Chris Conaton

Ambiguous Desire Transgressive Arlo Parks’ third album, Ambiguous Desire, bears little resemblance to her previous record, My Soft Machine. My Soft Machine, though, only felt tangentially connected to Parks’ Mercury Prize-winning and Grammy-nominated debut, Collapsed in Sunbeams. Sunbeams, for its part, felt like a sad, confessional R&B album with folk elements, while Machine brought in more downtempo rock influences.

Hunny’s SPIRIT! finds them in a transitional place. The record has the same punky indie-rock sound as their earlier material. Lineup-wise, though, singer-guitarist Jason Yarger has essentially dismissed the rest of the band and is continuing as a solo project under the same name. Despite this, Hunny’s now-former drummer Joey Anderson plays drums on SPIRIT!, while the ex-bassist Kevin Grimmett serves as producer and is credited as co-writer on just over half of the tracks.

Based on the Best Seller Yep Roc At first listen, Based on the Best Seller, Sloan’s 14th album, seems a little more relaxed and poppy than their previous record, 2022’s Steady. Further reflection, though, reveals that it’s just one of the band’s four members, bassist Chris Murphy, who is responsible for that sound. The other three musicians, particularly guitarist Patrick Pentland, bring songs that are as hard-rocking as ever. Murph has been trending this way for a while.