For Now I Am Winter, effortlessly incorporates elements of pop into the budding singer/songwriter's already evocative blend of wistful neo-classicism and icy electronica.

It's an environment that rewards more often than it disappoints.

Nevertheless, even if Out of Touch, in the Wild is missing some of the bite of Dutch Uncles' earlier music, its brainy pop is always intriguing.

While the resulting record may not have the power to transcend time and space, it's got loads of charm and a captain who knows how to chart a streamlined course.

Fine song structure and an overall album flow that's nearly perfect are things Bonobo regulars might expect at this point, but his discography hasn’t offered up a rainy day soundtrack so fitting until this one, so hope the weatherman has bad news and plan on staying in.

Despite this unevenness, at its best Ride Your Heart captures Bleached's carefree, slightly scuzzy California cool-girl charm.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts is more about what the band does best rather than breaking new ground, and the result is some of Cold War Kids' most promising and satisfying music since their debut.

It's a fun album for fanatics, but the willingness to shock feels too comfortable at this point, so those who found it tiresome before will likely find it devastating here.

Filled end to end with grindcore insanity and covered in a sheen of sonic grime (thanks to Converge guitarist and engineer extraordinaire Kurt Ballou), the album is an exercise in relentlessness, offering no quarter and asking for none in return as it stampedes from track to track on a merciless metal rampage.

Everything here certainly belongs and contributes to the rich, gritty, and ultimately joyous tone of this wonderful album.

Victim of Love showcases growth--and a sound not heard before on Daptone--while not straying from the gritty soul that established the singer; it is every bit as strong as its predecessor and more diverse.

All in all, UFO is another valuable addition to their canon, completed with skill and affection in equal measure.

A Mudhoney album through and through: no outright surprises sonically, but beneath the roar it's hard not to admire how their perennial piss-takes are subtly deepening and how their saturated superfuzz always sounds so good.

The album succeeds more often than it flounders, and even then, the singin' and pickin' is so good that it's hard not to submit, but one wishes that the pair had decided to infuse the collection with a bit more of their signature wit, as much of The Ash & Clay feels a bit like a serious Flight of the Conchords.

An A.merican D.ream comes off like an updated version of the walking blues: heavy looks at heavy times, made all the heavier when the narrator is positioned somewhere between genius and mental breakdown.

Everything on these two discs fits into the theme and flow.

As much as Mogwai are known for defining post-rock's sound, they're just as good at defying expectations, which Les Revenants does with an intimate, low-key brilliance.

A beautiful, if at times exhausting album, The Golden Age shows Lemoine is skilled at making music as well as music videos.

The Impossible Truth is more accessible than Behold the Spirit, but it is easily as adventurous, taking hold of places, spaces, and sounds, reimagining them and altering them just enough to make the entire recording sound at once immediately familiar and somehow wholly other.

Everything comes together perfectly on Lady, from beginning to end it's a dream come true for lovers of classic soul; if it had been released in 1970, it would considered a timeless classic, talked about in the kind of reverent tones reserved for Lady Soul or What's Going On.

Produced by James Dring (Gorillaz) and Youth (the Verve), its ten tracks prove McClure's way with words is far less clunky when focusing on satirical tales of everyday life than trying to put the world to rights.

A confident, delightfully quirky, and endlessly inventive band having fun and delivering a kind of lightly experimental sunshine pop for the 21st century, complete with huge choruses, xylophones and trinkets, maverick rhythms, and a charming, fun spirit of adventure.

The concept of fusing together live analog instrumentation like electric guitar and bass with electronic drums and vintage synthesizer arpeggios keeps the music of Mwahaha enthralling, despite the lack of traditional, tuneful structure.

Listeners willing to pull out a shovel and dig through the layers are bound to find something new each time they listen, but for most newbies, a simpler album would be a better starting point.

Green may not be a sonic wizard, and her songs may cover familiar topics in a familiar way, but she fills the album with songs you'll be humming to yourself all day long, adding to mixes, and sharing with friends who are into weird pop-punk, and that's what's most important in the end.

That Shelton can pull off this big, swinging bravado isn't much of a surprise--when his voice trills electronically on "Small Town Big Time" he makes it sound like a joke--but there's just a little bit too much of the schtick; individually the cuts work fine but they overwhelm not only the gentler moments ("Sure Be Cool If You Did," "Do You Remember") but cancel each other out over the long run.

American Twilight is more than just a triumphant comeback by C&CS--who were not fully appreciated for their uniqueness the first time around--it is a literate, sprawling, bruising rock & roll record that convincingly addresses the crises we face--cultural, spiritual, integral--and the choices we make.

Tedder reveals a broad palette of stylistic inspiration.