Warning: Listeners are encouraged to first experience Lonerism with 2010’s Innerspeaker stricken from the mind. Only after 10 listens may the two albums be soberly compared.

With Babel, Mumford & Sons has proven that it can do it again, replicating all that made Sigh No More so successful and well loved. It’s certainly not a departure from the band’s debut, but rather a continuation.

An instrumental rock band is free from the verses and chorsues of vocal music, and therefore has a pass to follow its collective nose. Maserati chooses to maintain structure, developing a theme and finding a logical conclusion.

Thanks to a bunch of swanky production-value-boosting additions-a string quartet, a choir, a horn section-Mumps, etc. sounds like a much bigger-budget album than its humble predecessors. Producer Graham Marsh (Cee-Lo Green, Katy Perry) gives WHY? an upbeat, pop vibe that’s different than any of the band’s previous work. Boiled down, Mumps, etc. is pretty slick.

While it would normally be a criticism to describe someone’s newest album as being similar to past efforts, that’s not the case with Flying Lotus. The sonic space he specializes in creating is so unique and broad, it’s probably not possible to overplay it. Every track and sound feels new and experimental; much of Until the Quiet is so wonderfully weird, there’s no way for it to be boring. It’s another wildly successful effort from one of hip-hop/jazz/electronica/DJ culture/indie music/[fill-in-the-genre-blank here]‘s most creative stars.

Extra Playful was the title of John Cale’s last release, his 2011 EP that saw him visiting much lighter territory than his fans had become used to over recent years. It turns out this was an aptly teasing title that suggested mischievous misdirection, as the poppier melodies that made up that record are eschewed for a greater sense of vintage violence on brilliantly-titled new album Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood.

Four years is a long time. After releasing three albums from 2004 to 2008, Tilly & the Wall took a bit of a break following 2008’s O. During this time, three of the band members married and had children, while the other two moved to Los Angeles from the band’s home base in Omaha, Nebraska. What has reemerged from this self-imposed hiatus is an album that is quite different from any of its predecessors, one that will no doubt surprise fans of the band’s other albums.

The best albums have an identifiable feel. They’re records acting as cohesive statements, strung together by some unquantifiable mood.

Ocean Roar is the second in a two-part release from Phil Elverum this year, the companion to Clear Moon. As the titles imply, that installment was a bit more delicate. It offered a cozy warmth around the hearth, away from the northwesterly natural onslaught Elverum always paints so perfectly.