EarthEE may not have the direct, off-the-cuff quality of AwE NaturalE, but its all-around richness is incontestable.

Citizen Zombie sidesteps the pitfalls of having to live up to former glories by disregarding them altogether and reaching instead for new, weird heights.

For longtime fans, Volume Two: 1987-1989 is an impressive and well-assembled study of one of this band's more interesting periods, and if you're looking for a way into Half Japanese's catalog, this a good place to start despite the heft of this collection.

Mono is the work of a band just smart enough that sometimes the body is just as important as the frontal lobes. The Mavericks understand how to satisfy both, and Mono is an album that will keep you dancing to its beats and smiling to its wit and romance 'til the break of dawn.

Taken as a whole, The Republic is a heady yet enjoyable collection of electronic sounds that retains the graceful beauty Prekop has breathed into all of his creations, just with a slightly different approach.

As a whole, Live at a Flamingo Hotel is unlikely to attract too many new fans. It's a solid and spirited live album, but hardcore devotees are already well aware of the band's prowess on stage and they'll be the ones who benefit the most from this release.

Screaming Females have gone out of their way to show they have other tricks at their disposal, and Rose Mountain is one of their most accomplished and satisfying efforts to date.

It moves deliberately, never rushing and rarely rocking, preferring to find pleasure in majesty instead of hedonism.

Artistically, three is the charm for Big Sean as Dark Sky Paradise is much more expansive than previous efforts, sometimes grinding with executive producer Kanye West's love of the dark, and other times bouncing with the snark, swagger, and style that propelled this Detroit rapper to the top.

The man who cut Complicated Game is the more mature McMurtry has figured out how to deliver the fine songs he writes and get their qualities on tape.

Let the Good Times Roll is definitely the second coming of the rock & roll savior that fans prayed would follow Signs & Signifiers. And as the title implies, it's also one hell of a good time.

Certainly, the ambition remains, along with the hunger to remain on the bleeding edge, but she's allowing her past to mingle with her present, allowing her to seem human yet somewhat grander at the same time.

The combination of the raw, tempestuous styles, Barnes' own capricious musical tendencies, and the regrettable subject matter of Aureate Gloom has Of Montreal at its rockiest and most intense.

Another Eternity remains true to what makes Purity Ring special by refining it, and proves that they can challenge themselves and deliver their most accessible work yet.

Waxing Romantic is an impressive blend of top-notch songwriting, inventive production, and strong performances, the kind that vaults Bretzer to the same lofty heights of his influences.

After an album, 2012's Circles, where it seemed like the duo may have been running short on ideas, adding Jeffrey on drums and shaking up the working arrangements have helped to make Shadow a sterling return to form that gives their best album, 2001's Mazes, a run for its money.

Add the devastating title cut plus more memorable melodies than usual, and Shedding Skin might be the Ghostpoet album to begin with for those who prefer something a bit traditional, but with three excellent efforts from the get-go, the point isn't where to start, but to start, because the rewards are consistent and plentiful.

Even at high volume and off-the-charts speeds, Quarterbacks' main attribute is the wistful beauty that defines Engle's lyrics and attaches itself to the smartly composed tunes.

Ultimately, this short EP is an extension of Cheatahs' ambition as they seek to establish themselves as a musical force in their own right.

Throughout the album, Vessels' different approaches flow so naturally that they feel effortless, arriving at an impressive blend of passion and precision.

After is a minor triumph that makes it clear Lady Lamb is going to be around for a while, and may give you new hope for those kids making arty noise in their basement down the block.

It is aesthetically attractive while being emotionally and intellectually resonant; pop music can hope for no more.

Even the contrasting consecutive picks--like Darkstar's glistening, skyward "Hold Me Down" and Holy Other's dragging, alien "Yr Love"--are compatible, their transitions made with ease. The majority of the mix is beatless and becalmed with periodic surges in energy that never startle.

It's exactly what a second album should be, and it's rare that any band delivers as well as Evans the Death do here.

Subtle, compellingly human, and bittersweet, this is easily Landry's best work.

Never short on material for various low-profile releases, the jams on Wild Strawberries are more considered and inspired than any of Eternal Tapestry's previous work, and present the most cohesive picture of their long, strange progression.

With The Velvet Trail, Braide, with his consummate skill and sensitive brilliance combines Almond's theatrical and lyric personas with the emotional honesty in the grain of his voice. As a result, his lyric creativity, at once direct, defiant, vulnerable, and deliberately excessive, is out of the mothballs and back out where it belongs: front and center.

The very hooky, liltingly pretty "Nothing Lasts" shows that Echo Lake would be pretty great if they dropped all the aspirations of epicness and just made simple little pop songs instead. They do reach for the stars on Era, however, and they end up shining just like the brightest of them.