely get past the star-studded first half, but that is primarily because it's such an overwhelming and electrifying experience; a way to get all a pumped for the film itself, and now that I have seen it, a way to relive the spectacle time and again. S/O to that spine-tingling talking drum and to Opps, of fucking course.

Yes, it's all very creative and impressive, and someday this album might actually get to me, but for now the recipe that blew me away on Teens Of Denial has me completely disengaged from the start, roaming far for the original spirit.

In an era where cultural appropration is the greatest of risks for any band influenced by ""world music"", Khruangbin, comprised of three wig-wearing Texans, gets a pass. Though it can hardly be labelled emotionally compelling, on Con Todo El Mundo, Khruangbin flies and floats above all the borders, between nations and between the many genres of this planet, seemingly without effort.

To say Ought has on this album reinvented itself might be an exaggeration, but shaping it exclusively in a studio environment has made Room Inside The World fascinating way beyond its song structures. Musically, Ought captivates & mesmerizes - which includes Darcy's vocals, more versatile and spacious than ever.