What's startling about Sea Change is how it brings everything that's run beneath the surface of Beck's music to the forefront, as he's unafraid to not just reveal emotions, but to elliptically examine them in this wonderfully melancholy song cycle.

The band's tendency to start a song quiet, loose, and lovely and then slowly sweat it into a faster, intensified crescendo is familiar by now, but somehow remains vividly evocative.

The Starlight Mints weren't excessively ambitious in the studio and the coolness of Built on Squares makes for a pleasant listen while capturing a band in the making.

The material is stellar.

loss. Didn't He Ramble shows that as a performer and a songwriter, Hansard can create powerful and satisfying work that's up to the standard he set with the Frames, and this is a step up from 2012's impressive but uneven Rhythm and Repose.

Without diminishing her legacy as the mainstream bounce ambassador to the world, this gospel turn ends up being the most meaningful and powerful album of her career to date.

Older Than My Old Man Now contains some excellent work when Wainwright's not putting on false bravado or bullshitting, but ultimately, this is for his hardcore fans rather than casual ones.

When "Nox Lumina" closes the album by bringing it full circle, it reaffirms that Lux Prima is the sophisticated, sonically adventurous album Karen O deserves to make at this point in her career.

Liars wanders wherever it wants to, touching on noise, prog, hard rock, punk, industrial and other styles the band has flirted with in the past, as well as a few uncharted ones.... In a lesser band's hands, this kaleidoscopic approach could be a muddled mess, but it makes for Liars' most entertaining album yet.

Even if The Magic doesn't always hold together, it still delivers moments of pure anarchic fun.

Maybe she's lost her appetite to be a weird provocateur, but she has learned how to sharpen and stylize her attack, and that focus makes Chromatica one of her most consistent and satisfying albums.

Sol Invictus is their best and most compelling work since Angel Dust, and the rare reunion album that truly adds to the strength of the group's legacy rather than diluting it.

It is by its nature something quite other, that is at once strange and almost unspeakably beautiful.

The resulting I Am Very Far, which was produced by Sheff, feels both transitory and triumphant, successfully integrating the Austin, Texas-based collective's penchant for lovelorn, indie Americana with the wild abandon of 21st century pop music's increasingly blurry genre borders.

Warm and enveloping, it offers immediate comfort, easing the listener into a world so textured and reassuring it invites the kind of revisits that will let the songs unlock their internal logic at their own speed.

An Inbuilt Fault's subtlety will reward patient listeners, as repeat listens reveal more of its emotions and sonic detail.

All That You Can't Leave Behind is a rock record from a band that absorbed all the elastic experimentation, studio trickery, dance flirtations, and genre bending of Achtung, Zooropa, and Pop -- all they've shed is the irony. U2 also chooses not to delve as darkly personal as they did on Achtung or Zooropa, yet they also avoid the alienating archness of Pop, choosing to return to the generous spirit that flowed through their best '80s records.

As ephemeral and powerful as a crush, Nothing's Real marks Shura as the kind of smart pop star the 2010s need.

Even if it's not their best ever, it's a valid comeback that should appease longing fans.

House of Woo is more of the same, providing soundtracks for chillout rooms where the minds are satisfied and no one can even remember the definition of the word "dour."

Daze is an astounding leap forward, harnessing an overwhelming amount of energy and transforming it into an arsenal of sonic warfare. The album also feels like it's the beginning of what could become a lengthy saga, with many additional battles to come.

Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus depart completely from 2-step and late-'90s Timbaland twitter, polishing their sound to such an extent that absolutely no detectable scuffs are left.

In its own way, Inherent Vice is as subtly and carefully crafted as Greenwood's other scores for Anderson's films, but its wit and heart make it special in its own right.

It's a Myth is a stripped-down indie rock/hip-hop hybrid that says plenty and makes its own cool, low-key fun at the same time.

The glimmers of brilliance captured on Sky Blue are just as equally dazzling and devastating as van Zandt's story and the rest of the masterful catalog he left behind.

It's hard to see why most of this album exists beyond letting Ashworth explore and recreate two kinds of music she obviously loves to distraction. Whether anyone should follow along on her quest is up to their tolerance for sift rock platitudes and hard rock cliches.

Even after ten years of navigating the new millennium's punk-emo scene, Motion City Soundtrack sound positively hungry. My Dinosaur Life is a sugar rush without the crash at the end, just the insatiable need to hear it all again.

Lane's songs and delivery are strong throughout All or Nothin'; they're more polished and crafted than those on Walk of Shame.