Their approach is basic and there are moments of yesteryear reflection, but (with the exception of a few too many crunchy guitars) almost everything on this EP fits perfectly in place with a band that nailed the vibe of a simple good time decades prior.

The Odds shows The Evens as more refined and understated than ever. Instead of softening, their jagged angles and obtuse political commentary have just become more involved, and in some ways, more intense.

This is so good that this is how you want to remember them: older, perhaps wiser, and still majestic.

On these songs, Lopatin and Hecker take the sounds in their intentionally limited palette to places they may never have been expected to go, and the journey is intriguing and frequently lovely.

Rebel Soul is appropriately rebellious and conservative, a dose of old-time rock & roll at a time when the style is starting to fade.

While this is a fine, if uneven album, the only way to enjoy a significant portion of it is by taking it as pure entertainment.

Oui, Oui isn't living in the past, it's using the past to address the present, which gives some soul to these nifty little songs, and turns this album into another mini latter-day gem from the Nutty Boys.

Overall, Medicine is an enjoyable diversion.

Certainly The Mystery of Heaven is a standalone recording and is to be enjoyed on its own.

18 Months shows Harris to be a solid producer with an easily identifiable sound.

Given the discipline and experimentation in the short pieces, and in the creative imagination displayed in rearranging the longer ones to accommodate a larger band, 'Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend proves, that GY!BE still has plenty of captivating things to say.

One of the most impressive albums of the home-recording era while still feeling superbly refined.

While Breaking Dawn isn't one of the more dynamic Twilight Saga soundtracks, it is one of the more emotive ones, and just may help fans get some closure as one of the biggest film franchises of the 2000s and 2010s comes to a close.

Again, it's easy to name great songs that are missing, but what's here is sublime, some of the best rock & roll ever made, and the best overall Stones comp to date.

For all the progress and growth Del Rey shows in the vocal realm, her songwriting appears to be in stasis and the productions behind her have actually regressed from Born to Die.

Another fine example of how versatile this band actually is.

Though front-loaded with its most energetic and moving songs, Our House on the Hill is an intriguing statement from a band shedding their better-known affiliations for a whole new ideal.

It's hard to blame her for playing it safe, particularly because she wound up with such a strong pop album, one that reconfirms her gifts as a singer and savviness as a pop star.

Clearly, all the partying caught up to [Billie Joe Armstrong], but while he was racing recklessly, he cut this terrific little party record.

One Direction deliver another immediately catchy mix of dancey pop that maximizes the group's shared lead-vocal approach and peppy, upbeat image.

This is a surprisingly strong reunion, one that puts the band back on the track they abandoned long ago.

Artistic progress is as much about subtraction as it is about addition, and on III, Crystal Castles have made room to be sad, angry, pretty, and danceable at the same time.

There are points throughout these works where Tesfaye is distinctively gripping, supplying deadly hooks and somehow singing for his life despite the cold blood flowing through his veins.

While a lot of bands out there have been tinkering with the loud/quiet dynamic for decades now, what makes Deftones so special is their ability to do both at the same time, effectively blending the calm and the storm into a single sound.

There is great reward in actually focusing on what "happens" in this quiet landscape, because Lux betrays the implication of vastness and musical adventure just underneath its dulcet tones and restrained palettes.

The nine songs here represent her most ambitious and daring experiments yet, while retaining the considerately dreamy core that sets her work apart from any number of other soft-spoken spaceheads.

[A] completely respectable collections of tunes from a well-oiled machine, but falling short of the almost accidental brilliance of their best work.

A sophisticated pop pleasure from start to finish.

The combination of his [Mac McNeilly] careful, aggressive-when-needed playing and the core duo's performances makes this four-song collection a wonderful surprise.

This soundtrack stands tall in the man's wide-reaching discography, offering fans a Wu-flavored vision of a world where both the damned and cursed still swagger.

Macklemore's a mix of all of the above with some distinctive qualities, and with Lewis putting that kaleidoscope style underneath, The Heist winds up a rich combination of fresh and familiar.

The man behind the Gangsta Grillz mixtapes and the man literally behind T.I. and his Grand Hustle crew continues to do the improbable on his 2012 release Quality Street Music.

Psychedelic Pill [is] yet another oddity in a catalog filled with them: it's noise rock as comfort food.

Whether you want to label it post-rock, post-Krautrock, electro-rock, or some appellation of your own devising, Den does the Kreidler discography proud.

It finds Morgenstern honing her popcraft and scaling back her artier impulses to yield her most concise, song-oriented and--relatively speaking--immediate work to date.

All Time Low swallowed their pride, rededicated themselves, and ended up making the best record yet in a very consistently satisfying career.

The continuing work of Mika Vainio--especially given his longtime association with Touch for a variety of releases--has been at once reliable and sometimes quite surprising, with a certain restlessness that has served him well in his various explorations in sound. Fe3O4: Magnetite continues this.

Deer Creek Canyon is a work of modest genius that, like falling in love, manages to be simple and richly complex at the same time.

Though none of this will be particularly useful to anyone who isn't already familiar with the band (and if you're one of those people, run out and buy Oceanic and Panopticon right now), but for the initiated, Temporal makes for an essential and illuminating listen.

It's not uncommon for artists to lose a little of their music's heart when they upgrade their sonics, but The Inner Mansions is equally emotional and polished, and some of Teen Daze's finest work.

Unfortunately, on Top 10 Hits of the End of the World, PR were so involved with their campy concept, they neglected to write and record music capable of carrying its weight.

At times, Rave Age feels like it's missing some of the spark of Vitalic's previous work, but Arbez manages to pull off a lot of changes on this album while retaining enough of his playful atmosphere and kinetic rhythms to keep fans engaged.

In its own less-alien way, Luxury Problems is just as brilliant as what preceded it.

Smalhans is, like its predecessors, ultimately its own complete, unified statement; one that is, in its deceptively humble way, as ambitious and assured as anything he's done.

She's always been willing to take risks, and despite the initial thought that her music may not stand up to the orchestral treatment, The Abbey Road Sessions is another victory in a career full of them.

Music from Another Dimension! is no worse than Nine Lives. It may lack a single as immediate as "Fallin' in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)"--or the subsequent "Jaded" from 2001's Just Push Play--but it faithfully follows Aerosmith's '90s blueprint, getting nothing wrong but never quite feeling right.

The highlights are all casual, subtle, finely detailed midtempo numbers and slow jams. What's truly disappointing is the absence of energetic songs descended from soul and funk.

Evoken gave themselves half a decade in which to stockpile this much quality material for Atra Mors--just one of many reasons why what could have been a truly funereal occasion (no pun intended) may instead signal a new lease on life for the group.

The amped-up chiptunes and film score moments are interesting enough, but the band sound their best when expanding on the lush tones and tension-laden improvisations they've been working on since the beginning.

Palpable big beat electrifies Call Me Sylvia, but Low Cut Connie aren't only about sound--they're crack songwriters, bashing out big hooks and riffs in songs that are sharp, clever, and funny without succumbing to cutesiness.

Musically, the production never veers from the glossy, by-the-numbers approach of mainstream pop.

The bottom line here is that for all of their tweaks and changes, The Sword are still a band all about massive riffs and epic lyrics, and while other bands might be more structurally complex or aggressive, few can offer the instant cosmic journey that dropping the needle on Apocryphon can.

It's hard to get offended when everything about Supermeng is so self-consciously goofy.

The album's depth and openness to straying away from typical devices of the genre make Atlas one of the more engaging and thought-provoking metalcore releases amid a sea of the interchangeable riffs and howls of other bands.

Some moments aren't the best--his duet with Jack Goldstein, "My Girl," stumbles a bit at the start--but such killers as "Fell 4 U" with Glasser and "Fathering/Mothering" with Anne Lise Frokedal showcase both his ear for vocal counterparts and his immediate, beautiful arrangements.

Civil Disobedience for Losers is easily one of the best pieces of Melvins-worship to come out in a while.

Instead of sounding labored and forced, System Preferences is gentle and effortless, as if it were recorded four months after Hymn and Her, instead of four years.

The band cultivates a rich collection of emotionally complex instrumental soul, with precise musicianship meeting inspired production and a deeply studied obsession with the often sampled and less often acknowledged obscure geniuses of soul music.

By Your Side is a charming debut from a producer with an instantly appealing sound.

This uneasy listening provides a masterful backdrop for Anderson's film and also makes for fascinating listening in its own right, while once again separating Greenwood from more predictable composers.

For anyone who has followed the band, Autotheism feels like part of a logical evolution, with the band expanding its sound from album to album before really cutting loose and diving headfirst into more heady waters.

If you're looking for music that will fire up the honky tonk all night long, All Over the Road sure isn't it, but if you want to dance close with your baby after a few beers on a Saturday night, Easton Corbin's the man to see.

As it stands, its mix of tiny triumphs and incomplete ramblings will make all but Friedberger's most die-hard fans long for a Fiery Furnaces reunion.

It might take some time for older fans to adjust--its punk energy aims for the calves more frequently than the neck--but Sorry to Bother You contains some of the Coup's most vehement and focused output.

Unlike White Trash with Money, there is no unifying sound or theme here: it's just a satisfying set of strong songs.

Nothing here indicates they won't continue to rank among progressive music's leading explorers, well beyond those temporal musical fashions discussed earlier.

While the fury he displayed on Total Decay is sometimes missed, by the time "sdnE tI" brings the album full circle (or is that full zero?), it reveals Zeros as some of the Soft Moon's most fully realized and satisfying music.

While it is a meditation on Christmas, it makes no attempt to manipulate the listener's feelings. Instead, with its sheer musical quality, and the depth of tenderness and empathy in Thorn's voice, it highlights the season's complexities in the face of everyday life.

As far as graduations from mixtapes to major-label releases go, this one is still satisfying and a step forward, plus slicked up and pimped out in a way that's entirely Maybach.

Produced in the same Luddite fashion as Break it Yourself, Hands of Glory takes that austerity one step further by recording all of the proceedings on a single microphone, resulting in a set that sounds both out of time and incredibly immediate.

This is Christmas music that can be enjoyed by those who otherwise loathe it.

While there are still some bright pop moments and interestingly demented freakouts like "Who's Running My Ranch," the album as a whole feels more hollow than even Pollard's sometimes tossed-off song fragments.

Made Possible finds the Bad Plus openly wrestling with the complex interrelationship between rhythm, harmony, and improvisation (individual and collective). It offers a more inviting aural view of the group confronting these questions, and the historic weight and imposing boundaries associated with "the piano trio" in jazz.

This is by no means an embarrassing stroll down memory lane. It can be quite fun, actually, even if it is somewhat baffling.

The high points are so affecting and brief as to provoke small acts of violent ebullience, like the destruction of fragile objects on shelves. But it will never tire. It's another remarkable achievement in magician-MPC interface.

All in all, though Bugg's debut may not share the wordy precociousness of Conor Oberst's formative steps or the political astuteness of Willy Mason on Where the Humans Eat, it's his sheer earnestness and rare gift for writing simple, hook-filled tunes that ultimately charms the listener.

There's little here that suggests Swedish House Mafia is more than the sum of its parts, and as Axwell, Angello, and Ingrosso split into three equally powered powerhouses, it seems this supergroup was more a fun lark than a focused project. Still, it's as fun as larks come.

On these songs Banks fashions more of an identity for himself as a solo artist outside of anything he's done before, and arguably works even harder here to separate himself from his established project. Some of Banks' songs feel unpredictable even after a few listens.

Going into this with no expectations should prove to be beneficial.

While Sugarland's alien rawness is missed occasionally, Sunshine reveals a Talk Normal that is a little more immediate and a lot more assured.

Maybe there's a touch more swagger than solutions on the set, but Minneapolis' secret weapon really should have saved the title of his previous set, Never Better, for this one.

Free Dimensional lives up to its name by serving up lots of sparkling pop with depth as well as heart and brains.

cal Business is an afternoon barfly telling his problems to anyone willing to listen and stump up for a drink, and fortunately for listeners, this drunk has a lyric book that they'll want to spend some time with.

Blak and Blu's production (by Rob Cavallo and Mike Elizondo in collaboration with Clark) is too polished and processed for its own good, but if this album isn't likely to change your life, it will make an hour of it a lot more interesting, and there's no arguing that Gary Clark, Jr. is a talent strong enough to match his record company's hype.

Focus and restraint might not sound exciting in and of themselves, but The Haunted Man is more direct than any of Bat for Lashes' previous work, and manages to keep the air of mystique around Khan that has made her one to watch and listen to since her early days.

While it may be a shade less inspired than The Tao of the Dead, this is a solid, rugged album that underscores ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead's position as trailblazers and torchbearers when it comes to mixing passion and politics.

Add it all up and subtract the hype, and this one is still potent enough to rise to the top of the pile.

She's constructed something so precise its success seems preordained, but underneath it all, Taylor is still twitchy, which makes Red not just catchy but compelling.

The album is executed so well it can nevertheless suck you in against your will. It's big and bright, shameless in its attempt to win you over, and -- given increased exposure -- that eager-to-please nature winds up ingratiating whether you like it or not.

Even though Long Slow Dance sounds one coat of studio gloss away from a Mitch Easter production, the strength of the songs and performance mean the band is still working as well as ever, maybe even better, and Long Slow Dance stands as their most satisfying album to date.

Union is a pleasant listen, but never quite reaches the anthemic heights the band is trying for.

It might be nice to hear them amp it up a bit on their next record for a change of pace, but this works just fine as a bummed-out garage trip.

Mirror Gazer is a promising debut, especially when Onuinu keeps at least one foot on pop's terra firma.

Fans of their previous adrenaline-fueled sound may feel slightly cheated, but in such a crowded market, Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow is perhaps the kind of record they needed to survive.

Cruel Summer is a mistitled fireworks show from Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Music label/roster/empire, one that comes off as mixtape-minded follow-up to his flossy Jay-Z team-up Watch the Throne.

It doesn't quite hit the consistent heights of Stoosh or Post Orgasmic Chill, but Black Traffic more than justifies Skunk Anansie's re-existence.

Tragicomedies itself is, unquestionably, garish (not to mention inventive, befuddling, and delightful) enough to fully deserve anyone's love.

It's an amazing, cool, and filling mix, and with Homeboy himself being that right mix of persuasive and challenging, First of a Living Breed is an easy recommendation for any lyric-loving hip-hop head.