Bliss Release is perhaps a little too derivative to justify the classic status it's been afforded in the band's homeland, but it's still a delightfully charming debut, made even more impressive by their hastily assembled beginnings.

Adjusting things just enough between tracks that they stay engaging without ever jarring the listener out of their cocoon of atmosphere, while deftly splitting the difference between the passiveness of purely ambient music and the active intellectualization required to fully absorb the skittering glitches of IDM.

Rose's own songwriting gifts are on ample display throughout Own Side Now, with lyrics that show a knack for poetic turns and artful understatement in equal measure -- a combination too seldom found in young songwriters' work -- and humble but hummable melodies that make the most of her grounding in both alt-country and pop.

It feels like Hungtai is still developing his sound to its fullest, but Badlands is still an intriguing and often haunting official debut.

Wander/Wonder is an exercise in depth, a flowing suite of mermaid's lullabies that turn seductive.

Stranger Me is not only a logical title but a demanding and surprisingly successful experiment that challenges both LaVere and the listener, pushing her into edgy, clearly non-commercial areas.

Ashore is the product of decades of musical maturation and technical refinement, and is an unalloyed triumph.

Last Day of Summer is surely weirder than their actual album material, but it's compelling to watch a band rooted in garage rock go so far out of its comfort zone, try some uncharted styles (jazz, prog, tropicalia, and psych-folk), and still come up with some winners.

The Moonlight Butterfly is yet another effortlessly charming work from The Sea and Cake.

All Things Will Unwind finds this musical auteur at the top of her game, maturing, pushing her already broad boundaries, and brimming with imagination.

SBTRKT's downtempo, mellow nature means it's a dance album that's unlikely to ever be played in a club, but showing James Blake that sparse, minimal dubstep and well-crafted pop melodies aren't mutually exclusive, it's a daring debut which lives up to the masked man's "next big thing" label.

Potent stuff, any way you slice it.

Roberts is in her own league as an improviser, a composer, and conceptualist.

Paper Airplane is very polished -- pristine, even -- but there isn't an extra thing on it. It feels organic and authentic, allowing plenty of room for the emotional power in these songs to come forth.

Its members share a similar sensibility, so that, although they alternate selections as if participating in a song pull, the album holds together in the same spirit... the familiar one of the drunken slacker full of gallows humor, and the folk and folk-rock music, appropriately, is played in ramshackle, thrown-together arrangements.

Kiss Each Other Clean is the result of years of growth and change, and though that sounds incredibly boring, it's also a record full of roiling emotion, tender wit, and deeply felt melodic beauty.

Oh, Fortune is still an indie folk album at heart, with Mangan's acoustic guitar and baritone voice giving every song its most basic foundation, but it's also the most ornate thing he's ever done.

Revelation Road is the quietest record of Lynne's career, but it feels like her rawest, too, even as it offers, in small bits and pieces, the varying shades, complexities, and pleasures in her musical world.

This strong, satisfying, often stunning third release proves he can deliver the goods.

Languid, pastoral, and remarkably serene (each track segues into each other like ice melting on a spring pond), Diamond Mine is so unobtrusive that it barely registers.... A lovely collection of ambient folk songs.

The English Riviera is a challenging but ultimately rewarding effort which cements Mount's reputation as one of Britain's most intriguing pop mavericks.

The group puts some twists on its sound, and Yukimi Nagano's lyrical thorns, typically concealed by her subtle approach -- are sharper than ever.

On Bring Me Your Love Dallas Green laments, pines, and celebrates loves both won and lost, employing a dusky, electrified patina of old and new country with a tinge of soul that's miles (sonically) from his work with the post-hardcore outfit Alexisonfire.

Purists may, of course, have their qualms, but it would be hard to deny the combination of reverence, proficiency, and sheer exuberance in evidence here -- indeed, it's difficult to imagine any serious limits of this band's appeal.

If you're already familiar with Flogging Molly, then Speed of Darkness isn't going to disappoint, and if you're not a fan yet, there's no better time to jump on the wagon than today.

Self-describing their sound as "fight-pop," the impossible-to-type Scottish six-piece Dananananaykroyd stay true to their word on second album There Is a Way, which appears to be waging a war against staying in tune, coherent lyrics, and the concept of subtlety on 12 anarchic tracks that attempt to pummel listeners into submission.

While the album can, at times, feel unfocused, that's also the point of a project like Puscifer, which allows us to take a look inside the mind of one of the most creative frontmen of the last 20 years.

On There Are Rules, the Get Up Kids never sound like they're trying to relearn how to do what they do: they manage the deceptively difficult trick of evolving without turning into something else, and they've made a powerful, engaging album that's worthy of their legacy.