This is vibrant, moody music that showcases a band growing ever stronger with each risk and dare they take.

Love in the Future is among Legend's best work, made for couples who are into one another for the long term while feeling a little daring and crazy.

Stitches' ten quietly lustrous tracks dutifully reflect the arid Southwest vistas from which they were sprung.

Schizophrenic as Glow can feel, its severity shows that Fourgeaud is one of the most interesting, futuristic-minded artists in the game.

Worth the three years it took to materialize, this is a strong, assured debut that shows Factory Floor can build on their influences in a way that feels fresh.

It's hard to tell if the album feels angrier and grittier than its predecessor, or if peeling off the layers of lo-fidelity actually reveal an artist more raw and without rules than we first perceived.

Lissie's strength is how she uses the past as foundation, not aspiration, and that's why Back to Forever is a lithe, unpredictable, and seductive collection of modern pop: it places equal emphasis on song and sound.

Thankfully, Grande has the chops to pull it off, and Yours Truly makes the most of her talent.

Equally as detailed and as entertaining as The ArchAndroid, The Electric Lady likewise is a product of overactive imaginations and detailed concept engineering, and it also plays out like a sci-fi opera-slash-variety program with style and era-hopping galore.

Made in California is most decidedly not for the casual fan. It is for the dedicated, the kind who knows the story by heart but wants to hear it told slightly differently.

It's all fresh and vigorous, very much in the present and built to last.

Dancing and dreaming at the same time is always lovely, and with Apar, Delorean have again provided a perfect soundtrack for just such a pursuit.

On Coming Apart, she comes into herself.

As a band, the Vigil is exciting as much for its potential as for the multifaceted talent the group members put on display here.

It's a joy to behold.

It’s Torrini's most insular yet assured collection of songs to date.

2 Chainz is still a punch-line rapper at heart, but B.O.A.T.S. II adds some Bootsy Collins charisma and ambitious ringleader style to his discography. Pick the sequel over the original and get ready for some stinky, dank, and fun me time.

Solid performances and a vision beyond the obvious equate to an album that makes more sense than it should and one that pulls immediate gratification out of unexpected places.

While the album feels daring all the way through, early tracks like "Alien Days" feel relatively straightforward, mining the ornate pop sound of their previous effort.

Joanna Gruesome make music that's at once breath-catchingly exciting and heartwarmingly pretty at its core, and their first album is one that noise pop fans will treasure, crummy name and all.

The combined effect of the sometimes tortured words and the gentle, never-conflicting currents of folk, anthemic rock, cinematic instrumentals, and mannered pop create a welcome impression of a group that acknowledges that they've entered a comfortable middle age but are happy to fight against complacency however they can.

There are many (too many?) bands in 2013 playing this kind of raucous garage rock, but thanks to the perfect production, the high-quality hookage in every song, and the nuanced yet powerful performance The Jacuzzi Boys deliver, there are precious few bands doing it better.

It's not exactly alienating but Wise Up Ghost does require work from its audience, and the more you know--and the more you listen--the better it seems.

There's a disarming emotional directness to The Bones of What You Believe that makes it a unique, fully realized take on a style that seemed close to being played out.

Album closer "Banganesiba" finds Tal National climbing to the summit of their collective powers, the song encapsulating all the mesmerizing guitar patterns, blinding polyrhythms, and joyous, celebratory currents of the rest of the album as a whole.

In minor contrast to the band's previous effort, the moments of pared-down instrumentation here seem to offer a necessary respite from the intensity, providing necessary moments of calm as we anticipate the next joyous sonic wave.

Spreading Rumours features a set of supremely catchy songs that walk the line between the Flaming Lips' bubbly psych rock and Smashing Pumpkins' '90s alt crunch.

For those who've longed for the return of his immediate, loose, warm, live recordings, Live at the Great American Music Hall is where it's at.