It all adds up to an exhilarating and at times revelatory mash-up of wildly varied flavors, like a really excellent fruit salad.

While some listeners might find the Projectors' rather knowing idiosyncracy off-putting and smug, there are songs here that suggest the band has finally found the formula that finely balances its well-meaning musical intellectualism with actual pop songs.

Jackson may have been cast in the eternal sideman role in Belle & Sebastian, but (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson shows without a doubt that he is a pop craftsman in his own right.

Some of the productions, courtesy of the Runners, Adonis, and Kevin McCall, save it from being a disaster.

This work reaffirms her status as one of the leading artists in contemporary folk.

Not everything here clicks together at that level, but each track is inventive, and when the songwriting and arrangements cross paths perfectly, as they do in the above songs, this is a delightful band.

Great Chicago Fire is that rare collaboration where both sides seem to inform one another equally and derive new strengths from teaming up.

Ode to Sentience sports elegant, graceful chamber-folk arrangements that make the most of the space between the instruments.

There's a sense of rollicking craziness throughout, some busting out, some swaggering boogie breakdowns.

When you strip back the eccentric arrangements and lush production, Watkins can still deliver.

Life in a Beautiful Light, at its essence, is the sound of an artist looking for her own voice amidst the deafening roar of her influences.

Brown turns the Versions material, drawing on both released and unreleased sections from the original sessions, into something closer to harsher rock at points, but on balance the various tracks turn into a series of tense counterpoints between loud and soft, always with an eye toward careful flow that transforms the material into slow evolutions.

Attractive Sin finds the collaborators stretching out liberally and sounding genuinely excited and inspired by each other.

Ruler of the Night works like a song cycle studying the oddly aching beauty of misery.

Days Go By is more for fans who have been with the band for a while than those just tuning in, and while die-hard Offspring followers will be able to see the shift in the band's sound as part of a logical progression, new listeners would be better served by checking out some of their earlier, more urgent work.

For all their various impulses, it's clear on Valley Tangents that they do have a certain general approach to explore, just one that doesn't welcome immediate simplification.

The majority of tracks follow the tried and true template of atmospheric intro/staccato breakdown/huge power chorus/repeat, but the balance between sheen and filth is handled with aplomb.

Musostics is a more satisfying album that proves Junior Electronics can now do even more with less.

Most of the time, Jackson's new arrangements of Ellington's compositions don't serve the songs so much as they betray the arrogance of a musician who wants to show us how he can bring this music into the present day while ignoring many of the qualities that made it timeless.

Two Wounded Birds is a well-crafted and powerful debut from a band that arrived in full control of both its sound and its songs.

It's not so much that Throw It to the Universe is a bad album; but it is quite inconsistent when compared to their best work.

The stunning cover is the most beautiful and cohesive on what is an otherwise (understandably) uneven collection which, while definitely appealing to hardcore fans, might be a bit too out there for casual listeners.

Write Me Back proves that Kelly's mode throughout Love Letter was no fluke.

Overexposed may not hold together as well as that album [Hands All Over ], but it's sure to keep the audience won over by The X Factor.

It's ultimately a fitting platform for his brokenhearted reflections.

Oshin is a pleasant listen, especially for anyone partial to Beach Fossils or the Captured Tracks sound in general.

This is an album that's impossible to play quietly, and if this music is an assault, by the time Segall is midway through "Fuzz War," don't be surprised if you're signing on for this particular fight club.

It doesn't stay still, it peaks and ebbs, flowing steadily between brooding and explosions of repressed rage, a fitting soundtrack for aging rap-rockers who are comfortable in their skin but restless at heart.