It's ... very much worth your while. Many bands should wish that their most impressive work was as good as Motion City Soundtrack's least impressive.

Repave is integral to retroactively understanding Vernon's canon and also establishes a path forward from the runaway success of his past.

On The King is Dead, The Decemberists decided to fully immerse themselves in a style they've flirted with for years.

Metropole is very close to being a masterpiece, falling just short of their own standard set by The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Each and every song is a living, breathing entity, separate in their own way even as they meld into a single cohesive collection.

Hardcore Will Never Die has a good amount of brawn to it but ultimately falls into the category of breathtaking music that isn't made too often.

This record takes everything the band has done in the past and gives it to us in a rather different, yet just as captivating way.

The point is, there's nothing not to like about Shame, Shame unless you're looking for some inscrutable puzzle to solve. However, if you want something you can just sit back and soak up, well, missing this album would be the real shame.

It makes for a mixed bag of an album--occasionally the band sticks to their wheelhouse and sounds great, occasionally their normal stuff gets a bit stale; sometimes they experiment and it goes well, sometimes not.

Youth Lagoon will never reproduce anything like The Year of Hibernation. I think in 2011, this is called The Bon Iver Effect. The result of fame is that Powers will never be in this place again. But maybe that's best.

You're going to need more than a few listens to truly sink your teeth into the meaty layers and themes, but once you get it, you'll find that this is one of the most rewarding albums of 2012.

t may take a few albums for him to perfect the new sound, and we should expect that, keeping in mind that when he does, the results may very well be awe-inspiring. At the moment, however, Kiss Each Other Clean just isn't there yet.

From heartache and vulnerability through to acceptance and salvaging a friendship when all could have potentially been lost, who needs a plane to fly low when the detail and scenery on offer here in these forty minutes is already far more beautiful, dazzling, and effortlessly uplifting?

The album lives up to its title in every way and should prove essential for old and new fans alike.

Overall, Hummingbird is a wonderful album. Each song manifests itself in a truly attractive manner and it's a release that's very much focused in the aesthetic.

There will surely be those who really want to hate Pedals, and they won't have any difficulty finding justification for their scorn within the album's ten tracks. Nonetheless, it's a winning return, though perhaps not entirely worth the wait.

Gallows will arguably divide the fanbase between a hint of less grit at times and a vocalist not quite harnessing the same volatile nature as before--therefore yielding what is arguably the band's most diverse record in terms of execution.

It is a testament to Devine’s self-awareness of his ability as a songwriter that Bulldozer is not bloated to compensate for its lighter fare, and he sticks the landing with aplomb.

This is not disposable music--it’s exhausting and exhilarating and desolate and hopeful all at once--and there are layers both musically and lyrically that’ll reveal themselves with each subsequent spin. Pianos Become The Teeth’s third record is the most captivating and rewarding record of 2014--one that will be remembered as a classic within the genre and a gateway to those outside it.

A beautifully hazy indie pop record, perfectly suited to hot summer days.

It's sexy, daring, and complete.

Emotion goes to great lengths to prove the advantages of being manufactured, with every piece interlocking with machine-like precision with its surroundings. It’s astonishingly effective, and like the best pop, demands to be listened to ad nauseum in order to gawk at the sheer audacity of the accomplishment.

This is an album that will hold up over time, keeping us more than satisfied as we wait for Chvrches to give us something even bigger.

England, Keep My Bones is Turner's most emphatic success and the best singer/songwriter album that will be released in 2011.

Top to bottom this album feels like a classic; a show stopper. No thrills, no cheap tricks and gimmicks.

While his best songs may yet be scattered about the internet or buried in his friends DJ sets, Guilt Trips works better as a cohesive whole than anything which has come before, yet leaves you clamoring for more.

It is all-at-once beautiful, infectious, impressive and brilliant.

There are absolutely stunning passages on here to be sure, but as a whole the record fails to really take your breath away like one would hope.