Tonight We Dance

The way these splashes of color and invention intertwine with the carefully sculpted ballads result in a testament to Gallagher’s enduring craft that’s unusually satisfying.

It’s all written with smartness, a rough, street poetry, and a huge dollop of Americana populated by burned-out restaurants and big cars and rock’n’roll dreamers and John Hughes suburbia.

“Joy’All” is the sound of a woman who has accepted herself — her past and her present — and now just wants to cut loose. Her broken heart still bears bruises, but it has healed enough to keep her moving. When life hands Lewis lemons now, she makes Lynchburg lemonade.

“But Here We Are” is a beautiful, noisy celebration of brotherhood and a stark, painful exploration of loss. It is messy, gut-wrenching, ambitious and gorgeous, as the remaining members of Foo Fighters push themselves to their limits and beyond. Through it all, “But Here We Are” is an undeniable reminder of the healing, unifying power of music.

It is an overall cohesive and grand statement of an album which opens with familiar sounds, and explores jutting, pointed off-shoots, before crescendoing with “Thick Skull”’s cataclysmic pop, all the while holding a relative level of self-involvement and privilege.

“History Books” picks up exactly where the band left off, but with a renewed wind in their sails. Big guitars, anthemic singalongs and bruised and bloodied ballads are in no short supply, while Fallon’s existential lyricism reveals a renewed nuance to his songwriting.

Five years on and Irish rockers Ash return with a bang on their first album for five years. Album number eight is a heady collection of anthems and proves they still have it after 30 years of nuclear sound.

Even though many of the characters are heartbroken or wracked with anxiety, Williamson navigates modern life using timeless tropes that lend “Time Ain’t Accidental” an immense, gratifying confidence.

With “Multitudes” Feist has entered a new era in her artistry, one in which she makes space for reverie. Her grand realizations are beautifully stated.

While all three women may continue on to even greater heights as individuals, “the record” offers something so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s a covenant between three soulmates, a trio of best friends ready to carry the torch for a new musical generation.