The Russian Wilds is Howlin Rain's most accessible recording, but enormous ambition and musical mastery of rock & roll's mighty past make it an essential one, too.

I Will Set You Free is the sound of Adamson's liberation as a songwriter, producer, and arranger.

Patience (After Sebald) succeeds as beautifully evocative music to accompany the documentary, as another distinctive entry in Kirby's Caretaker discography and as an inspired blending of different works that makes its own statement.

With this album, Windy & Carl are more controlled, focused, and confident than ever before, offering up their best work to date in an evolution that may just prove to be without limits.

It results in his most adventurous and fulfilling work to date.

One of the most impressive aspects of the whole endeavor is the fact that a bunch of South Carolina musicians were able to spiritually transport themselves so definitively to a Southern California state of mind.

Sleigh Bells may have topped themselves here, but it's a case of more being less.

The trio has crafted a record that measures up to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy musically and delivers enough emotional charge to power a small town for a month.

While Learning's haunting storytelling remains singular, Hadreas is as brave an artist as ever, and Put Your Back N 2 It is a heartening follow-up in so many ways.

His songs are delicate but strong, faint yet persistent, and have a deep, almost inexplicable emotional pull.

It's an honest record, stripped of artifice, and it will hit you hard if you give it a chance.

While it doesn't sound at all the same, fans of Robert Fripp's Frippertronics (Let the Power Fall) or Henry Kaiser's guitar-with-delay work (It's a Wonderful Life, Where Endless Meets Disappearing) should really enjoy this.

Ghostory is as lushly layered as ever, with spectral textures and propulsive dance rhythms, both programmed and played, equally affecting.

Ultimately, the great thing about the '80s vibe on Rooms Filled with Light isn't that Fanfarlo have aped their idols, but rather that they've found a way to make these Day-Glo, spiky-haired melodies feel utterly contemporary.

Carnivale Electricos is a crunchy, rowdy recording with some beautiful twists and turns by its guest performers.

These catchy, desperate, searing, and searching songs aren't always the most accessible, but they show exactly why this band has such a dedicated audience.

Gregory Porter's sophomore effort confirms the talent that was so apparent on his debut.

Overall, Colours is a joyful and inventive record which suggests Scott may have finally found his forte.

This sampler offers plenty of quality listening and anyone who hasn't given Sultan's music a listen will find this CD to be an excellent starting place, delivering music that's wild, ambitious, and soul-satisfying all at once.

Melodic and mercurial, immaculate and overwrought, it's not for everybody, but six albums in, Lacuna Coil have proven themselves more than worthy of both the attention of commercial rock radio and the adoration of the progressive metal community.

On first blush, the album's lack of anything with the prancing grace and energy of "No Clear Reason" is a minor disappointment. After a couple spins, however, that notion is replaced with anticipation for Ozanne's next move.

The result is a wonderfully immediate album that feels like a Saturday night house party--complete with moonlight, dust flying from the carpet under the feet of dancers, and crickets and night bird calls out the open windows.

Toward the Low Sun is crushing in its sadness, unrelenting in its sweetness and pure aural emotion.

mately, despite his loftier intentions, this works perfectly well as another excellent Chuck Prophet collection that for most listeners only marginally adheres to its stated concept but is no less impressive because of that.

Mouse on Mars sound only like themselves on Parastrophics, an album that's a rebirth and a welcome return for one of electronic music's most restlessly creative acts.

On first spin, Break It Yourself may sound like a typical outing, but repeated listens unveil an assembly of songs that are as verdant and mercurial as they are rooted in the Bird tradition.

Lovett is relaxing into the songs and sounds he loves, and he hasn't sounded like so much fun in years.

Acting as a kind of crossroads between the old C.O.C. and the new, Corrosion of Conformity feels more like a distillation of their career than an evolution of their sound.