Blood Mountain is everything fans both hoped for and feared. Mastodon has dug even deeper in its foray into prog metal, but without losing an ounce of their power, literacy, or willingness to indulge in hardcore punk, doom, and death metal.

While Face the Promise isn't quite Night Moves or Stranger in Town, it stands proudly next to those albums and is most assuredly the work of the same singer.

What the cathartic Fading Trails might lack in foot-tapping motivation, it makes up for in passion and honesty and is highly recommended for those who like to dig a little deeper for albums that get better each time they are played.

As good as the atmospheric heartache of the first half of 5:55 is, it's on the second half, when Gainsbourg and her crew stretch out a bit, that the album really gets interesting.

Food & Liquor just might be the steadiest and most compelling rap album of 2006.

Midlake might be stuck in the '70s, but they make it sound like the best place on earth.

It's that perfect balance of sadness, vitriol, and absurdity that makes Hitchcock (when he's on) such a legendary social commentator.

Young Machetes is occasionally exhausting, but it definitely won't disappoint fans of either the band's earlier or more recent sounds.

The songs themselves are easy to approach if difficult to decipher, and the production details reward repeated listens.

A quietly compelling album, this will please not only fans of Hinson's other solo work, but those who were introduced to him through the Earlies and the Late Cord as well.

Normal Happiness is more in the tradition of his best work with GBV -- sixteen short songs (only one over three minutes, seven under two), with plenty of hooks, lots of guitar and no more fuss than necessary.

One hell of a live record.

A deeply poetic record.

Part experimental rock, part electronica, and part hip-hop, Subtle's For Hero: For Fool is a complex, innovative, sometimes bizarre, and usually utterly confusing journey into the minds of lyricist Doseone and his five bandmates.

An exciting introduction to an extraordinary artist captured at just the right time.

All told, the number of memorable hooks on display here is surprising.

Live a Little sounds more open and roomy than the past few Pernice Brothers efforts.

Ultimately, the band has arrived with a poppier-sounding album while their signature sour earnestness remains intact.

He is writing and recording music that is profound, funny, topical, worldly, and ultimately, necessary.

One of the livelier and better country records of 2006.

Barnes' accordion playing has grown leaps and bounds since Noon.

It makes for a record that's their strongest, most cohesive yet, even if it isn't quite as weird or compelling as it should be given the group's lofty ambitions.

Sparta... sounds like a beast that's broken its chains and is fighting between the road ahead and going back from whence it came.

It isn't easy to strike the right balance between ambition and emotion, scale and humanity; White Whale manage it with ease on WWI.

Pretty Little Head sounds like a record from a woman coming out of girlhood -- more confident, more wise about love, and more focused about her concerns, if no less passionate.

His easy delivery, contrasted with Adams wiry production, creates an emotionally honest, deeply moving recording with the best traits of both men shining forth.

So Divided's remarkable balance between the band's grandeur and power makes it far from a disappointment.

Even if it isn't as immediate as the prime of Pulp, it's a richly nuanced, complicated album that finds Jarvis near the top of his craft as a writer and record maker.

There's no precedent for an album that worships a no-show so hard on one hand, flips the bird to hip-hop protocol with the other, and knowingly refuses to push things forward, even flaunts it.

Someone to Drive You Home is one of those albums that's honest to goodness fun, and pulling it off with as much pastiche as the Long Blondes makes it one of the year's nicest arrivals.

On Light Grenades, they are a tightly focused, purposeful band, shifting moods and textures at the drop of a dime, proving that they have become a rare thing: a modern heavy rock band that actually grows and improves with each album.

A house party celebrating Snoop's whole career.

This is by far +/-'s most mature work to date.

The Evens' first disc was pointed and protesting, to be sure, but here, on Get Evens, the raw feeling of the record makes the message here more pointed, more specific, and more meaningful.

While she's always been a pleasant presence on album, Krall has developed from a talented pianist who can sing nicely into an engaging, classy, and sultry vocalist with tastefully deft improvisational chops.

There are moments of quirky holiday splendor -- moments akin to some of the best material on Greetings from Michigan and Illinoise -- that make plowing through the entire five-EP set a pleasure.

Jeezy does little to make this disc different from Let's Get It.

Here, as with most of her career, Harvey doesn't go for the easy choices.

Visitations may not be as immediate as Walking with Thee or Winchester Cathedral, but that's exactly what makes it intriguing -- and a welcome return to form.

As good as The Runners Four was, Friend Opportunity just might be even better.

He's orchestrated a unified, dramatic album -- it's a tapestry of impeccable, sorrowful, yet sultry soundscapes -- but given the pedigree of this band, it's hard not to wish that the album offered more of the quartet just playing, gussied up with no effect. Nevertheless, as an album The Good, the Bad & the Queen is singularly effective.

Wincing the Night Away is the sound of the Shins acknowledging where they've been and moving on to new territory, and while it probably won't change your life, it probably will make it more enjoyable.

It's a challenging yet ultimately rewarding album -- and one that definitely requires some thoughtful attention on the part of the listener.

Friend and Foe may be part unbridled energy, part thoughtful arrangement, part innovative experimentation, but it's the synthesis of these that makes it so fantastic.

When F&M stick to simple dance melodies and wound-up instrumental grooves, they're as good as anyone else out there.

A work of absolute beauty, chaos, seductive darkness and cosmic light.

Youth Group's poignant and thought-provoking lyrics and storytelling style have pushed the group into the emo bag, but with their incandescent music, they're far too glittering to be left with that label for long.

A crisply recorded set of bouncing rockers, sweetly strummed ballads and vaguely trippy mid-tempo tracks that are full of hooks, melodies and goofy fun.

This album isn't as brash or immediate as the band's earlier work, but its gradual move from alienation to connection and hope is just as bold as Silent Alarm, and possibly even more resonant.

It lays down incontrovertible proof that Sondre Lerche can make a convincing and exciting straight-ahead modern rock record.

Tones of Town cements Field Music's place as one of the best pop bands of any kind operating in 2007.

Not too many bands even in heyday of the initial wave of dance-punk released records as full of energy, intelligence, and ferocious funk as this.

Musically and thematically, this is some of Air's most elegant, mature music; it does what it does so compellingly that any attempts to be "poppy" would miss the point.

It's as decadent as it is tasty -- theatricality has never been a practice that the collective has shied away from -- but there's no denying the Arcade Fire's singular vision, even when it blurs a little.

The Search is a potent reminder of why Farrar was and is one of the watershed artists of the alt-country movement.

Ultimately, there is real growth here, subtle and unpretentious as it is.

Arbouretum's songs are visceral and elemental, a loose-feeling mix of blues, folk, tribal beats, stoner rock and jam-based influences that belies the solid songwriting and musicianship at its core.

So many bands confuse being laid-back with being comatose that it's good to hear a band who give their richly layered tunes some heart and soul.

Song-wise, this is a stronger album from Mellencamp than we had any right to expect, and an excellent from-the-cradle album when we need it most.

If anything, this is the most satisfying offering from Sykes and her band yet.

[It] ends up being some of Trans Am's most satisfying work yet.

He's already a masterful player in his own right and he has his ear cocked toward the future, not only the past.

The way Reformation fights importance with such enthusiasm and muscle is what makes it such a fascinating album.

Although Back to Black does see her deserting jazz and wholly embracing contemporary R&B, all the best parts of her musical character emerge intact, and actually, are all the better for the transformation from jazz vocalist to soul siren.

It's a lean, potent work, and even if it's not one of Low's most superficially pleasant collections of songs, it's certainly among their most necessary ones.

It's like a Beach Boys album when it's calm and a Queen album when it's crunchy, but all filtered through what must be one hell of a record collection over at the Goreas-Lasek homestead.

Where Jackson occasionally seemed as if they were in a rush to jam as many styles into their sound as possible, Cunniff digs deeper into her idiosyncrasies, creating music that feels unhurried and flows easily.

Throughout, a cutback on shimmery electronic effects results in a lived-in sound; there's a shabby chic-ness to these songs, and also a believability.

Why Bother? is even more radical [than its predecessor], pairing dead-calm passages with weird and often downright evil-sounding electronics that recall Throbbing Gristle and Wolf Eyes.

It is a mellow, melodic album that switches between stripped-down, folk-inspired material, downtempo pop, and up-to-date productions designed for both home and club listening.

With the lazy weariness of Tom Waits and the inflection of John Lennon, Mason makes every line he sings something worth listening to, something worth remembering. And when this is coupled with songs that can already stand strongly on their own, it makes for a pretty commanding album.

The sweetness is almost too gooey, and what should be providing a healthy contrast ends up dragging the best instrumental moments down more than once, almost literally getting in the way of the striking sonic collages. It may be heresy to some, but conceivably Person Pitch would be at its best if it were strictly instrumental.

While the sound of pure snarl and glee is what melts the speaker cabinets the most, the overdriven menace of most these songs doesn't undermine their worth as songs.

While the results follow the melodic template that Phillips has made his own since his work with Grant Lee Buffalo, listening to Strangelet confirms the man sounds as good as ever and remains plenty imaginative.

Or Give Me Death is fun yet serious, cheerful yet depressing, simple yet intricate.

Bracken makes thoughtful, reflective music, like Brian Eno, or even fellow anticon labelmates Alias or cLOUDDEAD.

The album does what all great art does: guides its audience without giving them concrete answers (or even directions), forcing them to think for themselves instead of blindly following others, and eventually leading them, hopefully, to some kind of greater, albeit more complex, understanding of things.

Four years in the making, Can Cladders could have come off the presses as an indulgent, overwrought opus. Instead, it simply (but oh-so-craftily) distilled a career's worth of creative tangents into one solid, focused effort that, if you're observant enough, holds its own amongst the likes of the Llamas' comparative "elite."

The band's fullest and most developed record to date.

So while Aqualung may not be doing anything on Memory Man that is wholly different than all of the Coldplays and Rufus Wainwrights of the world, there is a certain down-to-earth charm inherent in Hales that his peers often lack.

Turn the Lights Out is the most mature and technically accomplished album the Ponys have made to date, but it doesn't lack the excitement and edge of the fine music that preceded it.

While Transmaniacon had more breadth and depth, Western Xterminator is a gleeful testament to the liberating powers of unrepentantly excessive, heavy rock.

Upon first listen, Saltbreakers feels significantly less chilly than 2005's sparse Year of Meteors, but further spins reveal a dark core that radiates warmth only intermittently.

The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn's densely packed sounds and ideas are a lot to process, but they're what makes this album rewarding on repeated listens.

Full of slow burning passion and emotion, Twelve is magnificent.

The album's a wonderful step forward from an already strong foothold, theatrical without being overdone, introspective without being saccharine, and makes for an excellent piece of work.

What makes Brett Anderson succeed as solo debut is that it truly presents Anderson on his own, willing to sound different, quieter than he did when in a band, willing to open his heart without regard for consequences.

[A] well-built and surprisingly diverse album.

On Dignity she makes some serious headway into turning into a mature recording artist, which makes this an effective, strangely endearing album.

Let It Go was well worth the wait and McGraw is still at the top of the heap.

As big and as diverse as the guest list is, the album hangs and flows effortlessly.

Dumb Luck isn't quite as cohesive as Dntel's debut was, but it is beautiful and carefully crafted enough to show that none of Tamborello's successes are flukes.

It finds the perfect balance between the vibrancy of her poppier work in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s.

God Save the Clientele is another stroke of magic from a band that has few peers in delivering music that can make or break your heart with a vocal inflection, swath of strings, or gentle arpeggio, music that can devastate you in one breath and lift you to the heavens with the next.

No Shouts, No Calls might be some of Electrelane's most accessible work, but it's far from safe; in fact, its sweet vulnerability is exactly what makes it so special.

Though some of the songs here, especially the earlier ones, can be quite simple, even raw at times, there's a sad, clean sweetness that comes through despite the occasional bit of tape hiss, of tinny chords.

He can focus on the serious, the sentimental, or the fun side of life when he needs to, but he does it all without seeming like he's forcing out a persona.

Anyone who likes their indie pop with a full order of mystery and drama, hold the pretension, will treasure this dark and enchanting album.