The songs ultimately blur into one extensive blast of rugged emotion and high energy, dazzling in their urgency and always threatening to crumble out of precise playing into unhinged noise.

The very hooky, liltingly pretty "Nothing Lasts" shows that Echo Lake would be pretty great if they dropped all the aspirations of epicness and just made simple little pop songs instead. They do reach for the stars on Era, however, and they end up shining just like the brightest of them.

Ben Cook is no doubt a very talented guy and he puts his talents to very good use on Ripe 4 Luv, crafting the kind of pop music that should appeal to anyone who likes singing along, feeling things, and a little bit of weirdness mixed into their fizzy cocktails.

With a sound so luscious, Fresh Blood is hard to resist and if it doesn't quite offer the lasting sustenance it presumes, it nevertheless tastes mighty fine.

As the record progresses, the band explores psyched-out stoner metal ("Beelzebub"), blasting traditional hardcore ("All Hail"), and sludgy, hypnotic grooves ("Dusted"), but regardless of style, the songs seethe with a declarative sense of loss and anguish, feeling like a true reflection of challenging times and a band of friends trying to make it to the other side, together.

Certainly, the ambition remains, along with the hunger to remain on the bleeding edge, but she's allowing her past to mingle with her present, allowing her to seem human yet somewhat grander at the same time.

Although it may not be his most cohesive release, it's nothing if not completely original and begs the question of where he'll go from here.

The Door Behind the Door is crisper and more massive-sounding than its predecessor. However, as they polish their narcotic haze, the Black Ryder sacrifice some of the rock & roll grit that made Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride so captivating.

Never short on material for various low-profile releases, the jams on Wild Strawberries are more considered and inspired than any of Eternal Tapestry's previous work, and present the most cohesive picture of their long, strange progression.

Subtle, compellingly human, and bittersweet, this is easily Landry's best work.

Too many other tracks have one too many verses, could have used bridges, or been left off altogether. Ol' Glory may reveal a bigger, more multi-dimensional sound for Grey and Mofro, but at what price progress?

Even the contrasting consecutive picks--like Darkstar's glistening, skyward "Hold Me Down" and Holy Other's dragging, alien "Yr Love"--are compatible, their transitions made with ease. The majority of the mix is beatless and becalmed with periodic surges in energy that never startle.

It is aesthetically attractive while being emotionally and intellectually resonant; pop music can hope for no more.

Tuxedo is a fine display of the duo's love for the electric funk disco sound, and their immense skill at re-creating it.

After is a minor triumph that makes it clear Lady Lamb is going to be around for a while, and may give you new hope for those kids making arty noise in their basement down the block.

Add the devastating title cut plus more memorable melodies than usual, and Shedding Skin might be the Ghostpoet album to begin with for those who prefer something a bit traditional, but with three excellent efforts from the get-go, the point isn't where to start, but to start, because the rewards are consistent and plentiful.

Another Eternity remains true to what makes Purity Ring special by refining it, and proves that they can challenge themselves and deliver their most accessible work yet.

After an album, 2012's Circles, where it seemed like the duo may have been running short on ideas, adding Jeffrey on drums and shaking up the working arrangements have helped to make Shadow a sterling return to form that gives their best album, 2001's Mazes, a run for its money.

These cuts ["Let Your Tears Fall," "Good Goes the Bye," and "Nostalgic"], along with the title track, manage to strike the right balance of Kelly's indomitable character and fresh electronic beats but overall Piece by Piece sounds a shade too desperate, which means it winds up having the opposite effect than intended: instead of sounding like a new start, Clarkson sounds a little bit behind the times.

Truly a bold step forward for the band, the album takes Grooms to their next plateau the same way Daydream Nation proved Sonic Youth's breakthrough almost 30 years earlier.

The moments that stir the most are the ones where Pops' work seems to have been left untouched, as on a simple, effective version of "Nobody's Fault But Mine."

The combination of the raw, tempestuous styles, Barnes' own capricious musical tendencies, and the regrettable subject matter of Aureate Gloom has Of Montreal at its rockiest and most intense.

Their drive to push forward is refreshing, and the slight updates to the band's intricate signature sound results in an exciting comeback album and a statement that stands on its own regardless of its place in time.

Champs deliver a handful of cinematic anthems, including "Desire" and "The Balfron Tower," which, much like the duo's island home, are at once breezy and haunting.

Joyland is smart, entertaining stuff with lots of great guitar work and atmosphere to spare.

Even at high volume and off-the-charts speeds, Quarterbacks' main attribute is the wistful beauty that defines Engle's lyrics and attaches itself to the smartly composed tunes.

A Thousand Miles of Midnight spins new soundscapes from the moody frameworks of Lanegan's original recordings, bringing his electronic influences to the forefront and confirming the strength and versatility of Lanegan's work.

Waxing Romantic is an impressive blend of top-notch songwriting, inventive production, and strong performances, the kind that vaults Bretzer to the same lofty heights of his influences.

The sentimental doo wop vocals filtered through a slightly muddy garage rock lens butt up against the cartoonishly crass punk rock rants and the mild tripouts for yet another album of pure fun and explosive rock & roll antics, with a delivery that by now belongs solely to these wild-eyed champions of inspiration and profanity.

With worthy singles "Body Language," "Hotel," and "Be Real" added to the mix, there's much more fire than fodder here, enough to satisfy returning fans along with party people of all flavors.

While Crushed Beaks' mix of brash and dreamy sounds is promising, it often seems like they're still figuring out how to make it work.

Projections, Fairhurst's first album, designed more for home listening than for dancefloors, is relatively listless, sometimes torpid, and often sounds more like a project than a form of expression.

Future Brown clearly know what to synthesize and how to select. The whole here, however, is less than the sum of its parts.

Equally precise and off-kilter, noodly and urgent, Dutch Uncles sound remarkably confident on these portraits of uncertainty.

et It Reign's appealing mix of nostalgia and vitality proves that Barât can not just survive, but thrive outside of the confines of his other, storied band.

Anyone who was spoken to by the low-lit intimacy of The Creek Drank the Cradle should seek out Archive Series, Vol. 1 as a perfect companion piece to that album and as deeper look into what must have been an incredibly inspired and productive time for the young songwriter.

Like most of the Zeppelin reissues, the alternate versions reaffirm that Page made the right decisions the first time around, but these seven versions all make for worthy listening in their own right.

Let the Good Times Roll is definitely the second coming of the rock & roll savior that fans prayed would follow Signs & Signifiers. And as the title implies, it's also one hell of a good time.

The man who cut Complicated Game is the more mature McMurtry has figured out how to deliver the fine songs he writes and get their qualities on tape.

In James Bond terms, Sour Soul is the almost addendum-ish Quantum of Solace as it offers adventurous fans the same opportunities for a quick fix while sacrificing a bit of weight. In Toronto jazz terms, it's verygoodgoodnotbad.

Screaming Females have gone out of their way to show they have other tricks at their disposal, and Rose Mountain is one of their most accomplished and satisfying efforts to date.

EarthEE may not have the direct, off-the-cuff quality of AwE NaturalE, but its all-around richness is incontestable.

The anthemic title cut, an epic, near-wordless, eight-and-a-half-minute midnight highway drive of a closer that, like everything on the outstanding Restarter, repeatedly beats you senseless, but leaves no bruises.

That weary yet warm acceptance of his middle age is why First Kiss works: it's a bit bumpy and sometimes sleepy but it finds old Bob Ritchie settling into his comfort zone, knowing that he's in it for the long haul.

Gliss Riffer may not be the next step many expected after America, but it leaves no doubt he remains a force to be reckoned with in indie electronic, creating smart and satisfying work with a stubbornly individual perspective.

Taken altogether, the various sounds and moods on I Want to Grow Up are a nice progression from her debut, and show Green wrestling with some pretty big issues while still dishing out really good pop songs that'll have you singing along after the first spin.

It moves deliberately, never rushing and rarely rocking, preferring to find pleasure in majesty instead of hedonism.

Citizen Zombie sidesteps the pitfalls of having to live up to former glories by disregarding them altogether and reaching instead for new, weird heights.

Taken as a whole, The Republic is a heady yet enjoyable collection of electronic sounds that retains the graceful beauty Prekop has breathed into all of his creations, just with a slightly different approach.

nd. Acorn Man also delivers a classic Billy Childish rant with "Punk Rock Enough for Me," in which he offers an impressive litany of the things that live up to his standard of cool.

Per usual, it's the Unthanks' acumen for crafting highly refined overcast ballads that ultimately wins out, and some of us are all the better for it.

A Flourish and a Spoil is far from a sophomore slump; instead, it's a portrait of the Districts as they evolve from their freewheeling beginning.

The Tangier Sessions' sound is warm and steeped in passion, wonder, and fascination.

As a whole, Live at a Flamingo Hotel is unlikely to attract too many new fans. It's a solid and spirited live album, but hardcore devotees are already well aware of the band's prowess on stage and they'll be the ones who benefit the most from this release.

The electronic bedroom pop inventiveness of his earlier EPs and debut has been replaced by plaintive bedroom pleas on this misguided second effort.

Mono is the work of a band just smart enough that sometimes the body is just as important as the frontal lobes. The Mavericks understand how to satisfy both, and Mono is an album that will keep you dancing to its beats and smiling to its wit and romance 'til the break of dawn.

Devising a new way of playing heavy music is nothing if not a brave undertaking, and Hexadic rewards significantly with each repeated listen.

It's taken awhile for that to happen, but on Picture You, the Amazing have completely come into their own.

For all its sonic investigation and ellipticity, Skullsplitter is an intimate, even readily accessible offering that is quite human in its unhurried exposition of emotional depth and vulnerability.

Carey's strengths are in building enchanting musical landscapes inspired by the beauty of the natural world, but presented here as a more straightforward piano-and-strings songman, his shortcomings are revealed.

Maybe folks were tired of Earle's happy songs, but if you want to hear the man have a good time while kicking up a fuss in the studio, Terraplane is a ride well worth taking.

These guys are shameless and that's what makes them more fun than your average arena rockers.

Ultimately, it's this ability to stop you in your tracks and hold you with the warmth of his voice as you contemplate your existence that makes Vestiges & Claws such an arresting, uplifting joy.

Recorded in just two days, the excitement coursing through Mourn's entire 24 minutes (including the bonus track "Boys Are Cunts") makes its funny, scary, pissed-off punk that much more irresistible.

Their songs of family, love, lust, and spirit pair perfectly entwined and complementary voices.

By the time Transfixiation culminates in the fireball that is "I Will Die," it feels like A Place to Bury Strangers have escaped from the wreckage to deliver some of their darkest and most diverse music yet.

Patched together and seemingly out-of-character as it is, the singer's fourth album does have more going for it than her third one did.

For longtime fans, Volume Two: 1987-1989 is an impressive and well-assembled study of one of this band's more interesting periods, and if you're looking for a way into Half Japanese's catalog, this a good place to start despite the heft of this collection.

The 19 tunes here definitely push well into double-album territory, with an expanded band of players in a mode that borders on jam band territory but always stops short of over-extending the songs.

Aspiring to both the abandon of spiritual jazz and the burning nihilism of black metal, Moloney and Moore land somewhere else entirely, in a bleak world of noise and disdain that sounds like a state of mind both players feel alarmingly at home in.

A great night for folkies, an instructive listen for hipsters with an interest in the '60s folk scene, and proof that Joel and Ethan Coen's cultural influence takes on many remarkable forms.

This fine debut is also filled with productions from Statik Selektah, DJ Premier, and others whose names hold weight.

Hayman's brand of pop has always been on the intellectual side and the archival nature of these Morris texts dovetails well with the kind of music he's been making in the years leading up to this fine release.

Somewhat disorienting, MIFLSA is a messy, incredible collection of damaged pop, and shows a band that's been forming for a while stepping into its full capabilities.

Even though listening closely enough on some songs reveals Smith shouting out the changes to his band, the collision of off-the-cuff recording techniques and intricate songwriting produces another colorful chapter of Sonny & the Sunsets' tireless and always beautiful work.

In other words, it's the best kind of reunion because it's not only lacking in nostalgia, it shows that some things can be better the second time around.

Ultimately, although colored by personal trauma, Into Colour remains one of Rumer's brightest, most enjoyable albums to date.

On their second LP for Epitaph, San Diego-based hardcore act Retox continue to whittle away any extraneous trimmings, delivering a needle-sharp set that is brutal, fast, and rigidly concise.

Creatures is an album as wonderful as it is unclassifiable, but it is aimed at those who like warmth with their edgy art.

The constant is the familiarity of Spacek's voice, his low whispers and high exhaltations, like he's serenading a nearby audience of one.

Time reaffirms that there's more to Ekko's music than ballads, but a little more consistency would have made this a confident debut instead of a promising one.

Country Music manages to have very little going on in its sonic landscape but still radiates an overwhelmingly dense feeling. There's a distinct stir-craziness to the album, feeling by the end far more like a haunted house than an idyllic bungalow.

This trio aims at an interior center, finds it, and pushes out, projecting Iyer & Co.'s discoveries.

The soundtrack to Fifty Shades of Grey winds up as something conventional: high-thread count seduction with nary a hint of menace, suitable for any romantic evening you choose.

Holding All the Roses delivers on every promise Blackberry Smoke have made to themselves and their fans.

In sum, Heavy Love is all of a piece: slow, slippery, jungly. It is easily the most confident, fully realized album in his catalog to date, and his most poetic to boot.

Blackbirds may be dark and unsettling, but it's far from depressing. It is a profound, poetic, career-defining album from a singer and songwriter of the highest order.

Peace can feel satisfied that they've grown from their debut, if only marginally, yet it's clear they're still finding their voice amongst the joyous, optimistic melodies that are the basis of so much of their sound.

I Love You, Honeybear, despite the occasional double entendre, is as powerful a statement about love in the vacuous, social media-obsessed early 21st century as it is a denouement of the detached hipster charlatan.

Boxed In's approach isn't exactly new, but it's not nearly as confined as their name suggests--they've delivered a winning debut that's often more consistent than the work of their better-known contemporaries.

While Cowboy Worship doesn't match Love's transporting qualities, it does offer a pleasant tangent for Amen Dunes fans wanting more of its mysterious beauty.

While no attempt was made to faithfully imitate the Floyd versions, Haynes still skillfully echoed David Gilmour's elegant and graceful guitar style, while drummer Matt Abts turned "Have a Cigar" in a delightfully funky direction.

Messier Objects is a lot of fun for those wanting to explore the Notwist's more experimental side.

Her easy, welcoming touch is a balm every time Tomorrow Is My Turn is played, but it's upon successive spins that the intricacies of Giddens' construction--not to mention her subtle political messages--begin to take hold.

In the Pink of Condition is the work of an artist fully in control of his sound and vision, and Hawkline delivers exactly the album anyone who's been following him wanted.

Fear and Saturday Night is a smaller-scale album than 2012's Tomorrowland and it's lighter, too, finding the Americana singer/songwriter settling into a comfortable ragged groove.

Having been immersed in the changing tides of independent hardcore and emo since 2001, the band makes nods to its seasoned pedigree with the song title "The Jade Tree Years Were My Best," referencing Delaware record label Jade Tree, which reigned supreme in emo circles during the late '90s.

Unguarded is a sophisticated debut, steeped in a chilly, if still insulated atmosphere that strongly evokes '80s-era Kate Bush.