Even though The Paradigm Shift might not be the album that listeners might expect after a reunion with Head, it shows the kind of creativity and inventiveness that, love them or hate them, helped to make them an influential force in heavy music.

These songs are fun, energetic, and full of backcountry outlaw attitude.

There are things that don't work here: there are stilted, wooden arrangements that mar "I'm Am Not Waiting Anymore" with Sam Amidon, and Vernon's duet with Carter on Bob Dylan's "Every Grain of Sand." Otherwise, I'll Find a Way is a fine, if uncharacteristically restrained, Blind Boys of Alabama recording.

Guilt Trips is a soft, serene, and inspired debut.

Though Funk's main gig with the Decemberists might seem to be about as far from Red Fang as you're likely to get, the producer's penchant for intricacy helps to lend the album a certain depth, channeling the band's inclination toward brute force into something altogether more expansive while still keeping the grittiness of their sound intact.

There is no doubt that Scattergood is deeply connected to the journey that she voyages through on Arrows, and it's clear that only a small future refinement would result in more songs like the shimmering electro-pop of "Subsequently Lost."

Thanks to the introspective nature of the songs and the mannered production, they took something totally alive and wild, and wonderfully fun and exciting, and not so magically turned themselves into just another dime-a-dozen indie rock band.

A gorgeous showcase that brings together everything you've ever loved about Wareham's music, Emancipated Hearts isn't just a mini-album, it's a minor masterpiece.

Khaled does his usual cheerleading and gets some production credits himself, but the real trick he pulls off is inspiring all these artists to somehow save up all these high-grade club tracks and singles for the DJ's annual dispatch. Suffering from Success, once again.

Perhaps she's too subtle to be a stadium-filling superstar, but the superb 12 Stories showcases a unique artist who stands firmly, proudly on her own merits.

With Burials, Havok and AFI don't just bury the castle of wrecked relationships, they put to rest any notions that they aren't kings of their dystopian rock kingdom.

The songs depict a torrid breakup, and she has restless yet tightly controlled electronic backdrops that suit her mood. Whether she merely had to get this out of her system or has found her true voice, it's one transfixing emotional hell of a follow-up.

It's a thrillingly bright and shiny noise pop album that is a positive addition to all the participants' already impressive résumés.

Despite this somewhat disjointed feel, Situation Comedy should still please most of his fans, whether or not they've kept up with his busy release schedule.

It might not be the full-length follow-up to You Are All I See that Active Child fans are waiting for, but brevity aside, the high quality of the songs on Rapor more than fulfills on Grossi's promise.

In some instances, it helps to not be much of a Donna Summer fan. Afrojack transforms "I Feel Love" into a graceless barrage of battering noise and reduces Summer's vocal to pulp, while Greene's "On the Radio" has Summer so heavily echoed and distant that it could be titled "On the Radio (At the Bottom of a Deep Well)."

While the band's elemental sound doesn't show much in the way of innovation, the spirit of true rock is so strong within it that it doesn't really matter.

Ultimately, Outside's exercises in nostalgia are pretty, smooth, and inoffensive, but not nearly as interesting as CFCF's debut album or the EPs that followed it.

It's too bad the EP is saddled with a couple duds, because when it clicks and the music, words, and playing all get it right, one is reminded of the energy and fun that made the band worth checking out in the beginning.

Even if Shulamith isn't as strikingly original as Give You the Ghost, the growth in its songwriting and emotional complexity suggests Poliça are in it for the long haul.

Prism [is] a tighter, cleaner record than its predecessors--there are no extremes here, nothing that pushes the boundaries of either good taste or tackiness.

The extra flair of random trumpets, strange tape experimentation, and walls of fuzz bass contributed by the rest of the band just add to the colorful wash of sound, up there with the best Elf Power compositions of the past.

Horseback makes extreme underground music from the mysterious South; this compilation is the indisputable proof.

All of which helps to make That's It! a vibrant, engaging work and one of Preservation Hall's best albums.

There are too many shifts in mood here from track to track--but it is without question a worthwhile record, as its best moments are strong, substantive reinterpretations that illustrate just how good a songwriter Peter Gabriel is.

Put Summer Camp in the category of bands that are too good to ignore, but too uneven to truly embrace. Summer Camp is frustrating proof of that sad fact.

In Vagrant Stanzas' 52 minutes, Simpson has taken us not only though the music of the British Isles and America, but through his own history, directly, honestly, and poetically.

Although at times they come close to overshadowing the subtle instrumentation provided by Major and Dan Rothman, it’s actually the intrinsic balance between the contributions of all three that defines their sound.