Every track on this album is excellent in its own way.

As distant whirs and an understated funk beat get accentuated by a classic '80s electronic handclap, the title track from Dillon's debut album almost sounds like a collation of a variety of styles from across years and locations.

There is not a single weak track on this album. It's an unusually moving and haunting document from one of the unsung heroes of American (and, oddly enough, Jamaican) roots music.

Rad Times Xpress IV is some of Herrema's most cohesive music with any of her projects, and Black Bananas pull off the neat trick of sounding quintessential and like a rebirth at the same time.

Gangrene is dirty, underground hip-hop excellence as expected, but Vodka & Ayahuasca takes it to another level, or realm.

Les Voyages de l'Âme is a great record; self- defining and alluringly elusive.

The wealth of hook-heavy pop wonders alone makes Feel the Sound a fantastic record, but the sure-footed air of confidence and self-assurance that carries the record is what truly cements Imperial Teen as more of an institution than a band.

As rewarding as his earlier slow-paced drones are, so is his incremental development as an artist with each subsequent album, I Love You being one more step along the way.

Habits & Contradictions, the album, lives up to its title, which could throw some, but the complicated rapper always seems to convert more than he scares away, and you can blame his keen, exciting, risk-taking, vintage-styled, and deep set of skills for that.

Overall, Clay Class gives the feeling of bridges being built and dots being connected.

Overall, there is a fine balance of sounds, feelings, and textures on the album, enough to make Hospitality both a vindication of promise already displayed by the band and hope for further greatness.

It's all very definitely Walkabouts in its sound -- with some glorious lyrics from Chris Eckman

Despite the lo-fi nature of the source tape, which was made in an ad hoc manner by a local friend, the sparse setting--just acoustic guitar and banjo--gives Dalton's distinctive voice plenty of room to do its thing.

Fresh and surprisingly accessible despite its quirks, Visions is bewitching.

Libraries retains nearly everything that was memorable about the Love Language's debut as it improves on what McLamb accomplished before.

This album comes to the listener as a gift wrapped in tattered paper, making it all the more precious to receive.

For the most part, Out of Frequency is a joyous and effortlessly vivacious slice of Scandinavian pop which yet again brings a refreshing, childlike quality to the '60s retro table.

This is a treat not just for Air fans, but aficionados of film music and science fiction, too.

Dense, powerful, wild, yet immaculately rendered, Animal Joy blends the expansive, cinematic scope of contemporaries like Other Lives and the National with the arty drama of "San Jacinto"-era Peter Gabriel.

An album that feels looser without ever feeling lazy.

A record that stands out as a career highlight in an already very impressive and inspiring career.

Instead of trying to fit into the past, Van Halen are using their history to revive their present and they succeed surprisingly well on A Different Kind of Truth.

Intimate without being voyeuristic, and approachable without being patronizing, sparse without being cold, Barchords manages to balance all of these elements beautifully, merging plaintive folk and bluesy soul with just enough pop to make the whole thing go down smoothly.

This is a beautiful and loving tribute to one of jazz music's great tragic genuises.

Tennis are making some of the best pop music around in 2012, and that's plenty good enough.

The Bats have managed to maintain a ridiculously high level of quality throughout their career, and Free All the Monsters is as good a record as they've ever made.

Her flow is rock-solid but nimble and complex and apparently effortless despite the weird and shifting beats.

It's one of the most affecting works to date from a brilliant, one-of-a-kind band.