Bye Bye 17 feels less gimmicky than a lot of his other work. For perhaps the first time, Tillmann is coming at the songs from an angle that doesn't depend on the cognitive dissonance created by his sexual boasts played against his Ron Jeremy-esque appearance.

That Oblivion resembles a blockbuster soundtrack more than an M83 album may disappoint some of Gonzalez's fans, but it means that he and Trapanese succeeded in making the film's music what it needed to be.

Still entrenched in disciplined modal drones and repetition, the group existing as a duo adds new color and dimension to its meditative sounds, giving the listener a sense of real mystery and excitement in what once felt simply obscured.

A lot of the sounds they try on Love Triangles Hate Squares fit them, and their polish and savvy suits them as well as the slicked-back pompadours they wear on the album's artwork.

By turns raw and reflective, Monomania is about shaking things up; it's not as grand or cohesive as Microcastle or Halcyon Digest, but with repeated listens, its quick shifts in sound and mood feel more like different sides of the same coin than a split personality.

Although it's more admirable than it is enjoyable, Sing to the Moon marks the arrival of a unique and major talent--one with a commanding voice seemingly from another dimension--who should be worth watching for many years to come.

Ultimately, this is a strong debut from a band with a sound worth exploring more.

After three successful releases, this album sees Fink take stock of his life after years of touring and come to the realization that he, along with his friends and family, have long since grown up and left his much revered youth behind.

C-Lance, Rob the Viking, and Aspect handle the production on this busy, word-filled, and winning effort.

[Elephant Stone's] sound is alluring enough to warrant return visits to the album, repeated listens that reveal the album to be built on solidly sculpted songs where the riffs and melodies intertwine into something quietly enchanting.

Cronin's second album is a step forward from his debut and shows off a guy with enough talent to step out from behind Segall's shadow and make it on his own.

Ultimately, if Hands was Little Boots' booty-shaking call to the dancefloor, then Nocturnes is the afterglow, post-party soundtrack for the ride home.

It makes for a big and a bit cumbersome listen, but K-Os is best when he's true to his moniker, offering the listener an unpredictable and unclassifiable blitzkrieg of ideas that range from clever to brilliant.

The album works both musically and conceptually, offering up a collection of high-energy songs with a narrative that fans will be eager to dive into.

At times, Synesthesia falls short of the brainy synth rock bliss Hands aim for, and while their songs are almost unfailingly bright and fizzy, they're not always especially distinctive. Still, even the least memorable tracks will make lots of listeners bob their heads whether they want to or not.

The off-topic and amazing "Hamster Wheel" is here, and when that's added to all the other highlights, the album is well above worthwhile, as scattershot and frustrating as it is.

It's more of an adept fusing of very distinct styles into something interesting and almost factory fresh, if not quite to the level of the bands they are drawing inspiration from.

So many competing sounds and ideas become a bit of a creative mess, and the dark mood of the slower songs "Call Me Up," "One Day," "Owl," and "Warrior" can feel oppressive at times. Luckily the final track, "Give It to the People" is a good-natured, "Crazy"-esque single that is upbeat enough to make the wade through the muck worth the effort.

Expect the expected with plenty of xylophones, campfire guitars, and Dawson's breathy cuteness mixing with Aesop's serious severity, but expect to be thrown as well, mostly by ideas of community and how strangers can leave lifelong impressions.

Weird Work ends up living up to its name: it's not as precious as Boeldt's previous albums, but it's not as envelope-pushing as its inspirations, and it's also some of his most accomplished, yet least immediate music.

It might not be the grand arrival showcase that was expected but Papoose hasn't fallen off the "ones to watch" list quite yet, even when he's been on there longer than most anyone else.

Streetlight Manifesto delivering an album of bittersweet ska-punk that feels more grown-up than anyone could have expected the genre to be.

Pharaohs aren't inventing anything new here but what they do well is grab the best bits from all the danceable electronic music that has come before them and consolidate it into something shiny and new.

Garwood's haunted musical vision is seamlessly suited to underscore Lanegan's dry-as-dust vocals and his American Gothic lyric skills.

MS MR concentrate on a sullen yet sultry mood for the bulk of Secondhand Rapture, and while that delivers several notable tracks--"Fantasy" and "Head Is Not My Home" chief among them--at times it's almost too much.

For better or for worse, they perfected their sound the last time around, so it’s hard to fault them for sticking so close to the fire, especially on such a snowy night.

The more physical moments are nearly outshone by a set of beat-less ambient pieces that amount to some of Locust's most riveting work.

The debut from California indie pop buzz band Youngblood Hawke, 2013's Wake Up is an infectious, bombastic party album perfect for the summer months.

Abandon is an exercise in precision, drawing in its prey and exposing it to a sonic assault that will leave it both exhausted and enlightened.

Drifters/Love Is the Devil spans nearly every sound in Dirty Beaches' musical spectrum to make another strongly evocative album in Hungtai's body of work.

A couple more bitchy bits like this ["Wanna Be"] and the album could win over old fans with ease, but if Lip Lock isn't mean enough, well, neither is Eve. She's sweeter than before and musically more adventurous.

Wilderness, the tenth long-player from the New Mexico-based husband-and-wife team of Brett and Rennie Sparks (The Handsome Family) lives up to its ecological moniker with a 12-track set that invokes both nature and nurture, with an emphasis on the shady bits in between.

30 Seconds to Mars are no longer afraid to dabble with disco--"Up in the Air" puts all four on the floor and there's an overall tendency to push big beats over hard attacks--and this loosening of their stylistic confines results in their boldest, brightest, most imaginative record yet.

Recommended Record is a super-stylized collage of sounds, clearly put together by big music fans, and it's ambitious palette of sounds only occasionally falters.

The 11 tunes kick off with a jump blues rendition of "Them There Eyes," a rock blues take on Ike & Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits"; punchy horns accentuate the Buddy Miles penned "Miss Lady," and they give a straightforward soul treatment to the Don Covay/Steve Cropper tune "See Saw" recorded by Aretha Franklin in 1968.

Marling is an old soul through and through, and her remarkably timeless voice, idiosyncratic lyrics, and increasingly impressive guitar chops help to elevate the album's less immediate moments, and while some may argue that her increasingly Americanized, Pacific coast folk-pop can feel a little like fan fiction, it doesn't make it any less enjoyable to sink your toes into.

While Live with the Britten Sinfonia may be too formal to provide the wild, free-ranging ride that one might expect from this adventurous lot, it is dazzling in its own right and in almost all the right ways.

Tricky seems to be doing some soul-searching--but the running time is long, and at least three quarters of the album is top-shelf.

Despite the obvious--and deliberate--reference points, most of Howl is a solid chapter in the evolution of a fascinating band.

Eisley rarely come off as cloying, and while Currents may require a little more patience from the listener than on previous outings, it's well worth the investment.

Other Life, while being a solid album, falls short of being any type of definitive statement about his place in the landscape of his scene or the world at large.

While these few songs ["Losing a Friend" and "That Girl, That Scene"] threaten to derail the album, the rest of the set is more unified, offering an understated but brilliant celebration of both Frankie & the Heartstrings' unique songwriting and their catalog of classic pop influences.

As this excellent introductory comp proves, no matter which sonic path he chooses here, or will choose in the future, Furlow's songcraft and skill at coming up with hummable, strummable songs will serve him well and make fans of pop music with a little grit and gunk quite happy.

Overall, these songs are a fine reintroduction to a band that has worked hard to emphasize its strengths and come up with new ones.

Even if it doesn't always demand listeners' attention, Immunity is never less than thoughtfully crafted.

Evil Friends offers ample evidence that the match between Portugal. The Man and Burton expanded the horizons of both parties and will likely heighten the band's profile considerably.

It may not be Rogue Wave's best record, since Out of the Shadows still holds that honor, but it is the record that is the best at showing all the sides of Rogue the songwriter and Rogue Wave the band, and for that it is well worth checking out.

It's difficult to say how good this musical is just from the songs and pieces of dialogue presented here, but the songs have a weary, inevitable flow to them, as if fate forced them into a dark room with little light or air or chance of redemption.

Think of it as a conceptual street release made for Styles and/or Scram fans and Float succeeds splendidly.

While Half of Where You Live is a slightly more streamlined electronic album than his debut, it still manages to be a transporting work that is easy to enjoy as a hip, calming background mood piece, and stands as a nice, fitting addition to the Ghostly International catalog.

This kind of loopy, poetic imagery is carried throughout all of Planta, and helps make it one of CSS's most creatively fertile and enjoyable pop organisms to date.

The more the band embraces Pythons' slickness, the better it sounds; it's a pleasant, ingratiating set of songs that don't aim to be anything more than that.

Both [Tape One and Tape Two] are uniquely imaginative and scattered, and with this one, it becomes wholly apparent that Young Fathers have carved out their own distinct style.

The debut is the one with the hits that draw you into her dark mood, while DVA is the sludgy one you sink into and wallow in for a while.

If you're a free agent in the market for a band that delivers some serious melodic death metal without feeling the need to take itself too seriously, Halo of Blood is an album that you should definitely check out.

Although not as strong or as memorable as his first effort, this album will grow on the listener, and its melodies and ideas are intriguing enough to merit repeat listens.

Most impressive about The Wack Album is that The Lonely Island manage to get their jokes across without feeling like they're making fun of rap which, given how much material they'd have by making fun of themselves, would really be a last resort.

Whenever they seem affected it's when they try to be a little bit too pure in their bluegrass ("Hermitage Hostep"), but when they incorporate bits of rock & roll and gospel, or when they cut loose ("People Been Talking"), or lay back ("Just Like You"), they're a compelling, muscled Americana outfit, given just the right showcase here by Benson.

Always moving at full speed, YPLL creates a sense of anxious tension that, were it a longer album, would be exhausting.

Black Dog Barking is like a safe haven for hard rock purists, offering up a safe place for people to wear jean jackets and pump their fists without irony or judgment.

At its best, Danish & Blue finds Amos and Hall taking their sound in playful, unexpected directions with growing finesse.

While the most aggressive electronic moments are also the weakest songs here, the merging of whispery pop and fully engaged electronic production is a huge success for a band whose output has been sleepier in the past, and points toward even more exciting developments in the future.

Best to ignore these two misfits [ballads "Sob Story" and "In a Bad Way"] and think of all the finely played and sung modern guitar pop that surrounds them. Because that stuff will make fans of Prefab Sprout, Orange Juice, and all the bands who have stolen from them through the years very happy and satisfied indeed.

The songs on This River are tighter and more deftly written than on previous offerings, but the more immediate, in-the-moment-of-creation production and incendiary performances keep things from getting slick.

Without the hooks or the lofty lyrics, the album seems made exclusively for Miller's fans or those who right-click indie rap mixtape links on the daily. Those audiences should find it an interesting trip, admirable artistic growth, and an attractive, entertaining step in the right direction. Others will likely be flummoxed.

Norrvide strips the project to its barest essentials and allows listeners a chance to really hear the perpetually uneasy emotions at its core.

Yessir Whatever suffers from being disjointed and a bit too much like a sketchbook, but the album is pulled together from 12 years of archival recordings, some of them previously released on rare comps and out-of-print vinyl.

The album quickly stabilizes with satisfying, if mostly unexciting, material. Other than the lack of European dance-pop, the main difference between this set and Here I Am is the presence of Rowland's most revealing and powerful song, "Dirty Laundry."

Three albums in and Lemuria are starting to explore past the point where their heroes left off, and while it's not quite uncharted territory, it's certainly moving in the right direction.

While even those fond of the '90s revival may be close to overdosing on nostalgia, Empire offers a fresh enough take to make it worth a listen.

As a whole, this album might be less coherent than Native To, where Is Tropical spent their time delivering variations on one sound. Track for track, however, I'm Leaving is the more interesting and promising set of songs.

Its spacy, half-dreaming vibes remain close enough to Earth to keep things accessible and not swamped in reverb but still pretty far out by merit of the band's own inventiveness.

Even if it's not as striking or emotionally resonant as Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique, it's certainly an engaging, welcome return.

There are enough good songs and enough energy on hand to make In a Warzone a solid release; less interesting than previous efforts, but still fun in an aggressive way.

While other acts work diligently to re-create the sounds on All Hell Breaks Loose, the Black Star Riders offer them naturally with creativity, heft, and inspiration.

Though the album's openness does require some amount of patience on the listener's part, it's a beautifully crafted album that expands upon the ground laid by the recent experiments of Earth, and will provide anyone willing to explore the depths of tracks like "Walkin' with a Woman" or "The Shroud" with a rewardingly trippy listening experience.

Produced by Jacquire King in Nashville, the album has a distinctly organic feel, as if it were recorded in an old theater.

This is a strong body of work from the London-based group who have taken the best of '90s guitar music and made it their own.

Produced by Suicidal frontman Mike Muir, the album includes 13 tracks of the type of petulant, cathartic, thrashy hardcore the band is known for.

Albatross is a good album for what it is, a new project from a band that seems frozen in the mid-'90s.

This record is Queensrÿche; the other group is just Tate and company (mis)using the name.

At times, Between the Walls is a frustrating album, but more often than not, the risks About Group take pay off in expressive, rewarding music.

A strongly inventive debut.

Inheritance sounds like a born-again Avett Brothers fronted by a tamer Daniel Smith (Danielson Famile), and while its homespun, home-schooled theatricality may be a bit off-putting for some, it's hard to not admire its uncalculated exuberance.

As Blumberg puts on his Neil Young hat and laments "I've got some things to do/Some private things to do" on closer "The Plan," one can't help but think that, although perhaps overly self-indulgent at times, Hebronix could well prove fruitful.

In its own subtle way the album delivers on the promise and intentions of Turning the Mind.

Many listeners may find themselves drawn in by the authentic retro indie style and musical similarities to bands like Bettie Serveert and Helium, but the daring, experimental mystique and whip-smart pop melodies ultimately make Major Arcana grow infectious with repeated listens.

The measured, modest, and melancholy "Airs" applies the finishing touches, wrapping up another flight of fancy from of one rock & roll's most illustrious, real-time dreamers.

It's evident that Arie's in a good place, both creatively and personally, yet SongVersation is not about self-satisfaction. She has no trouble bringing her listeners along.

While these certainly aren't pop songs designed to grab you in the immediate sense, they are gorgeous and poetic recordings that stick with you long after the songs have ended.

Ultimately, while the toothy smiles might be wiped off the faces of Robertson and the rest of the Barenaked Ladies' faces, Grinning Streak reveals that their hearts remains firmly on their sleeves.

Even if his take on the blues is far from straightforward, this might be the most accessible set of songs associated with Lynch to date. In its own hypnotic way, The Big Dream honors the blues' lust for life and its lonely heart.

With practically no dependence on laptop recording tricks, Stills sounds completely lost in another era, and all the darker and truer for it.

The album's 19 tracks weave an icy, cinematic narrative as Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge pick choice cuts from their record collections.

Even if Lenses' individual tracks remain as foggy as dry ice on the dancefloor, as a whole the album brings Soft Metals' music into focus, revealing them as a tighter, more versatile group in the process.

While Walk Through Exits Only might not be in the wheelhouse of a lot of Pantera fans, it's nice to see the frontman expanding his horizons with a little metal mayhem.

Scott & Charlene's Wedding sound grounded--but not gridlocked--on Any Port in a Storm, securing their reputation as one of the most heartfelt acts inspired by the '90s, and one of the few who bring a more contemporary urgency to that sound.

Thanks to the strong songs, Selena's reliably strong vocals, and the variety of sounds, it adds up to be another fine entry in her catalog and just another example of why Selena Gomez is one of the best pop stars making music in 2013.