Like the best Depeche Mode, almost everything on the album will make an initial wowing impact while remaining layered enough in subtle details to surprise and thrill with repeated listens.

At its most chaotic, Hypermagic Mountain could tear open a wormhole into Comets on Fire's Blue Cathedral.

A uniquely powerful and moving set of songs.

An impressive 13-song set that's reliably original and streamlined.

System of a Down confound and irritate even as they rock.

If you haven't heard Jens Lekman yet, you're missing out on one of the true pop geniuses of the early 2000s.

One of her best studio albums.

From a Compound Eye winds up standing apart from the pack of Pollard projects even if it doesn't stand that far apart.

This album is extraordinary. It is brave, difficult, and honest. It is utterly moving and beautiful. Because it so successfully marries all of her strengths as a songwriter, singer, and musician, Black Cadillac may be the crowning achievement of her career thus far.

As artlessly lovely as a spring day, this is some of her simplest work, and simply some of her best, too.

More than a few productions provide the type of slick, West Coast grind that allows Aceyalone to play the Lothario but still sound like he's satirizing the lover-man archetype.

Donuts just might be the one release that best reflects his personality.

The Veronicas are sassy and sexy, not trashy, and they show humor and heartbreak here, which helps elevate their debut to the top ranks of 2000s teen pop.

Part traditional, part African rhumba, part smart avant-garde electronica, Congotronics is the sound of an urban junkyard band simultaneously weaving the past and the future into one amazingly coherent structure, and not only that, you can dance to it.

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood is a rich, mature and deeply satisfying piece of music that deserves and demands attention -- if this isn't Album of the Year material, it's hard to say what is.

Coxon's ambitions on Love Travels at Illegal Speeds may not be grand -- he has simply made a punky pop album (which is different than punk-pop) -- but his execution is exceptional, which makes this a very appealing album.

More so than on Kamakiriad, or on the tight Everything Must Go, there is a sense of genuine band interplay on this record, which helps give it both consistency and heart -- something appropriate for an album that is Fagen's most personal song cycle since The Nightfly, and quite possibly his best album since then.

Fans of Gelb's have to be excited about this because it's perfect, a career high.

The duo... have actually improved, and the album sports stronger songs, a fuller sound, more emotional weight, and an exuberant soul that spills out of the speakers like milk and cake at a kid's birthday party.

This disc has been rendered with creativity and panache, and it features hooky songwriting so compelling that it's easy to listen to the mere 35 minutes of material (divided into 11 three-minute long, radio-friendly songs) on a continuous loop.

The scenarios he recounts are as detailed and off-the-wall as ever, elaborate screenplays laid out with a vocal style that's ceaselessly fluid and never abrasive.

This is the third album in a row where she's thrown a curve ball, confounding expectations by delivering a record that's wilder, stronger, and better than the last.

Though there are no great surprises on You in Reverse, it is one of Built to Spill's strongest efforts, and anyone who has followed their career knows that this is high praise indeed.

There aren't many post-punk influenced bands around that sound as original and as removed from their influences as Pretty Girls Make Graves. There also aren't many that could write an album jammed with so many memorable songs.

A pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronic, ambient, and third-world music.

Those who missed these gems the first time around would be hard-pressed to find another dance disc in 2006 that rivals the level of quality found here.

This is an addictive record, enveloping in its sound and memorable in its songs.

The Analord series... proved that James was still capable of brilliance -- not just scattered brilliance, but consistently excellent and occasionally stupendous work.