Where the Weeknd's House of Balloons was a debut tour-de-force and Thursday an arduous journey into the internal turmoil of a self-loathing narcissist, the rising Toronto star's third release in nine months exudes a brazen, sexy confidence.

Though it's a solid effort, Young Jeezy's long-delayed fourth LP feels both airless and over-inflated, the sound of an artist trying to revisit something gone.

More than a decade after the release of Sunn O)))'s proper debut ØØ VOID, Southern Lord offers it again, packaged with a disc of remixes by Nurse With Wound. The same material's available via Stephen O'Malley's new imprint as 2xLP set The Iron Soul of Nothing.

Moving from Krautrock to funk to candy-coated pop tones and new age, the Swiss producer Dimitri Grimm's third album features an ADD-infused freshness.

For his first proper solo release, Emeralds member Steve Hauschildt uses a synthesizer to turn tiny sounds and gradual shifts into something larger.

A collection of odds-and-sods cobbled together over the course of nine years, Lioness: Hidden Treasures presents a picture of a talented singer at her most restrained and polite.

Can's 1971 album Tago Mago, freshly reissued in a "40th Anniversary Edition," is a colossus, the product of a band that was thinking huge, pushing itself to its limits, and devoted to breaking open its own understanding of what rock music could be.

Nicolas Jaar's tight, three-song EP as Darkside, a collaboration with guitarist and bassist Dave Harrington, is at once sexy and frigid, cavernous and cramped.

The Austin garage rockers continue tidying up their sound and refining their songwriting on their third LP, a collection that adds piano and politeness to the mix.

On his new EP, Odd Future's Mike G creates the rare OF release that feels purposefully removed from the collective.

4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell's This Mortal Coil-- a band that never toured, that never really was a band at all-- is the subject of this comprehensive box set, one that offers remastered versions of their three LPs along with a fourth disc consisting of non-album tracks.

The Thom Yorke-endorsed British-born singer/electronic composer's self-titled debut illustrates her belief that dance music is fatally boring when you stick to a blueprint.

Mac Miller's debut is the first independently distributed debut album to go to No. 1 in 16 years, but the Pittsburgh rapper is mostly just a crushingly bland and intolerable version of Wiz Khalifa.

Analog Africa's first foray into cataloging the music of the landlocked country Burkina Faso features 16 recordings from the 1970s. If you have any interest in West African funk forms, it's essential listening.

On the Swiss artist's second full-length release-- her first for James Holden's Border Community-- she buries herself in a dark, claustrophobic world then tries tunneling back with her elastic voice.

Five classic Throbbing Gristle albums have been beautifully remastered and lovingly repackaged in gatefolded 2xCD editions.

This 2xCD splits itself between live recordings of songs from the French singer's most recent LPs and unreleased studio tracks, including two songs with Beck.

The Greek dream-pop duo opens its first Planet Mu EP with an excellent Solar Bears remix that sets up high expectations for the band's original material.

Before No Age, Dean Spunt and Randy Randall played in Wives. Released on the 10th anniversary of Spunt's label, The Roy Tapes are seven songs recorded prior to the trio's first and final European tour.

This compilation-- a document of four dudes having a good time over the course of six years-- teases out the Australian punk-loving rock band's trajectory through B-sides and singles.

The Roots' 13th album, which includes a brief, four-part orchestral suite that builds off a Sufjan Stevens piece, is definitely their most downbeat. It's a concept record that tells the story of a man dying, in reverse.

Though they composed pieces in every key and their work stretches to fill two hours on this 2xCD set, electronic producer Christian Fennesz and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto have created their most ascetic offering to date.

Maybe the smartest thing about Laura Veirs' new children's album is that some of its tracks-- including a duet with the Decemberists' Colin Meloy-- aren't children's songs.

There's not a single sound on Fred Falke's first solo album that you also couldn't find on a French dance single from the late 1990s, but he's spent 10 years tweaking these templates until everything is maximally effective.

On Red House Painters/Mark Kozelek guitarist Phil Carney's sophomore solo album, his boss has more or less joined the group, playing bass and contributing lyrics and vocals to more than half of the tracks.