It might not be the full-length follow-up to You Are All I See that Active Child fans are waiting for, but brevity aside, the high quality of the songs on Rapor more than fulfills on Grossi's promise.

The songs depict a torrid breakup, and she has restless yet tightly controlled electronic backdrops that suit her mood. Whether she merely had to get this out of her system or has found her true voice, it's one transfixing emotional hell of a follow-up.

With Burials, Havok and AFI don't just bury the castle of wrecked relationships, they put to rest any notions that they aren't kings of their dystopian rock kingdom.

Everything seems to be malfunctioning on the album, and yet, Rashad loves the genres he borrows from so much, he can't ignore the solid grip of acid house ("Acid Bit") or the sweet slide of R&B ("She a Go"). These sparking satellites all remain in their respective groove's orbit, making Double Cup footwork's most sensible and revisit-worthy album to date.

Though Funk's main gig with the Decemberists might seem to be about as far from Red Fang as you're likely to get, the producer's penchant for intricacy helps to lend the album a certain depth, channeling the band's inclination toward brute force into something altogether more expansive while still keeping the grittiness of their sound intact.

Wed 21 progresses from her previous recordings, but it's an extension of them, not a departure.

A classically trained ivory tickler, Krug's compositional style is as esoteric as his prose, lending an unpredictable musicality to the proceedings that allows the listener to forget that they’re essentially listening in on a very intimate solo performance.

Regardless of the musical ingredients that went into this album, Corsicana Lemonade is their most down-home batch of sweet southern brew yet.

Though it blisters with intensity, it boasts well-written songs illustrated by canny production, played with confident recklessness and vulnerable honesty.

The most shocking thing about the album is how consistently good it is.

Semi-decent, rainy Sunday morning records are a dime a dozen, but when they connect, it's like a Bloody Mary-bruised brunch with your best friends, and Lily & Madeleine Jurkiewicz have crafted a moody gem, and one of the most achingly comforting albums of 2013.

Get There is as pleasurable as anything Hatfield or Nada Surf have offered listeners in recent years.

While it's true that it possesses fewer standout performances, it's wholly consistent, and on some level, it's braver for relying on original material to carry it. It requires more listening to appreciate fully. Taken as a whole, however, it serves and fulfills the role of a sequel: the album deepens the band's music-making aesthetic, and further establishes their sound not only as a signature, but even, perhaps, as its own genre.

While the creative process might be something that's constantly changing for Lott and Son Lux, the one thing that's remained consistent is the level of quality, making Lanterns an album that easily lives up to, and even exceeds, any expectations fans would have for the project.

Guthrie truly believed that songs should be of social service, and when the country asked for his songs, he brought them, as any patriot would. That dozens of these songs are enduring, beautiful, and wise makes Guthrie even more than that. It makes him an American treasure.

To be fair, the band still sounds like they could break into "Breathe" at any moment, but there's a sense of adventure and a vulnerability to Antiphon that suggests that this latest incarnation of the group is more interested in what's beyond the Dark Side of the Moon than it is standing in its shadow.

Track for track, Swamps just might be Widowspeak's most consistent work yet.

They make everything work, really, and Inventions ends up being one of the better garage psych revival records anyone's likely to hear in 2013.

An album that's only predictable insofar as you know it's going to attempt to take you on a vicious, 30-minute hell ride through some of the darkest parts of the metal world.

Much of it is among Autechre's most direct, least complex output, yet it's no less fascinating than any of their intricate material.

Cut Copy may have left behind the monochromatic brilliance of their early work, but the explosion of colors they've added like Jackson Pollock on a bender has only made their growth more interesting and enriching.

Funny thing is, most of the best moments on MM LP2 are just as angry, and just as irresponsible, but like "Closet," this is the tortured soul and self-reliance ninja known as Eminem at his very best.

The Coincidentalist is one of Gelb's most realized efforts; despite its relaxed, airy presentation, it's musically and lyrically provocative, as poetic, strange, and mysterious as the desert itself.

Guest shots from Paloma Faith, Emeli Sandé, Dizzee Rascal, and others make this one crowded album, but figuring out what to drop is nearly impossible as everyone hits the mark.

Surfing Strange is a picture of a band not in transition, but in an especially quick process of maturation. The results end up being no less instantly exciting, but more lasting and poignant than what came before.

The appropriately titled Tender Madness, more or less backs that notion [go big or go home] up with 12 emotionally charged slabs of Foster the People- and Killers-infused highway anthems, of both the fist-pumping and soul-searching varieties, that flirt with mainstream architecture yet retain enough of a ramshackle, post-slacker luster to appeal to fans of Weiss' previous outfit.

The result is terrific, a record that builds upon the group's legacy and is easily the equal of anything the band did in the '90s.

The soulfulness and melancholy of these songs make them special among Tellier's body of work, giving more depth to Confection than might be expected.