The eclectic set is built around the concept of a convergence of multiple realities administered by a mystical jukebox.

One of his more satisfying solo albums.

In almost every way, Sees the Light is an impressive leap forward for Goodman that shows she's more than ready to make La Sera her full-time musical outlet.

Hymnal's serene beauty may make it his most sublime music yet.

It's hardly fair to wish hard times on songwriters just so their work might sound more real and meaningful, but if they have to suffer, one can at least hope that they are able to turn it into the kind of revelatory art that Lerche has on Please.

Though darker than her previous albums, Undercurrent is also more resilient. Jarosz reaches through her musical and personal histories with vulnerability and willingness. She comes out on the other side with songs that possess narrative savvy, melodic invention, and a refreshing sense of self-assuredness.

[A] cleverly devised and skillfully performed album that's pleasingly nostalgic, happily (for the most part) danceable, and best of all perhaps, represents a return to form after their ill-advised foray into radio-ready modern pop.

A major disappointment to say the least, Pretty in Black is such an indifferent and transparent record that it makes one reconsider the quality of the album that preceded it.

The singer and songwriter's second album similarly displays different approaches that skillfully build off and depart from the previous release.

Darnielle can sometimes be too clever, loading in more than a song can bear, but he keeps that tendency in check for the most part on Heretic Pride, and the result is a wonderfully accessible and varied album that hits all the right buttons at all the right times.

Daft Punk are such stellar, meticulous producers that they make any sound work, even superficially dated ones like spastic early-'80s electro/R&B ("Short Circuit") or faux-orchestral synthesizer baroque ("Veridis Quo").

This is a modern classical work that, while haunting and beautiful, bears the enduring weight of witness to the madness of a war that was to end all wars yet, as catastrophic and senseless as this shared massacre was, the long shadow of its historical implications remain.

Tweet has lost nothing vocally while gaining a decade's worth of wisdom. As ever, she exudes euphoria, longing, and irritation with the slightest of adjustments, and remains one of the best soft-voiced, low-volume singers around.

Another gorgeous album.

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

Other artists may be bigger than Shakira while others may make more fully realized albums, but as of 2005, no other pop artist attempts as much and achieves as much as Shakira, as this often enthralling album proves.

On Again into Eyes, they take listeners down a fairly well-traveled musical road, but it's still an enjoyable journey.

Three albums in and Lemuria are starting to explore past the point where their heroes left off, and while it's not quite uncharted territory, it's certainly moving in the right direction.

If "back-to-basics" sounds like your ideal Foo Fighters mode, then Your Favorite Toy is one of their best to date.

Where the latter two releases felt like "Hail Marys" tossed into the musical ether, Ocean serves as a return to the kind of sharp-tongued, Beatlesque retro-pop that fueled 2005's "Novelist/Walking Without Effort" and the aforementioned "Letdown."

An addictive, densely packed pop gem that ranks among 2002's best albums.

No hooks, no lyrical drama, no surprises, nothing at all inside the pretty package.

A soft and amiable album that frames Jones' "soft-focus Aretha Franklin" voice with a group of songs that are as classy as they are quiet.

Ikara Colt creates an edgy, electronic/punk-inspired sound with Chat and Business, and the end result is impressively slick.

Clem Snide has crafted another gem.

Though they may be more focused, Enon will never be straightforward, but that's one of the band's, and album's, strengths.

Deftones sticks a little too close to familiar territory this time around.

Thirteenth Step is the sound of a musical and lyrical maturity that normally doesn't occur until a band's third or fourth albums.