There is a purity to their sound and vision that gives the album its power.

Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen has flashes of brilliance and moments where they're still figuring out what to do, but overall, it shows them growing into something new as gracefully as they can.

This is much more of an abstract, "experimental" affair than a pop one, as friendly and approachable as it is--only a fraction of the selections could properly be described as songs, and even those tend to spiral off down unexpected textural avenues.

Matthew E. White's Hometapes' debut, Big Inner, is as frustrating as it is cosmically transcendent.

2 Chainz over-promises and almost delivers on his official debut, putting him right in the punch-line rapper's sweet spot.

Nude Beach aren't starting a revolution with II, but its well-crafted songs and raw-edged execution are just too damn joy-inspiring to deny.

It's a return to form and just what fans of Cliff's early work could ask for, but it's vital too, putting it on the man's top shelf, somewhere in the vicinity of The Harder They Come soundtrack and Wonderful World, Beautiful People.

For the most part, The Soul Sessions, Vol. 2 does feel right: it has the form and sound of classic soul while never acknowledging that R&B continued to develop past, say, 1972. For an audience that agrees with that thesis, this is fun.

For those willing to rise to the challenge, Fragrant World has a wealth of obscured moments of bizarre genius.

This collection ultimately serves as a chronology of an incredibly important band as it phases through the good, bad, and ugly of an unprecedented run of magical songs in every era.

While it sounds less like a single-minded effort from Chasney than it does a high-spirited collective freakout from a reconfigured Comets on Fire, Chasney is still at the core of all the songs, transmitting his freaky visions in the guise of one face-melting power jam after another.

The mood is thick and cloaking, and the album represents a continuing development toward the best and most captivating material of Caminiti's expansive body of work.

This is the worthy sequel to the group's Madlib collaboration In Search of Stoney Jackson, and that's meant as high praise.

Fans will find that Key to the Kuffs goes from confusing letdown to intriguing mystery after just a couple listens.

"Playin' Hard" and "Fumble," introspective and self-critical, are two of the album's most resonant songs and provide more depth, even though the sentiments are probably fleeting.

Hot Cakes is definitely worthy of throwing more than a few devil horns the band's way.

Anastasis will more than likely please longtime fans--and to be fair that is who it seems geared to--rather than win many new ones.

Think of this as a run-of-the-mill Khaled album and that mill is still doing pretty awesome.

Crotch-grabbing tracks might crash into a convincing emo-rap number and these proven wordsmiths might have left more room for guests and hooks than they probably should have, but just because their indie debut was a more cohesive showcase doesn't mean the joy and pain of Welcome to Our House isn't worth the required sorting.

Ten tight tracks, and that includes the epic "Intro," puts this on the man's top-shelf, where it sits next to The Reason as the album's flashy little brother.

Four may not be as cohesive as Silent Alarm, but it just might be more vital.

At the very least, In Limbo shows that the band can do a lot of things well, and while this set of songs isn't exactly scattered, TEEN's ambitions lead them to be less cohesive than they might have been had they picked one direction and stuck with it.

The Seer is unquestionably a work of ecstatic beauty; it encompasses everything because it is everything.

The approach is dubwise, but the result is unique -- it simultaneously pushes familiar musical buttons and sounds like nothing else that has come before.

The result is an album not only more interesting, but far more enjoyable.

Fortunately for Flobots, the messages in The Circle in the Square feel pretty universal. While the matter of whether or not hip-hop backed by a live band is your taste is purely a subjective one.

Though Infinity Overhead isn't exactly a return to form for Minus the Bear, it does find them moving back toward what they do best, and is a step in a promising direction for fans hoping for the band to return to the more vigorous sound of Menos el Oso.