The Mosaic Project is not recommended to jazz purists, but for those who like their jazz laced with big doses of R&B, there is much to savor on this risk-taking album.

Song after song whips by, wedding equal doses of neo-thrash aggression and accessibility, represented by frontman Matt Heafy's alternating clean and gruff vocals as well as his and fellow guitarist Corey Beaulieu's jagged staccato riffs and tight-knit harmonies.

Dir en Grey are a band in their own genre at this point, and Dum Spiro Spero is the farthest-reaching testament to establish that as fact more than opinion.

An album that is fashionably slick, altogether tragic, and deceptively beautiful.

Condon spends much of Rip Tide writing in first person, and it lends an air of much needed intimacy to the always gorgeous, yet historically elusive Beirut sound.

Felice is bedeviled by an unspecified sadness and longing, and that only adds to the resonance of well-constructed songs that will appeal to triple-A radio in the U.S., now that his band finally has gotten a purchase on its homeground.

With West, WS plays post-history psychedelia; it is as necessary -- and freaky -- as anything from the eras that influenced it.

Musically, the results are a brighter, tighter, yet more elaborate version of the man's best work, with tracks like "Security" and "Merry Go Round" sounding both flashy and meaty at once.

All in all, a noteworthy release that reveals more layers the longer you listen.

From the performances, to the songwriting, to the production, Still Living is the group's strongest, most multi-dimensional album.

Throughout the album the sense is of rough experimentation, a kind of direct curiosity in the collision of sampled loops, echoed vocals, bursting bass, and random moments. Stallone's echoed vocals, however much a stylistic commonality in some corners, act as further random hooks, a slightly stupefied but never incoherent series of reactions.

Bittersweet and incredibly catchy, Endless Now is the kind of album that just gets better with repeated listening.

World Wide Rebel Songs, is, without question, a welcome call to arms.

Their sound is dustier, more evocative of the landscape they wander; Tassili is as desolate--and as timeless--as the desert itself.

This is a band album, and a solid one at that.

In the Grace of Your Love is the band's most powerful and vital album thus far.

Despite only taking a couple of years to put out a second album, Lenses Alien also feels like an altogether more grown-up record.

Dre's short, spoken bits end up the only speed bumps during all these twists and turns, and when you're complaining about interludes instead of the overall attitude of a Game album, you've got an obsession-free, almost relatable success that sacrifices none of the man's fire or skill.

Wild Flag isn't just an exciting debut and one of 2011's most dynamic rock records, it proves that a group is truly super when the personalities involved work together and have fun.

A highly addictive, lightly experimental mix of blue-eyed soul and psych-inflected indie-electronic pop.

Highly recommended to fans of smart jazz that remembers to entertain.

While Smith fans no doubt have everything contained here -- of the 18 tracks collected , each album is represented -- this disc serves as an excellent introduction to Smith's ever evolving, non-compromising art which combines high-stakes poetry with rock & roll.

If Widowspeak keep refining their sound and cranking out memorable and quietly impressive songs like they do here, they may end up being pretty special. Even if they don't, though, this album will still be out there to help soothe and thrill you when you have a post-Mazzy itch you need to scratch.

Several cuts are instrumental workouts, unpredictable and flagrantly noodle-y. Others venture into tranquil folk-soul and soft jazz-pop; for all the animated instrumental flexing on display, it's those atmospheric and simpler songs that move the most.

On Tha Carter IV, Wayne's world feels more like a dream than reality, but the loyal subjects of Young Money get a wild ride and the great feeling of flashing those ruby slippers one more time.

Head of the class, leader of the pack good, and you won't hear many rock & roll records better than this in 2011.

She's been in something of a career renaissance ever since the mid-2000s, creating sharp adult pop that's accessible without being commercial, so if fan funding is what's needed to keep her actively recording, this album is a great testament to its potential power.

The lyrics still focus on Walker's own little world--the girls he's known, the drugs he's done, the trouble he got into as an '80s wild child--but Spade feels broader, fuller, more collective than those words suggest.