This album works both as music that can take you over and take you up on a cloud of pop, and as mood-enhancing tunes that can fill up the empty room with happy ambience. Either way, it's an enjoyable, sometimes beautiful, album, one that Vetiver have been working toward since they began.

If you've been looking for someone to merge the huge sound of melodic hardcore with a strong dose of narrative depth, search no further.

Despite being from different albums, the songs all work together remarkably well, giving the album the kind of natural flow that one expects from an album, never giving away the fact that the songs are all from different EPs.

Throughout his career, Mr. Mathers has given props to his Detroit hip-hop clan and spoken of his interactions, but his discography has been somewhat light on examples. Past the Mars cut, Hell: The Sequel helps right that wrong, providing the welcome sound of Shady meets the streets.

For all the sonic shimmer, not much exposure is needed to realize that the album concerns an embittering relationship.

Guitarists Jake Pitts and Jinxx are the showstealers here, riffing in constant harmony, and incorporating the speedy guitar pyrotechnics of similar-minded bands like Dragonforce and Escape the Fate while throwing in showy Zack Wilde pinch harmonics, and Yngwie Malmsteen sweeps.

The 12 songs on All Things Bright and Beautiful, Owl City's third album, certainly demand the audience's imagination -- or at least their willingness to go along with the world Adam Young dreams up, a cartoonish place where the skies look like alligators, the rivers taste like fruit, and emeralds poke their heads out of every rock.

The unheard tunes are all first-rate, but what's really notable about A Treasure is that it offers a compelling document of how good the International Harvesters were and, in turn, makes sense of a somewhat murky period for Neil Young.

Sonically, it's the Submarines' most interesting record to date. Melodically, it's a bit spottier than usual, relying heavily on a handful of highlights to shoulder the weight of the saggier numbers.

The conclusion of Oneida's Thank Your Parents trilogy got some initial attention when word emerged that Kid Millions' signature drum drive wouldn't be featured, but such is the strength of the band that Absolute II functions both as conclusion and its own distinct release.

In many ways, In Light splits the difference between the peppy pseudo-Afro pop of Vampire Weekend and the percussive, improv-heavy dance rock of Local Natives. That might be a bit of a knock against In Light if it wasn't such an accomplished, ambitious debut.

Creep On Creepin' On is the sound of Timber Timbre fully coming into its own, with romance and strangeness to spare.

My Morning Jacket are clearly having fun, and they're learning how to be "out there" without being outlandish.

Castlemania does sound like the product of several happily productive days in this band's life; this album sounds less sinister and more playful than the bulk of their previous output, and if a lot of this is still going to seem chaotic and off-putting to anyone not flying a similar freak flag, it's an easier way in to Thee Oh Sees' curious musical world than any of their albums to date.

Loud Planes Fly Low captures fragmented moments instead of formless dreams and random wishes: the melancholia that lingers throughout feels like one of experience rather than self-conscious ennui.

Mysterious and subtly beguiling, Canta Lechuza begs to be listened to in the condition in which it was made: solitude.

It was inevitable that as his skills matured he was going to move away from the strictures of reggae as a musical style. That maturity is fully in evidence on Light the Horizon, and the songs have indeed spread out into new stylistic territory.

Given the album's split nature, it's not quite as cohesive as most Quintron albums, but it manages to represent the fringes of his sound, as well as the heart of it, very well.

The slow moves of the partnered voices on the extended verse, rising up toward the cool intoning of the title on the final chorus as the melody lines get even more insistent and grand, and similar moments on the instrumental "Geodes," show that EAR PWR have a way with the epic that doesn't feel overbearing--not a bad spot to be in at all.

Unlike Magnolia, which sounded like a band trying on a style for size, Two Matchsticks is a perfectly tailored record that works as an extension of American Analog Set, but will also please any fan of thoughtful, simple acoustic-ish pop.

Revelator is a roots record that sets a modern standard even as it draws its inspiration from the past. It's got everything a listener could want: grit, groove, raw, spiritual emotion, and expert-level musical truth.

Khaos Legions shouldn't be dismissed as the result of creative burnout--there's plenty of scorching metal here, and fans will be very pleased.

What he doesn't really have is a strong hook to pull listeners into the album; there's nothing surprising or unexpected or exceptionally hooky, just 12 polished slices of contemporary country that will surely please longtime Brooks & Dunn fans largely because it doesn't feel all that different than the duo.

Hardcore Perry fans will probably be divided on this one, but nevertheless, it's not difficult to conclude that Rise Again is one of his most satisfying releases of the past ten years.

Their music is generic, competently played, but breaking absolutely no new ground. Only someone utterly obsessed with hearing every pop-punk album ever, by anyone, should pick this up.

Channel Pressure is equally enjoyable as a painstaking period re-creation drenched in neon nostalgia and nylon nausea, and as a piece of sterling (if decidedly warped) electronic pop music in its own right.

Consider Dirty Work the band's ultimate bid for mainstream acceptance, and one of their strongest pop albums to date.

A guest list that goes from Big Boi to Gucci Mane make the album highly desirable, but it's Mike that makes it vital, rivaling the Slaughterhouse crew when it comes to delivering grown man's hip-hop and Ice Cube when it comes to pimping while preaching.