What we say: Like Tim Hecker's interview in the New York Times suggests, this isn't ambient music. Instead the electronic composer and multi-instrumentalist delivers another album of churning, roiling electronic sounds, piano, distortion and classical instruments flowing in a sea of sound. His soundtrack for Brandon Cronenber's film "Infinity Pool" was a preview of sorts for No Highs, but this album delivers an even greater punch. If you saw him live on tour this past May, you know what you're in for. - Jefferson

What they say: No Highs is muted in comparison to the Gothic grandeur of Harmony in Ultraviolet, the buffeting noise of Ravedeath, 1972, the thorny ruggedness of the underloved An Imaginary Country. But Hecker’s title seems to already anticipate this criticism, and No Highs ultimately works as an example of what ambient music can be, rather than a suggestion of where it might go. - Pitchfork