It's fairly apparent throughout the album that Anberlin was definitely in their element, as Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place is exactly what mainstream music needed: a challenging and engaging rock and roll album anyone can relate to. Their songwriting and musicianship have never been better.

It doesn't take a biological science major to realize that this album is very well worth listening to regardless of whether you're a seasoned veteran of The Amory Wars storyline or you've never even heard of Coheed & Cambria.

It's a return trip to the well that provided Nothing is Wrong, but one made by a band that has gained significant perspective, clout, and chops in the four years that have now passed since that record.

Overall, About To Die isn't particularly great. The EP is quite unnecessary.

[The songs] are nothing short of radiant, from the perfect vocals to the organic, full-bodied arrangements, from the heart-rending lyrics to the way that producer Charlie Peacock surrounds everything in a smoky ambiance.

Direct Hits is a solid, predictable, and wholly enjoyable look back at the Killers’ tumultuous first 10 years.

Angles is the best Strokes album since their 2001 debut, and they still sound just as fresh and youthful as they did when they released that record.

A genre-bending, head-turning collection that vaults ZBB to the top of the roots-rock pedestal.

Overall, Rudimental have shown themselves to be a talented band of men.

Last year’s stellar Battle Born, felt considerably more vibrant than Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action ever does.

Champ as a whole isn't the most coherent album I've ever heard, and a maturing sound isn't the easiest thing to develop and capture on a record.

Gutter Rainbows may be the most accessible and varied album in his discography.

While Rented World may not offer the thematic comforts that fans of Impossible Past will be searching for, the album is stacked from top to bottom with can’t-miss tracks.

With Love is the most focused and refined release from Zomby yet, which is quite the feat considering it's a double album.

These songs aren’t just lovelorn poetry or odes of heartbreak; they’re full stories, five-minute films, expansive novels written in staves, rests, and music notes for the rest of us to bleed to.

For most, the record will be too much--it's messy, it's overdone, it's arrogant, and ultimately it's disappointing – making Radke's return not really worth the wait.

These guys have created a pop-punk album that isn't timeless, but that's not the point. Wishful Thinking, by design, tells the story of a point in time, one that only has meaning because it won't last.

It was obvious the writing for this album was at its earlier stages when Camu passed away, but the production does a very good job of making up for the low quality of the vocals. Fortunately, Camu's fantastic voice still breaks through. I love distorted, uneven recordings, but fans of cleaner audio work may be put off by the album's overall quality.

The majority of the songs on Hyperview sound very, very similar. Those two songs are different enough to differentiate themselves from the rest of the album, but most of them aren’t.

What Saaab Stories lacks in quantity is easily made up for in quality.

The quintet has a real pulse on how to be memorable, melodic and magnificent without sacrificing their defined visions.

While some tracks may feel more like Bay and Ratner, Ross more often than not hits his mark.

Williams seems to have mostly left behind the beach motif and the surf vibes for straight 90s alt-rock, and more often than not it works for him, but a few songs here (“Dog,” “Everything Is My Fault,” “I Can’t Dream”) fall flat on their face.

Easily one of his strongest releases to date, if not his best, The Happiness Waltz is the very reason why musical history should have a small chapter for this criminally overlooked songwriter.

It's the sound of a veteran band coming back to the game without missing a beat, and churning out some of their best, liveliest, and catchiest material in the process.

From its atmospheric nineties leanings to Bellamy's consistently on-the-mark channeling of Bono, it's not too hard to imagine The 2nd Law having a similar legacy ten or twenty years down the road: not a great album, but an adventurous one.

Like its predecessor, Pigeons is also delicate, but it does much more than shimmer and sound pretty. The rhythm section takes a huge step forward, the arrangements are more varied and robust, and there are countless actual hooks.

The Five Ghosts is the band's most consistent album yet, and their best since 2005's "Set Yourself On Fire."