Hypersonic Missiles is smart, passionate, and loaded with rock-solid anthems that surpass the "promising" designation.

His unique literary view into both the banal and the horrific mix with the most interesting and developed arrangement of any Mountain Goats album and the result is some of the strongest, most compelling work of an already brilliant run.

The Nashville-based quartet's fourth studio long-player, and second for New West Records, Sleeping Through the War is All Them Witches' most fully realized set to date, a sprawling yet remarkably focused effort that takes their exploratory, often spliced-together work ethic in a more stridently song-oriented direction.

Que Aura is the richest, most diverse, and interesting-sounding album he's done yet, with the songs to match.

Even on these quieter moments, Brickbat's invigorated feel is palpable--and contagious. It would've been easy for the members of Piroshka to rest on their laurels, but they prove they have a lot of new ideas to offer their listeners, regardless of how familiar they may be with the band's previous work.

Some of the album's most gripping moments directly draw from Holley's storied past. ... The album ends on a puzzling note with "Future Children," in which Holley's gruff intonations are processed into a stark, robotic tone over jittery, post-minimalist recorder sequences.

With Mutilator, and now this album, the band is firing on all cylinders and then some, making psych-prog-metal-punk jams for the ages.

It might not be as much fun as some of Sleaford Mods' earlier albums, but that's the point.

The likes of Robert Smith, Beck, St. Vincent, Elton John, 6lack, Fatoumata Diawara, and Peter Hook help pull the album away from the realm of solipsism, suggesting that even when the world is largely isolated from itself, there is still the common language of music that binds us all.

Thirstier's confidence and optimism arrived when listeners in the early 2020s were hungry for both. If making her music as big and loud as it is here is what it takes to get people to realize what they've been missing with her music, then Thirstier is a wild success.

Highly recommended.

Both nervier and more confident than their debut, On All Fours is a huge step forward from a band that's well-equipped to bring post-punk's legacy into the future.

Microcastle proves that Deerhunter can make music that sounds very different from what they'd done before, yet still feels of a piece with their body of work.

You Are Not Alone is a solid outing that somehow amazingly manages to be both secular and sacred at once, and there is a stripped-down timelessness to it.

A Ghost Is Born hardly sound[s] like a retread of YHF, but the languid, ghostly song structures, the periodic forays into dissonance and the pained, hesitant vocals from Jeff Tweedy that were so much a part of that album also take center stage here.

Orchestral, experimental, and more challenging than either of the band's previous releases, it's a natural fit for the Nonesuch label, whose heritage was built on such attributes. For Fleet Foxes, it represents a shift away from their more idyllic early days into a period of artistic growth and sophistication.

Lif and Akrobatik have a long history, so they sound natural as brainy verse-swapping partners, and they're sharp throughout, whether they have their sights set on the Bush Administration or are simply batting boasts back and forth.

As a band, AILD has grown most is in their songwriting and production skills (the latter of which are now off the charts in terms of precision). The Powerless Rise, delivers on what their previous outings have handsomely promised.

He makes connections between disciplines--musical, literary, visual--that serve to further define Americana not as a musical genre, but as an expansive cultural enigma.

You'd have to go a long way to find a better indie rock album in 2011.

It's fascinating to find that his dogged research has loaded these self-penned pieces with all of the mystery, language, and myth usually found in years-old traditional ballads.

This is easily some of McMahon's prettiest and most accessible music, and it's also some of his finest. In its own simple, graceful way, Love adds more depth to the rest of Amen Dunes' work.

By making an album that succeeds as a meaningful statement and a brilliant pop record at the same time, the Spook School have done the near impossible on Try to Be Hopeful.

The sprawling 41-track mix covers a lot of ground in relatively short time, and it's never less than riveting.

Though there's nothing here to grab headlines, A Deeper Understanding reclaims and explores the distinctive soundscapes, vastness, and haunted psyche of Lost in the Dream, and that in itself is significant.

A thrumming version of "Afro Blue" excepted, Lilies is a set of originals--one that's enticing and breathtaking in an unconventional, as in almost stifling, sense.

While See You Around recalls work Watkins, O'Donovan, and Jarosz have done before, none have made an album quite as exquisitely shaded as this.

Four albums in and Halestorm appear to have officially hit their stride.