Grass, Branch & Bone is a low-key triumph from an artist who had made a career out of demonstrating that in music, simplicity is often the approach that tells us the most.

Everything flows naturally, and that ease is so alluring upon the first spin of Traveller that it's not until repeated visits that the depth of the album becomes apparent.

Alice Bag isn't a belated victory lap from a veteran of the punk rock wars, it's a diverse and deeply satisfying album from an artist who is finally getting a chance to live up to her great potential, and here she isn't missing a trick.

It's hard to say if it's enough to warrant a purchase of this hefty box, but in either its CD or LP incarnation, A New Career in a New Town is a handsome, alluring, and exceptional-sounding reissue that earns its price tag.

Though this isn't the cleanest and tidiest album of his career, the emotional honesty of this material is striking, and this is some of the boldest and most inspiring work of Joe Henry's career.

A potent 11-song set that injects the genre's key trope of overcoming adversity with some considerable gravitas.

Descension is a collaboration for the ages: It is ecstatic, improvised jazz that reverberates inside the human body like a heartbeat.

A beautifully nuanced work, Clara is both revealing and mysterious -- and Loscil fans wouldn't expect anything less.

Gay more than succeeds in weaving all of these seemingly disparate sounds together, and Open Arms to Open Us has the engaging feeling of walking through a kaleidoscopic multimedia art installation.

This Is Brian Jackson's music is timeless, a musical montage reflecting his multi-disciplinary immersion in jazz, funk, soul, and hip-hop, without sacrificing the focus, generosity, inspiration, and openness that have been at the very heart of his music all along.

Weller sounds looser and lighter on 66 than he did in the recent past, a shift that adds warmth and playfulness to his wisdom.

Make no mistake: That's Showbiz Baby! is a must hear for any fan of euphoric, maximalist dance pop.

The Chemistry of Common Life, is a lush, expansive masterpiece that dismisses the theory that punkers have to follow a concrete formula of short and fast songs with raw-edged production.

Hearing Dry Cleaning's words and music travel in different ways to the same destination remains fascinating, and the ways they open up their music on Stumpwork with warmth, sensuality, and humor reveal their originality even more fully.

Older, wiser, and more ambitious than on her collegiate debut, Tomberlin finds a musical artistry on i don't know who needs to hear this… that rises to the level of her lyrical perceptiveness.

An album that's not just one of Yearwood's most entertaining albums, but one of her richest records, in both musical and emotional terms as well.

A revelatory experience that's somehow been hidden within her all these years, Girl with No Face is a bold reclamation of artistic self from a thrilling pop auteur.

Crimes keeps a tight lid on the nervous energy that's always defined the group, channeling it into aggressive songs that often suggest the damaged, exciting grooves of vintage Brainiac.

Aptly named, Patience is the sound of a band who have spent a few years growing into themselves and it honors Mannequin Pussy's raw punk past while opening doors to new creative possibilities.

Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is blessed because of -- not in spite of -- its excesses.

The astute and eclectic programming makes for a better listen than other attempts that have been made to compile '80s alternative rock.

Whatever spaces the arrangements leave enable the imagination to play as much of a role as the instrumentation.

A remarkably spare and focused collection?

Old Ideas is a very good Cohen album; it may be great, but only time reveals that when it comes to his work.

It's possible that The Meadowlands might be a "better" album if it were more focused and logical, but there's something to be said for its immersive, stream-of-consciousness approach.

This is so good that this is how you want to remember them: older, perhaps wiser, and still majestic.

Only Ron and Russell Mael could have made this album, and while they've always done what they needed and wanted to do as artists, it's extra satisfying that this peak in their popularity coincides with music this vibrantly engaging.

This is a smoking little record. Its focus is small, its reach is large; it's a winner.