The skittering, tightly wound sound the band achieves here bears echoes of Vampire Weekend's arch global groove, Peter Bjorn and John's perky indie pop, and the complex art pop textures of Field Music, without ever feeling derivative of any of the aforementioned artists.

It is, in the purest sense, a back-to-basics move for Buck: he's turned the clock back 25 years, making the album he may have always wished R.E.M. made instead of Fables of the Reconstruction.

Many listeners won't have the patience to sit it out, but the album has a surprising ability to draw one into its cavernous rooms and pitch black fields of noise.

A solidly enjoyable, radio-ready pop album.

On Born to Sing: No Plan B he's compiled the various elements of his musical oeuvre and assembled them into a seamless, glorious whole.

Thanks to the high level of Tatum's songs and the sound he and Vernhes create, it's just the kind of album that could connect with lovers of slick, catchy pop with real humans behind the controls.

Just like East of Eden, Other Worlds works both as a sonic experiment and as an expression of Bergsman's adventurous soul.

It is not a comeback record but a late continuation, a great work of art.

Cut the World is easily the most revealing Antony and the Johnsons album to date, joining material from various recordings in one extended, sublime document.

Plenty of hot air pushes it forward, while cold steel keeps it on the ground, just like the kinetic, magnetic Paz.

ong for song, Merry Christmas, Baby is very much of a piece with Rod's ongoing Great American Songbook series, with Stewart not straying from the familiar form of these songs and producer David Foster laying on all manner of soft, soothing sounds.

While the roots of the songs remain familiar, the Polyphonic Spree inject enough psychedelic charm and whimsy into the album that, if you don't think about it too much, just might have you forgetting you're listening to seasonal jingles, and that beats the hell out of "Jingle Bell Rock" any old day of the year.

Discount the general masses not attuned to UFOmammut's unique but long-established formula, and their dedicated followers shan't have to expend too many of their remaining neurons grasping the full enormity of the band's accomplishment, even though this second sibling falls just short of its elder twin overall.

They actually make the effort to show why they're worth paying attention to across six often lengthy tracks. At points their approach is more like providing catnip to well-inclined fans.

The passing of time has only increased Blur's stature as a British treasure and this is a concert that suits their status: it's crowd-pleasing without pandering.

Ultimately, on Dark Black, Train is a master at keeping us on the edge of our seats.

It integrates them in a 21st century musical language that is holistic and accessible while remaining fully exploratory.

There's something gelling on Dirty Glow that almost matches the album title itself, but it's just not quite there yet.

This feature-filled, somewhat messy effort is a welcome surprise, focusing in on its topic and then freeing it with the greatest of ease and making the previously maverick Game sound like a natural born ringleader.

The band gives the songs greater depth rather than always putting the message right there on the surface, and this change allows the listener to dive into the songs to really absorb and understand them.

Ultimately, though, it is just this diverse stylistic quality, both in the source material and Elling's arrangements, that make The Brill Building Project one of his most interesting albums.

COF achieve a victory here. It rocks.

The Life & Times Of... is a solid and recommended release.

Carry On might be the most personal Willy Mason record to date and finds him unafraid to use traditional blues motifs--narrow roads, one-way streets, and fugitives--to fully express himself as a songwriter.

It's hookier and not as ponderous as ¡Uno! but not quite as breakneck as ¡Dos!.

Too bad it's a step back from Doo-Wops in so many ways, leaving people who saw promise in his debut shaking their heads in disappointment and hoping Mars can sort out his feelings about women and get back to being a sweet romancer, instead of an icky hater.

Big Boi adapts to the unfamiliar surroundings with little effort and often sounds comfortable, but the fusions are short on power.

By and large Construction Sounds is a restful and refreshing listen--and one that reflects how far his music has come during the years since he last used the Schneider TM moniker.

Horror and dark electronics fanatics alike will put this one on repeat for days, but its very powerful specificity will likely cut out a swath of listeners not interested in either ravenously dedicated sub-genre.

An occasionally thrilling, yet ultimately uneven set from a talented band in the midst of a huge transition.

While they need to focus more, there's enough potential here to ensure that there's plenty to choose from.

Price's material-starved fans are craving his words more than beats, so don't call it a comeback but a wicked, wordy return.

Quarter Turns Over a Living Line is the group's fine and uneasy full-length debut.

Released in celebration of the Preservation Hall's 50th Anniversary, the album is a rootsy, high-energy, and spirited mix of New Orleans jazz and blues with some gospel and country inflections.

If you're looking for depth and escapism, there are plenty of albums out there for you to dive into and explore, but if volume and intensity are what you seek, Pig Destroyer have just the punch in the face you've been looking for.

Sirens perhaps works best when it's not totally in thrall to grunge and the band allow themselves to enter unchartered terrain.

Pour Une Âme Souveraine is the best kind of dedication to Simone: it invokes her inspiration rather than attempting to re-create her character.

Hidden is not merely a second step for this duo, but real deepening in a highly individual sound.

On Privateering, his seventh solo outing, Knopfler has crafted his most ambitious and pugnacious set to date.

If State Hospital is an indication of things to come, then Frightened Rabbit should have 2013's unremittingly bleak indie rock scene sewn up.

If Dark Dark Dark are one of many acts who seem to define the realm of vaguely quirky and slightly winsome indie rock of the 21st century, the lean of the performances tends toward the quietly contemplative above all else, however much in a band context.

Once again, probably not a highly sought-after sound, but then again, when an album is this well put together, who really cares?

Despite its brevity, the songs strike with such languid, metered force they manage to slow time down, stretching an EP's worth of darkly ambient dream pop into a deceptively epic micro-journey.

If this isn't the album of the year, it's at least the art-pop album of the year, or the neo-sophisti-pop album of the year, or--beside Frank Ocean's Channel Orange--the alternative R&B album of the year.

They seem have found a sense of clarity amid the chaos at certain points.

The tactile crackle and hiss underscoring the calm piano makes this all Hampson's work, as excellent and remarkable as always.

For the moment, Lights Out suggests they are capable of producing compelling work even as they become increasingly comfortable in their own skin.

Bison B.C.'s creations for Lovelessness largely succeed on the strength of those imaginative arrangements and by proving themselves improbably infectious despite their brute façade.

Silly, savage, and willfully schizophrenic, Nookie Wood is at its best when its creator is channeling his more pastoral works.

Kin shows that there's more than just gimmickry to iamamiwhoami.

Those who have been waiting for what seems like an eternity for Timberlake to return to the music scene could do worse than check out Contrast, which although rather front-loaded, is perhaps the most confident and mature teen pop debut of recent years.

Developer feels like the work of a group constantly pulling new rabbits out of hats just as things seem to have peaked, which can only be promising for their future work.

Besides being an impressive melding of unlikely worlds, the five pieces here are transcendently beautiful, and essential listening for a fan of either player or any sound art enthusiast.

Our Nature is too long and just not unique enough to really stand out among all the artists treading similar ground.

Thoroughly enjoyable and high in replay value, this will be most valuable for younger listeners for whom H&LA functioned as a point of entry into house music.

O.N.I.F.C. lands somewhere between the growing pains of an artist forced to develop more quickly than he's ready to and material simply less inspired than the hungrier, more excited sounds that came before.

This is how a hip-hop group reaches middle age: by placing themselves as part of a tradition, never lingering in the past but never desperately riding trends.

If you don't listen closely, it goes down easy, but listening with just a slightly critical ear reveals those similarities [to Dave Matthews] as near farcical.

With A Wrenched Virile Lore, they offer a set of reworkings that are more cohesive than their previous collection, while still taking the songs from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will in notably different directions from their origins and from each other.

While this collection obviously isn't the best place for newcomers to cut their teeth, From the Vaults, Vol. 1 is a collection that will give longtime fans a taste of what could have been in some kind of alternate time line, making the album essential listening for Kylesa diehards.

Still, as the Kasabian-sized choruses stick in the head like the most delicious, stately fluff, The Evolution of Man winds up the dancefloor confessional done right, fist pumping and throwing fits as if it had karma to burn.

This time around Murs delves into even more of a funk sound, and tracks like "Troublemaker" and "Hey You Beautiful" bring to mind the sound of such similarly inclined contemporaries as Maroon 5 and the Wanted.

While a good background album it may be, it's not exactly gripping. The songs are too multifaceted to feel cohesive, yet they never seem strikingly experimental.

With Bish Bosch, Walker creates a kind of Möbius Strip: by virtue of creating a less physical sonic landscape, he provides a way into his great trilogy on his way out of it.

It's a wall-to-wall party for the freaks, burnouts, outcasts, and misfits and if you don't get it that's your fault, not hers.

Artistically, she's still coming into her own.

While a more focused production ethic might have made for a more consistent album, Pale Fire still goes places the last album never dreamed and hopefully opens doors for even more drastic developments to come.

She's best when playing it kinetic and in complete violation of good taste, so whittle this one down by half for the ultimate in bird-flipping, rave-rapping, and repercussion-free living.

Cole has yet to release a dud, but this is among her best work--somewhere between The Way It Is and Just Like You in terms of quality.

In A World Out of Time, ET have given listeners a near perfect balance of precision and exploration that walks the tightrope between organic live playing and focused studio attention.

The incense smoke and blacklight posters might be a little too heavy-handed for some listeners, but the more experienced stoner rock connoisseurs will recognize that Golden Void is singing it like they're living it.

There's also plenty of dubstep and neo-soul (note the very fine vocal cameo from Greg Blackman on "I'm Feeling U"), and unfortunately, there are also some de rigueur sketches and waste-of-time spoken word interludes, but not too many of them.

If conviction and quality are the measure of a songwriter and musician, the songs and performances on Brother Sinner & the Whale are the very measure of both.

Everything feels just that much more "on", for lack of a better term, with more focus and individuality.

Ultimately, if there's any disappointment to be had with this near-perfect album, it's that it still towers above subsequent efforts as the unequivocal climax of Rage Against the Machine's vision. As such, it remains absolutely essential.

Flaunting both their range and their tremendously evocative productions, Massive Attack recorded one of the best dance albums of all time.

While longtime JLS fans may be satisfied with Evolution, those looking for either a smart reappropriation of sounds from the past or a daring creative leap forward will find themselves at a disappointing dead end.

Working Girl's Guitar shows that Rosie Flores is still earning her keep as a musician the old-fashioned way, and she sounds like she's loving every minute of it--and when the music's this good, there no reason she shouldn't.

This is an album that can easily be enjoyed for the songs alone, so while you don't necessarily need to sit down with the liner notes (which include an accompanying story written Corey Taylor) to enjoy the album, it does add an extra layer of narrative action that reveals House of Gold & Bones to be an album of surprising depth.

Even though they don't quite have the fire that they used to, this more fully realized sound shouldn't have much trouble keeping their fans happy.

Take the Crown features Robbie doing what Robbie does best--writing and performing effortless pop music--but not at his best.

If you haven't seen Isbell and the 400 Unit on-stage, Live from Alabama will likely convince you to show up the next time they play in your area, and if you already have, this will remind you why you walked home impressed.

What's especially nice about his full-length debut, Spiderwebbed, isn't that it's good, but that it's surprisingly great.

For the most part, Silver & Gold stays true to Stevens' predilection for kitchen sink, lo-fi chamber pop, but he plays fast and loose with the formula.

The Remixes is as well balanced as it is eclectic, finding room for tracks that clearly bear the stamp of their remixers.

The Whigs have zeroed in on their strengths and wound up with a rich, layered pop album that suggests a long, interesting future.

It gets closer to the spirit and sound of what Hucknall loves.

Given that Ferry doesn't sing on The Jazz Age, the appeal for casual fans is debatable. But for the faithful, trad-jazz heads, and open-minded listeners, the musical quality--from expert arrangements, virtuosic playing, and the brilliant concept--offer something wholly different and rewarding.

This live CD shows all of her brilliance and promise, her command and vitality, and much of that is shown on the videos as well.

Good news is, the too-pop Roman Reloaded now feels more balanced once this eight-track EP worth of material tips the scales.

After a pair of bombastic anthems--including the oddly written "Girl on Fire," which has her "living in a world, and it's on fire," then "on top of the world" with "both feet on the ground" and "our head in the clouds"--the album loses its grip.

While it may occasionally get bogged down by its near constant need to reach the nosebleed seats, the desperation that the band emits ultimately feels inclusive rather than brazen.

Signs & Signifiers paints a picture of McPherson as a kind of post-structuralist retro-rocker, living in the moment with one boot in the past and the other boot in the future.

Where earlier albums seemed to be meticulously crafted soundtracks to strange dream worlds, Aimlessness lacks the cohesion or attention to detail of those productions, opting instead for a soup of loosely pieced ideas, many of which feel moved on from more than worked over.

Into the Future fares better than the stale output of most reunited punk acts and also rises above a weak rehash for the sake of nostalgia. Always true to their original vision, Bad Brains continue sailing on.

Albums like these always have to strike a careful balance between mimicking the original and killing the spirit of the original, but it's a balance that The Flip Is Another Honey is able to find quite comfortably.

The expert elastic roots rock of the Rumour gives his songs depth, making Three Chords Good the rare reunion that simultaneously looks back while living in the present

Grim and exultant at once, this is low-profile hustling on wax at its finest.