Haunting and expertly crafted, Playground in a Lake takes its place alongside Bibio's Phantom Brickworks and Loscil's Monument Builders as a beautifully destroyed sonic environment that provokes a powerful emotional response.

Re-emerging after a nine-year gap, their fifth album, For the Sake of Bethel Woods, retains some of the progressive experimentation of its predecessor without losing sight of its sturdy core of songs. In producer John Congleton, Midlake has found a worthy foil and he helps imbue highlights like the gorgeous "Feast of Carrion" and "Meanwhile…" with a sense of elegance and mystique.

Ironically, these individual pieces don’t add up to an overall masterpiece, possibly because the narrative is convoluted and strained, getting in the way of the pure musical flow, but also because it’s hard not to shake the feeling that this is a transitional effort, pointing toward a day when Damon Albarn will feel no need to front a band, not even in a cartoon guise.

Perkins avoids reveling in depression and instead follows the route that other singer/songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, and Bob Dylan have put down before him, telling detail-driven stories of people and life.

Whether or not Flesh Tone remains a stylistic outlier, the disc will always be a bright standout in Kelis' discography.

Sometimes a willingness to toss off responsibility once in a while is a sure sign of maturity, and if you want to hear a golden example of this thinking in action, the Old 97's have one for you with Most Messed Up.

On Everybody Split, Possible Humans explore all of their music's possibilities; even if they don't always coalesce, the band's embrace of the unexpected makes for some fascinating listening.

Physical Thrills lives up to the title, delivering one of the band's best statements to date.

Most of the album carries a definite rhythmic punch, a weight that's evident even in softer numbers like "The Ocean and the Butterfly" and "Monsters." A similar sense of gravel has carried over to Matthews' voice, an evolution that softens and deepens his phrasing eccentricities, another element of earthiness that gives Walk Around the Moon a sense of weight and immediacy that's rare in the Dave Matthews Band catalog.

While A Thing Called Divine Fits might be a shade less eclectic than Boeckner, Brown, and Daniel's other projects, it's hard to find fault when the results are this consistently catchy.

This is the album where Hinds become a great band. They've got the songs, they've got the attitude, and they've got the sound; all their potential has been realized and it's a joy to experience.

Apart from the foggy, piano-driven beatless interlude "Lido," the tracks pretty much remain in Bicep's familiar club-tooled mode, and while it can seem a bit formulaic over the course of an album, their consistency largely works to their benefit, and Isles sports several undeniable highlights.

At its core, Krule is showing all sides of his U.K. environment, and the multiple genres laced into the sparse backdrop are held together by an overlying somber grey fog. Peel that back and you have one of the most vital debuts of the year.

If Mockingbird Time was a reminder of how well Olson and Louris compliment one another, this album demonstrates that Louris still knows how to make a memorable album as the group's sole leader.

He's mined this territory before, notably in Gorillaz's Demon Days, yet the very fact that the Good, The Bad & The Queen function as a band, drawing strength from their own interplay, gives Merrie Land a human resonance that echoes long after the final song ends.

There's nothing small or careful about Fantasies--it's a full-on bid for pop glory and it's a smashing success.

Although not as strong or as memorable as his first effort, this album will grow on the listener, and its melodies and ideas are intriguing enough to merit repeat listens.

If this collection of alternate mixes and variations sounds like something you need to hear, it is; if it sounds like a mere curiosity, that is also true. Know yourself well enough to know which camp you belong.

Warm, weary, and congenially intimate, Joe Pernice, Stephen Desaulniers, Bruce Tull, and Tim Shea have crafted a fine new set of understated anthems for the terminally wistful and forlorn, all of which strut and fret their hour upon the stage in that elusive grey area between melancholic, bottle-strewn, front-porch country and resigned, Sunday afternoon, post-pot roast AM pop.

Ultimately, it's those romantic details sung with sincerity and a dash of infectious, female-empowered punky 'tude that make All the Ways You Let Me Down work.

Unguarded is a sophisticated debut, steeped in a chilly, if still insulated atmosphere that strongly evokes '80s-era Kate Bush.

A subtle yet quietly grandiose set of modern indie troubadour comfort food, the Nashville native's third studio long-player is both comforting and wistful, a warm summer's drive down a forgotten two-lane highway.

This music is as much fun to listen to as it is serious and vital.

Ultimately, with Still Life, Little Cub have managed to capture the '80s synth moment, bringing it to life with tactile, analog lyricism.

Once again, Self Defense Family have created a work that reveals itself entirely on its own terms, and though Have You Considered Punk Music is often evasive, it still manages to draw in the listener, and it's an experience that's well worth your time.

The songs are strong but the reason to listen to Bad Mouthin' is the performance, how White maintains his thick, heavy mood from beginning to end, always sounding compelling through the familiar changes.

Mercurial as it is in terms of stylistic influence and intensity, the album feels woven together by a modestly shifting shared palette, and lyrics full of yearning and awareness.

Her weightier songwriting and expansive production make A New Illusion the match of Stellular and something more rewarding on an emotional level.