It's in Mended With Gold's second half that the band feels the most engaged.

Somehow at once entertaining, comforting, and challenging, Lily-O sees Amidon again pushing his distinctive perspectives through songs that belong to everybody.

It's a welcome return for Car that shows how fun and powerful his music is when it's focused and direct.

His musical language has evolved into a sound that is not only ambitious, but instantly recognizable.

Peaking Lights simply push for greater clarity and articulation on Cosmic Logic, refining their approach but keeping the blurry balance of rhythm and sun-dazed psychedelia.

All this means that Playland is superficially more pop with all its style and flair, but it plays more like a rock & roll album, always in a hurry to make its point understood as quickly as possible.

As with the self-titled album, this is all glacial, entrancing ambient-neoclassical--with O'Halloran's sensitive and melodic piano a central element--that soothes, suitable for both foreground and background listening.

They're all laced with small details, subtle twists, and gradual intensification.

A World Lit Only by Fire makes it crystal clear that Godflesh have a long, unfailing memory, and that their punishing work has only just begun.

Morris is lucky to have such a sympathetic group of musicians to play with, and the well-produced combo of words, vocals, and music make We Come from the Same Place another treat for fans of thoughtful, painfully adult indie pop music.

Thought-provoking, sonically dazzling, and sometimes bewildering, Let's Dance Raw is a lot to process, but it feels like a wish for honesty and intimacy in a world bent on destroying itself.

Rips mixes simple pleasures and complicated ones into a completely life-affirming debut.

Even if The Night Is Young could have been improved by better editing, it's still a welcome return from one of dance's most endearing acts.

While it might be counterproductive if Field Report were to shrink past a quartet, the streamlined approach of Marigolden is a superb example of how less can truly be more.

Quite possibly We Were Promised Jetpacks' most vivid album to date, Unravelling finds the band making music that's harder to place than ever--and that much more interesting for it.

The album is at its most gut-wrenching when it puts the humanity behind its creation on display.

As defined here, Soused accurately means "drenched" in sound. Walker's and Sunn 0)))'s individual identities, while always on full display, are brought jaggedly and thunderously together in an enthralling recording that equals the sum of its mighty parts.

Give My Love to London is as complete a portrait of the artist--at least from the late '70s on--as we've ever had. In total, it reveals no abatement in her creative renaissance.

Shame he's keeping a twice-a-decade pace, but this album should stick to the bones for twice that long, likely longer.

I've Been to Many Places sounds like the record Shipp had to make for his own edification, one that chronicles his expansive, fearless push toward the spirit of the unknown with purpose, one that deepens and widens the already expansive reach of his language.

However they dress up their music, it remains easy to connect with and this album proves it.

Righteous anger, razor-sharp songs, and killer music is a trifecta few punk bands can claim on their first album, but Single Mothers hit the jackpot on Negative Qualities, and if this doesn't turn out to be the best punk debut of 2014, then the music has been having a truly great year.

The Carpets have also crafted a set of songs as strong as any of the records they released in the '90s, which means this is a surprisingly effective comeback.

All in all, Hungry Ghosts is another solid album from one of pop's most versatile and charming bands.

Indian Ocean is sad, sweet, and warm as an August afternoon, and while its charms may feel old-fashioned and better suited to vinyl, the hardships it details are undeniably contemporary, and their conclusions oddly comforting.

Listening to the album, it's clear that even though Slipknot aren't over the loss of a dear friend and colleague, they're able to channel their grief into a productive album, allowing them to continue moving forward while paying tribute to a fallen comrade with one of the strongest albums of their career.

Bright, big, and Pharrellian, Paperwork still finds T.I. at the center of its well-funded variety show, allowing him to bounce back to his streety Trouble Man persona after schooling all the Iggy's and Macklemore's in such vital uptown slick.

What makes a difference here is the general lightness of his new songs and Was and Lee's sympathetic production; the two play off each other perfectly, turning this into the first latter-day Diamond record to feel quintessentially Neil Diamond.