The result isn't a muddled mess but another lean and focused set, despite the involvement of several writers and producers.

Fans will be overjoyed and those unfamiliar with Letlive or even modern hardcore circa 2013 should begin with this compelling document of anger, loss, and struggle.

An excellent, unexpected, and infectious triumph.

The dusky flute and steadfast bass take care to set us back down on our feet as a bubbly synth bays like a hungry hound in the distance and twilight fades peacefully into night.

The warmth of the album comes through in the songwriting, its lyrical content, and the soft-edged production, capturing an insular sense of self-exploration as well as something more universally reaching.

Some Congo Natty regulars, including vocalists Nanci Correia and Phoebe "Iron Dread" Hibbert, give the album a proper family feel, and with all these things in place, it's just natural to explain the album's worth with an old-school exclamation like "massive."

On Big Sur, Frisell delivers an inspired musical portrayal of the land, sky, sea, and wildlife of the region with majesty, humor, and true sophistication.

Ultimately, the golden age of dream pop and shoegaze lasted roughly ten years, a blink in the eye when it comes to pop music. However, for Swim Deep with Where in the Heaven Are We, it’s almost like it never ended.

Slow Focus delivers some of their most masterful and seemingly effortless music yet.

"Phoebe" is a modified bluegrass stomp and "Sunshine" comes streaming in on breezy harmonies, while "Rock All Night" and "Watch Your Step" are anchored in roots rock, but Amelita is, at its heart, an adult pop album and it's a gorgeous one at that: it glides by easily but it digs deep.

Bareilles is such a naturally melodic songwriter that she doesn't run much of a risk of seeming insular on The Blessed Unrest and, fortunately, the feel of the album follows the contours of her melodies, so its melancholy is warm and inviting.

Despite the part-compilation/part-extras makeup, this is one of the year's more enjoyable debuts.

The Argument never seems like work, as Hart is thoroughly engaged, delivering songs that work on their own terms but purposefully add up to an intriguing, tantalizing enigma.

Bitchin' Bajas sound completely removed from the side-project stigma on these four lengthy tracks, presenting languid, textural explorations with too much focus and intensity to appear incidental or secondary.

Throughout it all, his rich, lived-in baritone, which can go from a funereal dirge to a supernatural caterwaul in a matter of seconds, delivers the goods like the world's most demented herald, but even at his most fevered, he remains such an engaging figure, that it's nearly impossible to look away from the scene of the crime, even as the blood begins pooling around the listeners' feet.

Between these two sets, fans get a chance to explore the many facets of High on Fire's sound, and no matter which side of the coin you might fall on, the Spitting Fire Live series has something for you.

It was written, performed, cut, and mixed with great care, and as such delivers Arthur's creative vision with abundant emotional power.

With this album, the Octopus Project sound as jubilant and ecstatic as peers like Deerhoof or Dirty Projectors and channel the same optimism and weird charm as the Flaming Lips, while pushing their own unique sound into warmer, more accessible places than expected.

The album's a cathartic self-study, executed without drama, during a time of major personal upheaval, and it will truly resonate with anyone who's ever found themselves at the end of a relationship.

With their ever-expanding arsenal of masterfully crafted musical traditions, they prove once more to refuse to be anything less than what they are: one of the most explorative and inexhaustibly creative bands on the planet.

The album is great, in particular Shaw's uncannily Misfits-evoking performances. It's a testament to the verve of Hunx & His Punx that whatever form their muse takes, they fearlessly follow it and are even able to communicate a core of their own sonic personalities when doing so.

Tiden may be listened to passively and with great enjoyment, but to do so would be to miss its sense of invention and adventure.

While this isn't a giant leap forward or a stunning diversion from previous releases, Hood's on a roll and it's hard not to welcome the usual power and polish

While the album might not reach the heights and depths of True Widow's previous effort, it's a fantastic album in its own right that finds the band tweaking a proven formula rather than just sitting back and making the same album again and again.

You'd have to look hard to find another band making dark and noisy pop as sonically engaging and emotionally satisfying as Weekend do on Jinx.

Uunderneath that blustering, the group manage to ease back and act their age, and that detached cool exterior is why The Sun Comes Out Tonight is the most satisfying latter-day album this group has yet made.

The album flows by with the scrapbooked flair of an intricately constructed sound collage, but one whose loose ends and experimental moments are firmly rooted in Krautpop rhythms.

Nothing Can Stop Us is a triumph for the backing band, but Campbell's number has been due for years, and now that it's been pulled, it's time to wake the town and tell the people.