Utilizing a pit band that includes percussion, melodica, pump organ, bassoon, cello, glockenspiel, tuba, and sousaphone, Regifted Light is largely instrumental, allowing listeners the pleasure of hearing Dee's artfully constructed melodies and arrangements, as well as her truly impressive ivory work, without the arguable distraction of her divisive, thespian-bred voice.

It's hard to know where to start in praising her: she has a voice as clear and carefully modulated as that of a young Alison Krauss; her songs are rooted in tradition but full of sly and subtle complications that will take any careful listener by delighted surprise, and her mandolin playing is a thrilling combination of sparkling precision and jazzy abandon.

Even when Young Widows' scorn escalates and the mood becomes more frenetic, In and Out of Youth and Lightness always feels detached. Maybe that's what makes it so unnerving, and so good.

Whether or not these songs are ever played next to the latest dance music sensation at a club, Salon des Amateurs is a bold, accomplished work that ranks among Hauschka's most exciting albums.

Rockpango is the most satisfying recording that Los Lonely Boys have come up with yet. It confirms the notion that the Garza brothers know exactly what they want and how to get it, with a sound that is inviting, infectious, and inventive.

Overall, this is a generous, beautifully packaged retrospective of one of the 2000s' premier synth pop acts.

Meanwhile, David Bottrill's dynamic production (his credits include King Crimson and Dream Theater) is perfectly suited, and only enhances the band's ever-intensifying talents.

If the show doesn't quite manage to be memorable, it is certainly engaging, a worthwhile 38 minutes even if it doesn't quite have much more than a historic hook to warrant repeated plays.

The Snowblink singer has a captivating appeal that is hers alone. And when you combine that with a gift for poetic lyrics full of such evocative phrases as "I'll put a bullhorn to the mouth of your ghost" ("Heckling the Afterglow"), you've got something substantial on your hands.

Bass Drum of Death have put together a proto-punk album for the digital age where you could swear you heard the tape hissing out of your blown laptop speakers.

Fake History is an album that really cements Letlive's place in the vanguard of the current crop of modern post-hardcore, making for an album that will not only please longtime fans, but could also pique the interest of some of the genre's disenfranchised old guard.

These relatively dry songs lack the edge of the album's first half.

All the pieces fit together perfectly for Brown Recluse on Evening Tapestry, and it's a pleasure from beginning to end.

Though it's distressing to hear yet another artist hop about the retro-stylized British soul-pop bandwagon, rapper-turned-singer Ben Drew nonetheless comes up with an impressive and fairly unique album that transcends the usual comparisons to Amy Winehouse vocally and Mark Ronson musically.

Even if the producer's layered constructions cover the spectrum genre-wise, the overall feel of Some Cold Rock Stuf is classically J-Rocc and generally Stones Throw, coming with that right combination of lazy, purposeful, clever, odd, and organic.

When the Heart Emerges is a breakthrough jazz album that reminds us that in this music, listening closely is of equal importance to speaking out. Akinmusire excels at both.

[An] odd, somewhat bewildering, and perhaps hopefully transitional effort.

A Thousand Heys, is cleaner, easier, and more melody-driven than most releases on, say, In the Red or Dirtnap Records.

The Royal Bangs don't just grab you by the throat and demand your attention, they threaten to rip apart your speakers, drench you in your own dancefloor sweat, and leave you begging for more.

Paradoxical as it may seem, the more structured version of the band that Do Whatever You Want All the Time presents just may be more exciting, and offer more potential, than what Ponytail were doing before.

On the whole, however, the album is a pleasant throwback to earlier styles of pop, country, and jazz.

Radio now splits everything into little niches. That isn't what Charles was about. He saw music as convergence. This fine concert album plays in that same spirit.

Nothing much changed over their time off, and the guitar-driven material on Safeways Here We Come is the same fervent but melodic pop-punky stuff that Chixdiggit! fans have come to expect.

Meyrin Fields may be under 12 minutes long, but it's still a musical goodie bag that sounds like it was as much fun to make as it is to hear.

The crew is still intentionally misogynistic and profane, sounding like caricatures of Eminem or Kid Rock as they rap and sing about gangsta cliches like puffing blunts, drinking Patron, getting booty, and "flossing."

Watt's music is no less ambitious or brave than it was in his youth, and for all the inner rumblings of Hyphenated-Man, the final product reflects an agile and active mind that's not about to stop confronting anyone with the courage to listen.

C'mon, while well short of sunny, is an album devoted to the search for answers amidst the darkness, and it's a powerful, deeply moving work from a truly singular band.

He's merely living in his time and reporting, returning with an album that's vivid, vibrant, and current in a way none of his peers have managed to achieve.