Heaven comes across as a more or less triumphant culmination of the Walkmen's first decade, and the fact that happiness fits the band better than anyone could have expected is just a welcome bonus.

This short house-rap blast bottles all that "cool list" excitement into a sharp set, so jack your body and get your freak on because you're in her hut now.

Another solid and easy to recommend effort in a discography that already has a couple.

2011's Heaven is a stylish, expertly produced contemporary R&B and pop album that showcases Ferguson's emotive, soulful voice.

These are organic and rich-sounding tracks that frame Rumer's voice in sparkling piano, cinematic bits of strings, rounded horn parts, the twang of the occasional pedal steel guitar, and even a poignant harmonica line.

The stunning cover is the most beautiful and cohesive on what is an otherwise (understandably) uneven collection which, while definitely appealing to hardcore fans, might be a bit too out there for casual listeners.

It's a varied yet unified set with lots of high points.

This is a superb album from a master of contemporary pop, and if you like a good melodic song well performed, you're going to love Hit Parade.

It's an album that never feels overstuffed, even at its most wandering.

Nearly everything on this typically fine set of work, sound like future fan favorites and live staples.

It's a melancholy but never depressing 50 minutes that proves what an under-the-radar talent Jeffreys remains, and indicates that his best work might even be ahead of him.

Banga is an event; it's not only provocative and expansive lyrically, but abundantly enjoyable musically.

While WIXIW might be a shade less ambitious than some of their previous albums, it's still fascinating to hear Liars wield beauty and delicacy just as formidably as they've used force and noise in the past.

A standout. What the World Needs Now welcomes back a sorely missed S3 with all the rowdy joy intact. Nobody plays it like this.

This one doesn't leave you feeling hungry or stuffed, just fully satisfied.

Generals, like What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, may use the past as its foundation, but it was put in place by some forward-thinking engineers.

The album holds together sonically like it was bonded by super glue, yet there's enough variation between the tracks to make Manifest! a very enriching listen that takes listeners to the middle of an excitingly sweaty dancefloor, keeps them company on the long cab ride home, and soothes them on the quiet morning after.

It's an album only an old pro could make and it's one of the best this ever-reliable singer has ever done.

Here, he has crafted them into something startlingly new, although that '70s spirit of pimp-hand-up-top, bell-bottoms-down-below is intact the whole way.

This music is welcoming and accessible, underscoring the notion that Garrett's new compositions have that mercurial something in them that approaches the mysterious nature of song itself.

The Plot Against Common Sense shows that Future of the Left are still fighting the good fight, even if the ranks have changed a bit.

That Metric were able to follow up their best record with another just as good is quite an achievement, hopefully something they will do again and again.

An album that's just as vital as it is accomplished.

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood spends their time doing what comes naturally, and the music flows easily, even alluringly, as they jam with no care of when they began or where they will end.

On The National Health, Smith and the rest of the band seem revitalized by the time off, delivering some of their catchiest and widest-ranging songs since their debut, A Certain Trigger.

Instinct is a vivid and varied debut, and ultimately a more rewarding listen than if Niki and the Dove had just explored one facet of their sound.

This sparkling, streamlined display adds up to great headphone candy, but ultimately it's a record made for booming club speakers.

Do Things is a cool treat of a record, filled with catchy and sweet songs that have a relaxed and easygoing happiness that is impossible to resist.

A wandering, fuzz-cloaked journey that has fingerprints of the best qualities of their Austin music brethren -- the fiery energy of Trail of Dead, the druggy exploration of Charalambides -- as well as of classic rock and college rock favorites, and is presented in a way that feels familiar but has been thoughtfully crafted to obscure those fingerprints into something new.

Metheny and [sax player, Chris] Potter are free to sprint and they do; both dazzle with their lyric invention and knotty, imaginative, nearly boppish solos. The two front-line players are surely at their best in one another's company.

This is an absorbing and engaging album that shows Howe Gelb's vision to its best advantage.

Great Chicago Fire is that rare collaboration where both sides seem to inform one another equally and derive new strengths from teaming up.

This work reaffirms her status as one of the leading artists in contemporary folk.

When you strip back the eccentric arrangements and lush production, Watkins can still deliver.

It is a serious contender for any representative year-end list.

The combination of crypto-goth moodiness--nods to Bauhaus but especially to Will Sergeant's work with Echo & the Bunnymen are omnipresent--and an older kind of drama, reaching back to Phil Spector's productions and Roy Orbison's mini-operas, recombines throughout on a remarkable series of songs.

Struck by Lightning aren't just going through the motions -- as evidenced by the noticeable injection of clever ideas throughout.

Believe has enough strong material to keep most of the followers satisfied for another year, while elders should feel relieved that nothing is as sickly sweet as "Baby."

Clockwork Angels demonstrates why, after 36 years, Rush's fan base continues to grow. Its musical athleticism and calisthenic discipline are equaled only by its relentless creative drive and its will to express it in a distinct musical language.

Everybody's Talkin' is what every live album should be: an accurate, exciting reflection of a band at its peak, playing full-throttle and providing plenty of surprises.

Lucifer, their third and most in-focus full-length yet.

Conceptual conceits aside, these are some of the most memorable and rousing songs Corgan has delivered since 1993's Siamese Dream.

These lost recordings represent an amazing mother lode to any Can enthusiast and certainly should hold more than enough interesting moments for even a curious new listener.

Ask the Dust is one of the more interesting and compelling electro albums of 2012.

Ruler of the Night works like a song cycle studying the oddly aching beauty of misery.

Spirits has the advantage of sounding like an enjoyable guitar-based drone-and-zone effort in its own right regardless of everything else Mahood has already done, not least of which is due to a certain bright tone throughout the album.

Tigermending hints that she just might be too eclectic for her own commercial good, but not for the good of listeners willing to follow Round's unpredictable but nearly always successful moves.

The House That Jack Built may be aimed at a new audience, or it might simply be the record that Hoop had to make. Either way, it's welcome for the risks it takes and delivers on.

The Legendary Demos is a fantastic example of a collection of unreleased material that really works rather than some lackluster hodgepodge of archived filler.

On a Bedroom Wall is an impressive record from a "joke" band, full of emotion and hooks, which should get them taken seriously by lovers of '80s-influenced sounds done in a thoroughly modern manner.

Two Wounded Birds is a well-crafted and powerful debut from a band that arrived in full control of both its sound and its songs.

For all their various impulses, it's clear on Valley Tangents that they do have a certain general approach to explore, just one that doesn't welcome immediate simplification.

The Tarnished Gold will melt whatever preconceptions you have about the band and leave you basking in the warmth of the summer of Beachwood Sparks' career.

Wild Peace is a largely subdued affair, but there's so much happening just below the surface of the music that it's easy to miss some of the album's buried brilliance while you're distracted by its glimmering melodies.

Self Made 2 is an interesting mix of in-house and all-star, and another reason to take Ross the ring-leader seriously.

Brown turns the Versions material, drawing on both released and unreleased sections from the original sessions, into something closer to harsher rock at points, but on balance the various tracks turn into a series of tense counterpoints between loud and soft, always with an eye toward careful flow that transforms the material into slow evolutions.

It all adds up to an exhilarating and at times revelatory mash-up of wildly varied flavors, like a really excellent fruit salad.

Musically and lyrically, it is likely to be among her most enduring recordings.

The album as a whole clearly values the arrangements and overall instrumental performances perhaps even more than the singing, with numerous extended codas and breaks where the performers stretch out to the full.

Aesop sounds stronger and sure after taking this journey, making Skelethon his most rewarding effort to date.

Like an actual confession, this album is equally bold and vulnerable, and all the more real and appealing because of that.

Spirit Fiction is a confident next step for the saxophonist; its execution and ambition offer a glance at where he's been, but more importantly, a solid look at where he's going.

It is the sound of a band operating from a position of considerable strength: they're confident, assured, even playful, having fun bending the rules and blurring boundaries, eager to please but never pandering.

As a whole Handwritten has all of the heart-on-rolled-up-sleeve passion that makes the Gaslight Anthem a band that is so easy to love and identify with.

When it all comes together, like the play it takes its name after, Tempest is turbulent, dark and wondrous.

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.

Immaculately produced and performed, I Can See the Future is chock-full of breezy, likable retro-pop that's made for people who like their nostalgia delivered through the wonders of modern fidelity, and while it may put off, at first, those with a predilection for Mandell's darker side, it won't take but a spin or two make them see the light.

Thought and care are in these songs, and they all fall together in a nice flow.

Hypnotic Nights still delivers all of the brilliant power pop worship that we've all come to love from JEFF the Brotherhood, and if the album isn't able to kick off your summer, nothing will.

The occasional recorder and kazoo only add to the weirdo charm of this very fine album.

[Guthrie's] story is presented here in this wonderful set.

Though the environment that birthed the appropriately titled Gossamer may be a bummer, the end product is winningly majestic as it is obviously spun by the most malevolent of spiders.

His first official solo outing (he recorded a rollicking 2009 album under the moniker Lady of the Sunshine) finds the Australian singer/songwriter successfully bridging the gap between bearded Laurel Canyon rambler and bearded indie pop urbanite.

Go Outside is less messy than one might have expected from Hot Panda, but that hardly means they've gone slick; now they have the chops to make the most of the pop instincts they've always had.

Unearth boasts enough charms on its own, offering up ten enigmatic, audio time capsules that strike a winning, oddball balance between the cool, Krautrock sheen of Kraftwerk, the naturalistic, glitch-filled hum of The Books, and the melodious pop stylings of early Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark.

Solid, purposeful, and crafted in a manner that betrays both Drew's age and the album's hurried road to release, Ill Manors makes heavy-hitter number three for the rapper, suggesting that Plan B doesn't issue albums, just milestones.

An album that begins as a one-woman cabaret show discussing humanity's past and future and remains the work of a singular voice, one that recognizes that silence is just as vital as music.

This cohesive piece is still dotted with stand-out moments.

Major feels like the coolest church service ever, devoid of dogma and ritual, and consecrated by the unholy smack of a thousand high-fives.

Major feels like the coolest church service ever, devoid of dogma and ritual, and consecrated by the unholy smack of a thousand high-fives.

Pujol really shines when he pulls out his protest signs and shares his shrewd, but never cynical, take on modern society.

The group's atypical instrumentation and inventive use thereof results in captivating if mercurial waves of sound and a listening experience that reveals its complex nature as it goes on.

Country Funk: 1969-1975 illuminates a brief but fruitful period where genre lines blurred, and both genres benefitted mightily.

While much of Susanna's reputation may have been built on her skills as an interpreter of other people's songs, Wild Dog is a testament to the subtly haunting power of her own music.

All of it works, there's plenty of ambition with little over-reaching, and the most striking bits of the album are striking for unexpected reasons.

This does have the familiar tunes, so it serves its purpose.

The perfect blend of modern and classic, Loma Vista is an album with a unique vision that captures the spirit of modern alt-rock (with all the trimmings) yet is rooted in classic pop songwriting. It is an album that is honest, earnest, and entirely unpretentious.

For all its expansiveness and ambition, Medicine Man is expertly produced and sequenced; the Bamboos have not only retained their identity, they've created something so passionate, warm, and immediate, it's almost impossible not to be seduced.

Bear Creek feels both easy and immediate, which is usually what happens when talented artists finally figure out who they are, and that heartache, failure, defiance, and confidence can all go to the dance together.

So overthink it if you must, or accept Burning Love's emphatic kick in the head for what it is and let your ears do the rest.

On Christian aTunde ADJuah, Scott and company create a seamless, holistic 21st century jazz that confidently points toward new harmonic horizons.

It's tender, gentle, and expresses what absence teaches in the music and poetic language of Gothic Americana -- without nostalgia or artifice.

While the band's sound here leans toward the more grungy end of hardcore, P.O.D. have always evinced a knack for hooky pop songwriting, and the best tracks here are the more melodic, pop-oriented ones.

"An Evening with Dusty" further reveals why Dunn's work is so consistently enjoyable.

The Riverboat Gamblers have shown they can evolve without losing the plot, and if The Wolf You Feed isn't their best album, it's smart, ambitious, and rocks with authority, sounding fresh and exciting in ways you might not have expected.

This "less is more" approach shows off the wealth of songwriting these two have cultivated in their other projects, and makes Criminal Heaven a beautifully blissful debut that is warm, comforting, and typically Swedish in the best way possible.