While Take Care's charms may be a little more hidden, with a couple exceptions, than Thank Me Later's were, repeated plays reveal a record that is just as strong and more powerful emotionally.

Producers Shawty Redd, Nottz, and A-Traxx all contribute bottom-heavy stunners while West, Diddy, Juicy J, and Young Jeezy add the right amount of outside influence, making this just a tad more "fun" than your usual casket drop from Clipse.

They may never make a record as unhinged and beautiful as Hold on Now, Youngster..., but if they keep making records as tough and exciting as Hello Sadness, Los Campesinos! will always be worth keeping up with.

The benefit of a comp is that it's totally possible, even welcome, to downplay dull lapses like Around the Sun--and, when combined with well-chosen highlights from the band's powerful first two acts, adds up to a thorough narrative of R.E.M.'s entire career.

In all, it represents a beautiful set of ambience from one of the form's masters.

Camp is like the Drake, Cudi, and Kweli camps all offered their best, but it's really just Glover and his overwhelming bundle of talent, taking indie hip-hop to new levels after spending the day working alongside Chevy Chase.

The end result is a half-hour of good, giddy fun that leaves you with a slightly strange taste in your mouth, and that's probably just right.

This is the best solo record by an indie rock guitarist since Carl Broemel's All Birds Say, proof that Ramsey's career has more than enough horsepower on its own.

Even amidst dissonant notes or loopy time signatures, a catchy hook or two usually surfaced.

Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You: The Fonotone Years, 1958-1965 is a massive John Fahey document that was a full decade in the making by Dean Blackwood of Revenant, guitarist Glenn Jones, and Lance Ledbetter of Dust-to-Digital.

While it shares sheer ambition with Scott Walker's The Drift and PJ Harvey's Let England Shake, it sounds like neither; Bush's album is equally startling because its will toward the mysterious and elliptical is balanced by its beguiling accessibility.

Miller's big challenge is that he follows in a long line of suburban college rappers who have thrown up whack mixtapes like they were yesterday's punch bowl, but this memorable debut steps right around that mess and suggests that the kids are not just all right, but all the way live.

Diehards and newbies alike will revel in its weird, wild well-roundedness.

The Singing Mailman Delivers doesn't do much to rewrite Prine's early history, but it confirms he revealed a remarkable talent as soon as he put his mind to writing songs, and it's an entertaining addition to his catalog for longtime fans.

Taken as pieces or as a whole, the album is easily the equal of anything their contemporaries have released and an exhilaratingly chilled-out listen from start to finish that will warm up even the longest winter night.

This is one of those very rare electronica albums that actually rewards deep and repeated listening.

Scuba has achieved something hard to define with this mix program, and that's part of what makes it so enjoyable.

This blend of driving riffage and suffocating relentlessness allows the band to strike a fine balance between freewheeling guitar worship and oppressive gloom.

There's an argument to made that Yelawolf's entry into the world of official releases is a bit too cluttered with distractions -- stars, prime beats, and big-time hooks -- to be considered a proper showcase, but when given room, he shines through.

Ultimately, 777: The Desanctification is a worthy answer to its predecessor, even as it expresses the more experimental side of Blut Aus Nord's sound arsenal.

And even though it's a more emotionally heavy album than a lot of his previous work, Coulton still knows how to leave people with a smile, ending the album with two new versions of his famous Portal and Portal 2 theme songs.

Treefight for Sunlight's debut is a triumph of sun-drenched ecstatic pop that leaves listeners with an arsenal of hooks in their heads, eager to hear what the band will come up with next.

Live at the South Bank is an artfully and spiritually satisfying coda to a long and criminally underappreciated career.

It's a fine introduction to the multifaceted pleasures of Gorillaz.

Beautifully recorded and performed, Live at the Royal Albert Hall conveys all the drama of Adele's music and is the perfect companion piece to 21.

Despite all the electronics, there's no mistaking The Path of Totality as a Korn album...and one of their better ones to boot.

If the songwriting isn't strong enough to make listeners confuse this with a Back to Black follow-up, the productions and performances are up to her high caliber.

Pillado's songs are super-catchy and his vocals spot-on, and the band sounds perfectly shambolic but also full of energy and verve, sort of like a cross between the Pastels and a jangly '60s garage band like the Dovers.