The Highlights:

Angel Olsen – Big Time

★★★★

Released on Jagjaguwar

Newly out and grieving the loss of her parents, Angel Olsen decamped to the fabled Topanga Canyon in L.A. and recorded this album, a wise, devastating record of understated alt-country / indie folk. It’s the first time since My Woman that she’s sounded comfortable in her own songs and the effect knocks the whole effort up into something that will soundtrack the bluer moments of the rest of your year.

Horsegirl – Versions Of Modern Performance

★★★☆

Released on Matador

Lo-fi indie with an easily discernible love of no wave thrown into the bargain. One of those throwback 90s-style records that still sound modern.

Drive-By Truckers – Welcome To Club XIII

★★★☆

Released on ATO

The Alabama southern rock band spent the Trump administration getting overtly political over the course of three albums, the first of which was stellar and the next two which were merely very good. In these uncertain times they returns to that crunching alt-country rock sound that they staked a claim on way back in the Oughts. The opening track hearkens all the way back to Southern Rock Opera, their 2001 turning point away from straight country music, and the rest feels more along the lines of albums like Decoration Day, leavened with the more straightforward alt-rock they’ve been exploring since English Oceans. Not bad, all in all, and further proof that even though Patterson Hood is the de facto head of operations, Mike Cooley is still a hell of a songwriter.

The Rest:

Ural Thomas and the Pain – Dancing Dimensions ★★★ (Tender Loving Empire)

Andrew Bird – Inside Problems ★★★ (Wegawam)

POLIÇA – Madness ★★★ (Memphis Industries)

Medicine – Drugs ★★★☆

S.G. Goodman – Teeth Marks ★★★☆ (Verve Forecast)

Torrello – Out Of Office ★★★ (House of Silk)

iamamiwhoami – Be Here Soon ★★★ (To whom it may concern)

INVSN – Let The Night Love You ★★★☆ (Clouds Hill)

Marta Knight – Strange Times Forever ★★☆ (La Castanya)

Mint Green – All Girls Go To Heaven ★★☆ (Pure Noise)

Saajtak – For The Makers ★★★ (American Dreams)

The Venomous Pinks – Vita Mors ★★★ (SBAM)

Rubber Oh – Strange Craft ★★★ (Rocket)

Kamikaze Nurse – Stimuloso ★★★ (Mint)

Stray Fossa – Closer Than We’ll Ever Know ★★☆ (Born Losers)

Causeway – We Were Never Lost ★★★☆ (Italians Do It Better)

The Handcuffs – Burn The Rails ★★★ (Pravda)

Fantastic Negrito – White Jesus Black Problems ★★★☆ (Storefront)

Post Malone – Twelve Carat Toothache ★★☆ (Mercury)