At 70 minutes, Renewal runs a bit long but its momentum never ceases and the extra space allows for Strings and his supple, intuitive band to push at the boundaries of where traditional and progressive bluegrass meet.

Songs of a Lost World isn't just an album of unlikely listenability, though. It's a new chaper late-in-the-game so unexpectedly powerful that it's nothing short of stunning, and just as unexpectedly, it ranks among the band's best work.

The charm of this edition is that the unreleased material is considerably looser than the finished album.

Russell's story would be compelling enough on its own, but she also happens to be an engaging and unpredictable artist able to translate her vision effectively. The Returner is a very confident second record.

This handsomely packaged box offers stellar sound across four discs. The sound on the final two suffers a bit as Carter's playing is sometimes difficult, though not impossible to hear: It's a minor, fleeting irritation.

The songs may remain the same but the performances are vibrant and alive. For the serious Dylanphile, that's reason enough to acquire this hefty box.

The set is both familiar and fresh-sounding at once.

Despite the understated and lo-fi nature of the recording, Evenings at the Village Gate is a testament to their profound artistry and creative synergy.

The album doesn't seek any big answers to make sense of a pointless death, but profoundly chronicles Saba's jagged path through the heartache as life continues.

[Guthrie's] story is presented here in this wonderful set.

Biokinetics is a stunning summation of the Basic Channel aesthetic.

It doesn't aim to reproduce the ebb and flow of his usual concert experience, instead aiming for an all-killer, no-filler experience, and it leaves no doubt why the audience got so caught up in this music.

What sets Start Walkin' 1965-1976 apart from earlier comps from Rhino and Raven is that it's not strictly a hits collection. ... Instead, Start Walkin' 1965-1976 focuses on the stranger numbers within Sinatra's catalog -- hazy, symphonic psych-pop written and produced by Hazlewood. ... They help make for a convincing portrait of Nancy Sinatra as an idiosyncratic artist happily working within the confines of L.A.'s lushest studios.

Released to coincide with the albums' 40th anniversary and lovingly encased in a gnarly black biker jacket box, the vinyl-only collection includes half-speed mastered 180-gram vinyl reissues of Bomber and Overkill, a pair of double-live LPs featuring previously unreleased material from the era, a collection of B-sides and outtakes, a 40-page magazine, an Overkill sheet music book, a "No Class" 7" single, a Bomber tour program, and a 1979 badge set.

Though it's a shame that their 1990 reunion album Chain isn't acknowledged, Pylon Box is an otherwise near-flawless summation of a great and unique band, and it's absolutely worth every penny of its purchase price.

There were plenty of other great British bands of the '90s but none of their peers--Oasis, Suede, Pulp, Radiohead--covered as much stylistic ground or wound up with a catalog as rich as this ridiculously generous box set handily proves.

It's hard to call any of the unheard material a surprise, yet these demos, abandoned ideas, and working mixes help to add a dimension and perspective to Blondie's basic canon. Those original albums and, especially, the big hits are so familiar that they can seem set in stone, but when they're paired with these raw, unheard recordings, the group's nervy, arty spirit is resurrected, so it's possible to once again understand what made Blondie such a striking, special band at their peak.

The cathartic and wounded moments here resonate in a manner matched by few, if any, of Beyoncé's contemporaries. She sometimes eclipses herself in terms of raw emotion, as on the throttling Jack White encounter "Don't Hurt Yourself." At the low-volume end, there's more power in the few seconds she chokes back tears while singing "Come back"--timed with the backing vocal in Isaac Hayes' version of "Walk on By"--than there is in most contemporary ballads.

These performances mark the apotheosis of a creative journey that began at Newport two decades earlier.

The band seems to play as a single multi-armed unit, and yet Wood's tortured voice is at the very center of their palette. Black Country made a strong impression on their debut, but things become much more interesting with Ants from Up There.

The distance between Diamond Dogs and Station to Station is vast, and the addition of the live albums accentuates how deeply he cared for strong, deeply etched funk to offset his art. Listening to all this music in a concentrated blast, such progression is a wonder to behold.

If the first volume of the Joni Mitchell Archives tracked the development of an artist finding her voice, Volume 2 illuminates the creative process from a time when that voice was reaching its zenith.

This is revolution music; worthy of dancing to, learning from, and singing along with: who says topical music has to be boring?

Many bands go through their entire career without making an album as well crafted, fully realized, and downright gorgeous as Sunbather, and somehow, Deafheaven have managed to nail it on their second outing, with an album that seems to get bigger and more affective with each listen.

Hard Luck Stories is evidence Richard & Linda Thompson's union was more than worthwhile. However things ended, they created something truly special, and this is as consistently excellent and rewarding as any box set of the past decade.

Blood Incantation belong to the class of bands such as Gorguts, Demilich, and Sigh who push extreme metal far beyond its conventions, and Absolute Elsewhere is a towering achievement which exceeds all expectations.

Both vital and respective of the listener's time at just under 35 minutes, Glow On rolls in like a violent, late-summer storm and pummels the power grid but mercifully leaves the lights on.

All this extra material may not carry the same deliberate weight as so much of Brighten the Corners, but it enhances the album considerably, bringing it closer to an album that can stand with Pavement's first three classics.