Working against the big intentions are the ramshackle playing; the rough production and mixes, and, inevitably, Arcuragi's rusty, overwrought tenor upfront.

Here, he has crafted them into something startlingly new, although that '70s spirit of pimp-hand-up-top, bell-bottoms-down-below is intact the whole way.

For all its ambition and poetry, Big Station is consistently great fun. The songwriting and recording employed here take Escovedo's populist and sophisticated art to a whole new level.

It's an album only an old pro could make and it's one of the best this ever-reliable singer has ever done.

The album holds together sonically like it was bonded by super glue, yet there's enough variation between the tracks to make Manifest! a very enriching listen that takes listeners to the middle of an excitingly sweaty dancefloor, keeps them company on the long cab ride home, and soothes them on the quiet morning after.

Miller's duet with Rosanne Cash on "As Close as I Came to Being Right" is a gem, one of the best realized moments of his solo career; it's the best thing on The Dreamer, but there's plenty of other music here that should earn the approval of fans of both Rhett Millers.

The album is never less than pretty, but it's so slight and drifting that it's difficult to grasp.

Banga is an event; it's not only provocative and expansive lyrically, but abundantly enjoyable musically.

It all winds up as an ungodly mess: Crazy Horse do, as Young asserted they would, make these songs their own, but by doing so, they've made them so nobody else would ever want them.

While WIXIW might be a shade less ambitious than some of their previous albums, it's still fascinating to hear Liars wield beauty and delicacy just as formidably as they've used force and noise in the past.

Celebration Rock could arguably lack the powerful impact of the first record. Still, it's a hell of lot of fun.

Not a reinvention so much as an enjoyable detour, Radlands is a set of aural postcards from the Lone Star State that demonstrates just how much good a working vacation can do.

Our Version of Events is an earnest collection of works by a woman who is as good a composer as she is vocalist, a lethal combination in today's pop music business.

Live from the Underground winds up both an easy introduction to the man's talents and a crowd-pleasing effort with no stale sell-out aftertaste.

On Endless Flowers they wisely embrace that amorous but no less powerful approach to indie pop originally deployed by charismatic acts such as the Modern Lovers and Different Class-era Pulp. Pleasingly, it's a guise that fits them as perfectly as their sunglasses.

All in all, like most Melvins albums, Freak Puke is something you haven't heard before and, also like most Melvins albums, it's probably something you should.

Hogan's style is refreshingly simple, honest, and strikes its target on every track; whether she's tackling country, pop, supper-club blues, or uptempo R&B, she can sing it right and make you a believer, and I Like to Keep Myself in Pain is the triumphant showcase her talent has deserved for far too long.

Snider seems to know he'll never top Walker's original recordings, but he sure likes sharing these tunes that he clearly loves and understands, and enough of that soul and belief is caught on tape to make this as purely enjoyable as anything Snider has released in the past decade.

Generals, like What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, may use the past as its foundation, but it was put in place by some forward-thinking engineers.

This one doesn't leave you feeling hungry or stuffed, just fully satisfied.

A sophisticated, epic, slow burn of an album, The Temper Trap finds the band taking the creative long view, and updating its bombastic guitar rock with a moody, somewhat synth-oriented sound.

These are organic and rich-sounding tracks that frame Rumer's voice in sparkling piano, cinematic bits of strings, rounded horn parts, the twang of the occasional pedal steel guitar, and even a poignant harmonica line.

These may not be the songs that will ever light up their live sets, but together they form what is easily the best Beach Boys record in 35 years -- and a surprisingly cohesive, reflective, listenable one at that.

All the Hives really need is energy and good songs, and they have enough of both on Lex Hives to bring smiles to their fans' faces.

What the World Needs Now welcomes back a sorely missed S3 with all the rowdy joy intact. Nobody plays it like this.

We'll Be the Moon doesn't always hit the mark, but it's an encouraging first offering proving that Fixers can walk the walk as well as they talk the talk.

Nearly everything on this typically fine set of work, sound like future fan favorites and live staples.

It's a melancholy but never depressing 50 minutes that proves what an under-the-radar talent Jeffreys remains, and indicates that his best work might even be ahead of him.