Ida continues to create slow, sad music that maintains interesting depth within the ache.

Stand[s] alongside Something to Remember Me By as his strongest album.

So darkly delicious you have to admit it's their masterwork.

Though die-hard Mogwai fans are probably the most likely to pick this up, Government Commissions works so well that it could also double as a Mogwai greatest-hits collection.

Doves' best yet.

It's refined and focused, but also sexy and intimate.

Song for song, Rebirth has more energy and better hooks than her other albums.

Hersh's songwriting is as detailed and dynamic as ever, but the intricacies are less apparent when delivered with such heat-seeking power.

Back to Me is a powerful and affecting album from an artist who is quickly establishing herself as a major talent.

A tight, mean set of songs.

Stars rely instead on melody, charisma, and lyrics as sharp as any modern essayist, and it's all they need to sell the quiet grandness of Set Yourself On Fire.

It is full of emotion yet never sophomoric, it is full of aural poetry and never pretentious, and it is full of that certain mercurial grace that makes each new offering from Six Organs of Admittance something wholly other and an essential listen.

Ultimately, Origin, Vol. 1 is a look back through the past -- musically, personally, poetically, and culturally -- as a way of moving toward the future, celebrating its influence and shaking free of its baggage.

There's a young man's honest pain behind all of the flowery English vernacular.

Everything's OK is the home run Green fans have been dreaming about. It may not replace Let's Stay Together or I'm Still in Love With You but you could play it back to back with either of them and not hear much difference other than time.

Do the Bambi isn't a radical change from Stereo Total's previous work, but it is completely enjoyable from start to finish.

While Picaresque follows its predecessor's -- the treacly Her Majesty -- predilection for seafaring and mythology, its boot-covered feet are more firmly planted in the present, resulting in the group's most accessible -- and decidedly upbeat -- product to date.

A thoroughly enjoyable LP that sounds warm and familiar upon the first play and gets stronger with each spin.

The punk-inspired spark that made their 1997 debut, Word Gets Around, so impressive is rekindled.

The Bravery isn't sonically mind-blowing, but the new millennium new wave revival remains intriguing.

Black Forest is a little less scuzzy and raw than the band's earlier work, but it passes the test: the later at night and the louder you play it, the better it sounds.

Despite the talents of the musicians here, on several tracks the music simply lacks the physical strength to handle the lyrical weight of Chesnutt's material.

The Best Little Secrets Are Kept is loaded with a raft of inspired songs that burst out of your speakers like they were on fire, mixing the sparkle of the best glam rock, the low-down crunch of the best of classic rock bands like the Stones, and the direct lyrical approach of poets like David Lee Roth or... Bon Scott.

This album feels alive and breathes honesty.

On My Way to Absence offers many new areas of musical exploration, suggesting a more mature arranger.

Exquisite Corpse is a near perfect blend of the densely packed, sample heavy, nearly symphonic electronica and off-kilter hip-hop that the last three albums have featured.

The Evens not just a step forward in the creative careers of MacKaye and Farina, it's a major leap.

Out of Breach isn't much different from 2003's Afro Finger and Gel, flitting between left-field house that is remotely danceable and bracingly atonal sheets of noise, often within the span of one track.