Impossibly crisp production, impeccable interplay between rhythm and effects, and the most difficult quality for any electronica producer to nail down: a crucial, distinctive sound.

The real problem is that Lupine Howl doesn't really do enough here to distinguish itself from other bands, drawing from such obvious influences as the Rolling Stones and the Doors, and in a lot of ways the album sounds like a tour of '90s retro-influenced bands like the Charlatans, Oasis, or even the Black Crowes.

Satisfying without being transcendent-

Thoughtful production, meatier music, and broader scope makes City worth hearing.

Overall, American Life is better for what it promises than what it delivers, and it's better in theory than practice.

A solid rock effort.

Between 'I'm Wit It,' 'Girls,' and a couple other standouts, Lessons and Love cannot be dismissed, but Lloyd will have to really change it up with his fourth album to evade a real holding pattern.

Ironically, this hip-hop heavy revision has the net effect of straightening out a wild, wooly record.

At best, I Can Spin a Rainbow feels like the work of two talented artists savoring a long weekend of boundless creativity together, but from an outsider's perspective, the results are a bit too impenetrable to contextualize without having been in the room to witness its genesis.

Perhaps the most tightly performed Joan of Arc material, Testimonium Songs feels less like a proper album and more like a sidebar, deeply aligned with the harsh tones of Reznikoff's bleak poems.

Coldplay cheerfully embrace the cheese, ratcheting up both the sparkle and the sentiment so the album feels genuine in its embrace of eternal middle-aged clichés.

The textures are excellent, the songs are OK, but as a whole, it just doesn't pack the emotional punch of earlier outings.

A handful of similar tracks suffer from this same problem of ambition over inspiration, but for every miss, there's a hit.

Love Hate and Then There's You is the Von Bondies' most consistent album yet.

The web of sounds here creates the same relaxing and breathable environments as Eno's most meditative work, just a far more lo-fi rendering of it.

Perhaps if this production were scaled back a notch or two, Fearless Love wouldn’t feel quite so oppressive, but its oversized sound fits Etheridge’s sense of self: she’s boxed herself into a corner where she only makes music that sounds important…whether it actually is important winds up being beside the point.

It's a pretty timeless approach that could have ended up sounding tired and played out, but the group's enthusiasm and Cunningham's ability to craft sticky melodies make it sound oven fresh.

Fans of his louder music might not play this often, but 55 Cadillac is another step toward Andrew W.K. putting his stamp on every art form.

Thanks to the strong songs, Selena's reliably strong vocals, and the variety of sounds, it adds up to be another fine entry in her catalog and just another example of why Selena Gomez is one of the best pop stars making music in 2013.

Low in High School can seem as aurally conflicted as it is politically, and that may be an appropriate look for Morrissey in 2017: He's opted for a mad world of his own creation and doesn't much care whether his fans follow or not.

For anyone who shares Dupieux's warped sense of humor and has been eagerly following his career, this is yet another fascinatingly weird Mr. Oizo album.

A free-flowing, just cohesive enough forty-five minute listen that, in keeping with the booklet contents, has an air of strange melancholy throughout, perhaps most evident on the album's haunting heart, "Cherry."

If they can keep this sound and get back the hooks, they'd have something as good as their first two records, but, as it stands, this is their first stumble.

With a varied group of artists ranging from established names (Moby, the Crystal Method, Paul Oakenfold) to up-and-comers (Com Truise, Pretty Lights), the collection offers eclectic tangents on the retro-futuristic musical world Daft Punk created.

They are moving on from such early influences as Jimmy Eat World to a more sophisticated, if still forceful sound as they get more playing under their belts.

This kind of constant drive away from the more watered-down sound of a lot of their post-grunge contemporaries and toward metal is something that allows Five Finger Death Punch to stand out in a genre that's easy to get lost in.

Turner possesses some mighty charm but it's not enough to turn that one into something listenable and he stumbles into a couple other potholes here too, all created by the desire to turn him into a big cutesy teddy bear.

The Ting Tings aren't quite ready to grow up and stop partying, but the maturation on Super Critical takes them out of the "overbearing pop flash in the pan" category and suggests they may have even more interesting statements ahead of them.