The results should satisfy any post-industrial shaman with warm, slowly developing, and often cavernous synth soundscapes providing the welcoming base.

Like strangers arguing in public or a weary couple who went out to dinner just to break up loudly in the restaurant, Acousmatic Sorcery offers a similar, sometimes unbearably honest look into a very personal world.

Their richest and most varied album to date.

It's a marvelous portrayal of being forlorn, no matter in what state.

This is the perfect type of album for people who think dubstep is too singular and great proof that there are still possibilities for expansion in the genre.

An album that gives lie to the phrase "they don't make 'em like that anymore."

Ultimately, Busting Visions is a sprawling yet thoughtfully constructed album full of backwoods, sandals, and sunburn rock with enough slippery electric guitar work, backing vocals, chiming bells, plinky pianos, and various freaky percussion bits to qualify as a kind of modern-day hippie noodle-rock opus.

Christian Mistress' second formal release--and first full album, if one counts Agony & Opium as an EP--finds the Olympia quintet in even stronger form than before, the group's eager embrace of early-'80s metal energy and singing coming together with a bang once again.

With Sentenced to Life, Black Breath have crafted a no-nonsense slab of modern hardcore that draws from a diverse set of rules, but yields to none of them.

It's a swaggering, sexy, shake-your-ass, greasy, deep roots record.

No matter which era or what record you prefer, as an album, Locked Down stands with Rebennack's best.

Rant goes far beyond any glee club or barbershop perceptions with its reverence and creativity; while it may not change the mind of anyone who thinks a capella pop music is inherently hokey, it's still one of the Futureheads' most exciting albums.

Folila is great music. Period.

If you think that the "rock" part of "indie rock" has been dying a slow death, look to Screaming Females as your lighthouse during these dark, guitar-less times and rejoice as you air shred along with all that Ugly has to offer.

On In Between they ditch any SY trappings and go full shoegaze, removing much of the energy and dialing the tempos down to mid. It works really well, allowing the band to create a mood of wistful, well-produced melancholy that builds and builds until the album ends in a swirl of barely expressed emotion and guitar clatter.

While De Vermis Mysteriis is probably not the group's finest hour (2002's Surrounded by Thieves still bears that distinction), it is nonetheless a very fine hour indeed.

This is one dense and tight set, barely over half-an-hour in length, and it's definitely in contention for Muldrow's most focused, funkiest, and (somewhat ironically) personal release to date.

It's clear that the gore-obsessed band shows no signs of slowing down.

Regardless of how his bandmates might feel, those who like their indie pop filled with soft light and tender beauty will fall in love with this album quite easily.

It's just a flat-out good-time rock & roll record and that's all that really matters.

This is collaboration in its purest and and most elegant form.

It's a great pop record with plenty of guts and a sense of reality that is so often missing from records that sound this fun.

Much more than a stop-gap substitute that will be forgotten by the time the next Hot Chip full-length comes along; Yesterday stands on its own terms as one of the finest dance/electro-pop records of the year.

The quartet knows the difference between a hook and lick, and applies that knowledge liberally on this extremely likable set of clever summery pop songs.

Contradictions are nothing new for Jack White but he's never been as emotionally direct as he is here, nor has he been as musically evasive, and that dichotomy makes Blunderbuss a record that only seems richer with increased exposure.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, which is the great trick behind this persuasive album, offering a serious argument with plenty of hot buttered soul.

Mraz pushes himself into new territory, creating music that's perilously close to sounding seductive.

The Marble Downs is a cult classic in the making, and if Oldham's involvement helps more people discover Trembling Bells' eclectic brilliance, so much the better.