Oh No I Love You feels softer but it also is more adventurous and satisfying, the sound of a pop obsessive finally letting himself indulge in the weirder areas of his imagination.

Wolf is as honest and, in a greater sense, as generous a songwriter as we have, and Mumps, Etc. may be his finest gift yet.

While this is their debut release, there is a sense that Dog Is Dead are still growing and maturing as a band.

Their music is always exciting, soulful, and expertly played; they never fall prey to world fusion clichés.

While its melancholic and understated nature may not make much of an impression on first listen, it soon reveals itself to be a record of beauty which only confirms her undeniable class.

Phillip Taylor, Matt Scott, and Josh Swinney fuse together blood-pumping indie rock with an unwitting gift for power pop to craft a tight, fun-packed debut that never misses the mark.

Ultimately, the album sounds more like Tangerine Dream than it does Justice, but the songs unfold and soar in ways indebted to both the patience of space rock and the immediacy of electronic party music.

The Sean "Diddy" Combs connection adds a little too much gloss to the grime, hanging Lace Up somewhere between the underground intensity that it seems born from and the commercial overexposure that MGK seems bound for.

As Animator fades out, however, all that's left is a lingering feeling equal parts hushed and disquieting. The Luyas' ability to cultivate a mood so thick with this album is a huge accomplishment, and the strangely beautiful world they've created in these songs is one worth revisiting over and over.

Skynyrd are making sturdy, old-time rock & roll for an audience that's likely peppered with Tea Partiers, the kind of Middle American worried that the world they knew is slipping away, and Last of a Dyin' Breed provides a bit of a rallying point for them: it's true to their roots but living in the moment.

Mark Sasso's expressive lead vocals convey the anguish and desperation of the characters they sing about while the instrumental work of Stephen Pitkin on drums and percussion, and Casey Laforet's inventive contributions on lead guitar, bass pedals, and keyboards provide subtle, cinematic coloring to the tunes.

Stringfellow's fourth solo outing is as riveting as it is willfully schizophrenic, incorporating elements of progressive art rock, country, soul, R&B, and straight-up Posies-inspired jangle pop without a care in the world, resulting in his most daring studio offering to date.

K'NAAN's a rock-solid songwriter with a charismatic delivery that rains down sparks of cool guy and clever.

If Let It Come Down was Iha's sun-dappled West Coast folk-rock break from the creative turmoil and personal squabbles of the Pumpkins, then Look to the Sky is his more austere, if no less captivating, look back from the sun and toward the dark moon of his alt-rock '90s past.

Local H are not only still making great music, but have released their bravest, most provocative, and most ambitious album to date, and Hallelujah! I'm a Bum is a powerful look into a side of America that will be uncomfortably familiar to nearly everyone who hears it.

This balance between seriousness and metal excess is a tough one to pull off, but AxeWound manage it nicely, reining in the songs with enough genuine aggression that they're not in danger of devolving into parody.

A serviceable slab of unpretentious yet utterly forgettable '80s retro-metal that adheres to every cliché in the book.

Remy's greatest gift has always been her unique ability to dismantle and reassemble the pop form in a single song, and Gem is the most vivid document of that gift yet.

While Payback's status as a concept album makes it a rarity in the hip-hop world, even rarer for that realm is an album that's more focused on a continued narrative than creating a breakout single, making the album something that's to be experienced in its entirety.

On their fifth album, One Wing, the Chariot avoid the pitfalls that have caught up many a band, striking just the right balance between technique and raw fury to create a sound that is both emotionally and intellectually satisfying.

Everything Touching is far more direct, less convoluted, often shamelessly anthemic.

Rogers' guttural growls sound more menacing than ever, and what the album lacks in originality it makes up for with feverishly inventive riffs and melodies, making The Parallax II: Future Sequence the band's most inspired release since Alaska.

Ultimately, while Vital is Anberlin's most challenging album to date, as the title implies, it is perhaps the band's most rewarding album.

A promising debut and one more considered, nuanced, and realized than most bands achieve deep into their tenures.

With a sound this strong, Miglis could quite conceivably have gotten by with a series of random abstractions, but in fact her lyrics show a strong poetic sense that enhances Hundred Waters' promising maiden voyage even further.

Nothing on the album truly startles or surprises, its sources are clear, and its impact song for song is the kind of satisfying fix one might expect from labels like m_nus and Kompakt as much as Ostgut Ton itself. Where things stand out are in the smaller details.

At 15 tracks, it's a bit too full for newcomers to take in one go, but by mixing the strongest bits of their early days (song structure, smoky attitude) and their later years (technically gifted musicians who form a tight, but swinging band) the Herbaliser return to greatness and no fan should sit this one out.

Though having an entertaining show backing it up will make Dethalbum III an easy purchase for fans of the program, it's an album good enough to stand all on its own.

Traveler reveals that with its four brand-new songs and revisioned versions of live staples, Anastasio's creative force is healthy and his taste is, as ever, impeccable.

Even though Information Retrieved is an excellent album, it won't do a whole lot to win over anyone who has already decided that Pinback isn't for them. For everyone else, the album delivers plenty of the gloomy/sunny/plaintive/happy pop that has made them one of the more instantly recognizable bands in the indie landscape.

This may or may not be Williams' final album but if it is, it serves as a superb coda to a career that always found deep meaning in ease.

The three songs for The Ganzfeld EP manage to go all over the map in under half-an-hour.

The pristine sound is easy on the ear and easily appreciated. That said, it can sometimes detract from more organic surprises inherently written into these songs.

It's that line between accessible and alienating that MellowHype have so brilliantly walked, making Numbers an engaging album from some of Odd Future's best and brightest.

Despite a few tracks that should have stayed unreleased, Daughter of Cloud succeeds by showing the most extreme versions of several different sides of Of Montreal, from their most intense and suffocating to their most uncommonly tender.

Scorpion isn't an album for the good times, but its portrayal of dark days is gorgeous.

It's a sonic monument to marvel at, not a piece of art that's asking for your engagement.

Unknown Rooms is spare, gorgeous, and haunting, offering surprises for her established fans and likely winning her new ones in the process.

Months after scores of music fans went bananas over an opportunistic resuscitation of a deceased peer's studio scraps, Brandy, a superior vocalist ignored or disregarded by many of those same people, released one of her best albums.

Certainly, Night Train is huge, but its size feels derived by divine proclamation: it is big simply because it was intended to be big but at its core it feels weary, a little hollow, and not at all fun.

What's delivered is another robust collection of business as usual, with the surprising diversions adding just enough dimension to the album to even it out.

With Monster, Kiss hit the mark best when rewriting the sound they developed as youngsters and when they keep it simple, predictable, and fun.

Johnson doesn't attempt to draw attention to himself, but instead, presents a series of excellent performances of Cochran's songs with himself as an anchor.

Fans of the deep-friend earth tones that made up the group's earlier works may not be completely sold on the hi-definition beats and growly synth tones of Cobra Juicy, but newcomers to the band will still have a lot to digest and enjoy in trying to sort out the catchiness from the craziness.

It is a compelling, engaging, and emotionally powerful set of songs from a strikingly talented singer and songwriter, and this is her most intimate and affecting work to date.

DeMarco is still a befuddling character, but the compressed landscape of 2 takes steps away from his cartoonish beginnings toward something equally strange, but possibly more grown up.

Dept. of Disappearance shows that far from vanishing, Lytle is making a claim to be one of the more interesting and consistent singer/songwriters around; willing to take sonic chances, but always delivering music that's as much about feel as it is about meaning.

While it's odd that The Origin of Love doesn't work as well in practice as it might have in theory, it still has enough bright moments to please most fans.

Long a master of obfuscation, Fagen plays it straight on Sunken Condos, tightening his songwriting and letting his music swing, and the results are an absolute joy.

Fortunately, adding more shape to their songs doesn't pin down their sounds too much.

Out of the Black works either on the dancefloor or at the workstation, offering beat nuts from the Front 242 generation to the Deadmau5 kids their deep, dark, and delicious fix.

At their best, Daphni and Jiaolong definitely have a vitality that some dance music--and even some of Snaith's other work--lacks, but its hyper-simple approach actually makes it more challenging to appreciate than something with a few more flourishes might have been.

For a guy whose 40th year as a solo artist is appearing on the horizon, he's sounding as full of ideas and energy as a guy half his age, and Mystic Pinball confirms he's still delivering the goods in an impressive fashion.

For enthusiasts or obsessive fans, this unpolished look in will be a treat, but for everyone else, the album is not without its highlights but little more than a glorified practice tape.

With all its clean-cut melodies and smirky introspection, even Death Cab fans might have a hard time finding Former Lives more than a collection of melancholy, whimsical tunes.

A Different Arrangement might not be the kind of album that one could cozy up to on a sunny summer day, but on a cold, wintery night it just might be the kind of sound you want to hear as you burrow under the blankets.

In some ways, The Connection is perhaps the band's most contemporary-sounding album, though it still remains reverent to the nu-metal sound of the late '90s when it comes down to the overall feel of each tune.

While the duo might still be learning how to balance all the things they can do well into a cohesive whole, ERAAS' whispers and shadows offer a different and welcome take on dark sounds.

It's hard to complain when the results are this stunning.

Bootlegs may not be essential Sondre Lerche, but it's a thrilling document of his live set and a reminder that he's not just a brilliant songwriter, but a rocker too.

The Afterman: Ascension is so ambitious it's actually a bit of a mess, but with so much here that works, this small lapse in focus can easily be forgiven.

Fans of Golightly's earliest work might miss the garage days, but listening closely will reveal that the spirit of those days is alive and very much kicking.

Free the Music is skilled and adventurous, never succumbing to pretension thanks to Niemann's game sense of humor.

There's nothing overtly bad about Beacon; it shows that Two Door Cinema Club still have a remarkable knack for winsome melodies and harmonies set to kinetic beats. It just doesn't have the spark that Tourist History had, even if it's a more accomplished album overall.

Diluvia offers up a perfectly rendered snapshot of the cresting East Coast indie pop scene, conjuring up images of nomadic laptop studios, vintage bicycles, endless stacks of tattered Tor paperbacks, and heavily tattooed, non-smoking urbanites noshing on locally grown produce.

While it's a pleasant enough listen, the entire album falls short of the potential opulence hinted at by its best tracks.

When these sweet reinterpretations are combined with the straight-ahead rockers, Long Wave adds up to a blueprint in reverse for Lynne; by going to back to his beginnings, he winds up figuring out why he went in the direction he did.

Unfinished Business shows that six decades after her first recordings, that strategy [simplicity] still works, and she can still deliver the goods without a lot of needless fuss.

Shut Down the Streets is as accessible as it is rewarding, and as refreshingly idiosyncratic as it is revealing.

All We Love We Leave Behind, the group's eighth studio album, manages to summon that same level of intensity [as 2009's Axe to Fall] without the aid of a single mercenary.

For the majority of the other songs Lee Spielman runs the show, screeching street-sick lyrics about the crime-ridden area surrounding their Sacramento practice space.

The Toronto trio is just a ball of heavy genres, lumping together noise rock, post-punk, hardcore, no wave, or any style that might punish a pair of eardrums.

Twins is a bright moment in a nearly ceaseless evolution, and one of the most fluid and successfully ambitious in Ty Segall's catalog.

All in all, Here We Are is a promising debut, and Citizens! manage the impressive feat of borrowing from lots of different eras--'70s glam, '80s synth pop, '90s Brit-pop--without drowning in nostalgia.

The band's slick blend of classic new wave, tech-savvy dance rock, and mathy indie pop can be jarring upon first listen, but multiple spins reveal an impressively tight unit that understands the thin line between immaculately rendered electro-art pop cacophony and hook-friendly modern rock.

It might be Tussle's most subdued music to date, but it works equally well as a hypnotic wash of sound and as riveting close listening, especially late at night.

The Wallflowers don't abandon their identity as rock & roll classicists, they just now feel the freedom to mess around, and they've come up with one of their loosest, liveliest records that not-so-coincidentally is one of their best.

An ambitious work by an artist intent on developing her total sound, Halcyon finds Goulding poised at the edge of artistic and career possibilities.

Something that is notable throughout that's been a hallmark of the band's work is the attention to the drumming--for all that there's the flowing wash one might guess, there's also an actual sense of impact rather than simply skittering along.

As a collection of songs, and particularly as a "pop" record (inspirations for the group reportedly included Rye Rye and Whigfield, which seems far-fetched at best), Ultraísta feels a bit unfulfilled, but as a work of sound and atmosphere, it's captivating, predictably excellent work.

With songs this strong, it's an easy album to keep coming back to.

In 2012, the album is still an impressive achievement and cements the trio's place as the absolute best band of shoegaze revivalists operating.

Overall, the sound on Dead Silence isn't that different from the band's previous work, but is certainly some of the best work they've done.

The Vaccines have crafted a perfectly acceptable sophomore record that neither helps nor harms them, which is probably exactly what they wanted.

While the Intelligence may not sound quite as inspired here as they did on that album [2007's Deuteronomy], Everybody's Got It Easy But Me is still plenty of fun.

The whole album is pop on the one hand but pop of a self-consciously other kind, transformed from easy hooks and direct flow into an arch blend of past and present, something where 1981, 1993, 2001, and 2012 recombine and intertwine.

There are instances where the lyrical content edges too close to "artsy" teenage erotic poetry, but no song is without an attractive quality, whether it's a heavenly melody, a riveting rhythm, or a boggling production nuance.

On Fanatic, the Wilsons prove they can not only not re-create a sound they trademarked in the '70s, but can revision it creatively for the 21st century.

There's little that moves one to sing along here, unfortunately. The tempos are all slow, dramatic, and melancholy.

It showcases both sides of the trio's prowess: Rangda's ability to improvise dynamically and also to compose compelling, creating mysterious tunes that cross genres with ease and acumen.

Ten Songs About Girls isn't only Tender Trap's best album; it's one of the best records she's [Amelia Fletcher's] been associated with.

A candy-coated, trippy treat, Bubblegum Graveyard has the ingredients to please listeners.

Ultimately, Circles is pleasant and even fun in places, while being somewhat tedious and even boring in others.

Steve Forbert is a wonderful songwriter with a clear and sharply observed vision of how life in the heart unfolds and reveals itself with the passage of time.

The good songs are timeless facsimiles that float out of another era's memory, while the rest of the album's tracks, while well built, recorded, and sung, seem like forgettable, hazy clichés from 30 years ago.

It's music that breathes gently, establishing its own place, and providing a true reward for the listener.

These are late-night, club-ready tracks with a goth disco vibe.