Collingwood does a good job here of separating Look Park from his work with Adam Schlesinger in a way that will likely bring along a lot of existing fans, and with material strong enough to make it hard to pick standouts.

It's not pop, and you can't really sing along to most of it, but it is exciting and sometimes even thrilling music that's spilling over with ideas and real-deal emotions.

Day to Day is dazzling. It leads the listener outside standard jazz/world fusion tropes to ask new questions about musical and cultural origins, traditions, and lineage and it does so with grooves and mystery intact.

Luxury Alone is a rare blend of vulnerability and beauty that puts Weird Dreams on a new level.

The slower stuff often turns sticky--but the group wears their heart on the sleeve and, somehow, that tendency is more endearing as the Maddens turn into middle age warriors.

Compared to the floating ambition of Emotion & Commotion, this album feels invigorating and suggests how Beck doesn't want to rest on his laurels, even if he's not fully committed to embrace the turmoil of the present.

Call it based, cloud rap, or crumble core, but whatever the subgenre, Clams Casino's vanguard style now comes in a near-perfect package dubbed 32 Levels.

Cistern doesn't play out like a sequel [to Composed], but fans of that album may well find themselves still drawn to the musician's particular spark.

The truth is that Ellipsis is a pleasingly efficient album that never sounds incomplete or labored. If anything, Biffy Clyro have discovered new ways to boil down their more complex thoughts and emotions into snarling, meaty pop slogans.

With this release, Kiwanuka has delivered a dark, graceful, and affecting artistic statement that is worth the patience it takes to experience it.

There's a lot to take in, but Inter Arma are one of the few bands who could deliver a work of such punishing excess, expansive musicality, and devastating beauty.

Its sturdy set should also prove a worthwhile find for those interested in offshoots of math rock, or a kind of controlled virtuosity suited for rainy-day instrument workouts.

This wonderfully demonstrates Jackmaster's flair for surprising selections while keeping the mix focused on moving the crowd.

Credit Broyles' mastery with six strings and a reverb pedal or Frobos' snarky, keening vocals. Give Mitchell a hand for pushing the songs forward with just the right balance of muscle and restraint. Most of all, just be glad these guys all quit their musical day jobs and formed Omni, because they made one heck of a good post-punk-pop album together.

As pop has become more eclectic, so has Murphy; even if it takes a little more effort to follow her on Monto, the results are worth it.

The album was co-produced by the band and Grammy winner Graham Marsh, who's engineered for the likes of Bruno Mars and Cee Lo Green, and they draw focus to the group's star vocalist without skimping on rhythm and atmosphere. That atmosphere is light reverb, heartache, summer vacation, nostalgia, and Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

Black Bubblegum isn't the type of sprawling, messy platter of rhythmic noise that one might expect from Copeland, but it's still wacky in its own way.

What makes Young in All the Wrong Ways resonate is how it touches upon her bluegrass and folk roots while feeling entirely different: the work of a musician who is integrating the whole of her influences into an idiosyncratic voice.

Turning moments into music is the next best thing, and something that Mount excelled at in the years after Nights Out as he became a more eclectic, emotive artist. Summer 08's exuberance and sophistication are a testament to those skills, as well as to music's power to define and evoke a period in time--and one of Metronomy's most enjoyable albums yet.

Lines aimed at authority, competition, and bottom feeders all shoot clean through.

They stay true to the genre's penchant for loud/quiet/loud posturing, on-the-nose emotional cues, and strategically placed breakdowns throughout, but they do so while flexing some significant creative muscle.

f this album is slightly less thrilling than Mourn, it's also more consistent, reflecting the mix of discovery and growth most people experience as they leave their teens. On Ha, Ha, He., Mourn do a little of the former, and a lot of the latter.

Mixing humor with pointed social satire, Rest in Chaos finds Snider and his group tackling both darker moods and high-spirited rock.

Everything sounds so precise, crisp, hard-hitting, and indomitable. For that exact reason, Bottomless Pit is an ideal effort for longtime fans and newcomers alike. Needless to say, whatever the type of listener, it won't be forgotten.

Lyrical prowess is never in doubt, and neither is the idea that the MC is an acquired taste, but this wordy, extroverted, and capricious effort is an alive whirlwind with more pride than usual. That last bit makes it one of the most persuasive Aesop efforts to date.

The record is so personal that the only one able to understand every layer is Hynes himself. As a result, Freetown Sound can come across as weighty, indecipherable chaos to some. But for anyone who can relate to him on some level, it's hard not to be in awe of a man as complicated as Devonté Hynes being able to compose such an insightful, personal experience.

The band's devotion to unadulterated sonic malevolence remains unchanged. They know that the darkest corners of the human psyche have deep closets, and they would like to show you what's in them.

With just the right mix of nostalgia and looking forward to what's next, Hot Hot Heat puts a neat bow on the band's career.