It's taken awhile for that to happen, but on Picture You, the Amazing have completely come into their own.

For all its sonic investigation and ellipticity, Skullsplitter is an intimate, even readily accessible offering that is quite human in its unhurried exposition of emotional depth and vulnerability.

Carey's strengths are in building enchanting musical landscapes inspired by the beauty of the natural world, but presented here as a more straightforward piano-and-strings songman, his shortcomings are revealed.

Maybe folks were tired of Earle's happy songs, but if you want to hear the man have a good time while kicking up a fuss in the studio, Terraplane is a ride well worth taking.

These guys are shameless and that's what makes them more fun than your average arena rockers.

Ultimately, it's this ability to stop you in your tracks and hold you with the warmth of his voice as you contemplate your existence that makes Vestiges & Claws such an arresting, uplifting joy.

Recorded in just two days, the excitement coursing through Mourn's entire 24 minutes (including the bonus track "Boys Are Cunts") makes its funny, scary, pissed-off punk that much more irresistible.

Their songs of family, love, lust, and spirit pair perfectly entwined and complementary voices.

By the time Transfixiation culminates in the fireball that is "I Will Die," it feels like A Place to Bury Strangers have escaped from the wreckage to deliver some of their darkest and most diverse music yet.

Patched together and seemingly out-of-character as it is, the singer's fourth album does have more going for it than her third one did.

For longtime fans, Volume Two: 1987-1989 is an impressive and well-assembled study of one of this band's more interesting periods, and if you're looking for a way into Half Japanese's catalog, this a good place to start despite the heft of this collection.

The 19 tunes here definitely push well into double-album territory, with an expanded band of players in a mode that borders on jam band territory but always stops short of over-extending the songs.

Aspiring to both the abandon of spiritual jazz and the burning nihilism of black metal, Moloney and Moore land somewhere else entirely, in a bleak world of noise and disdain that sounds like a state of mind both players feel alarmingly at home in.

A great night for folkies, an instructive listen for hipsters with an interest in the '60s folk scene, and proof that Joel and Ethan Coen's cultural influence takes on many remarkable forms.

This fine debut is also filled with productions from Statik Selektah, DJ Premier, and others whose names hold weight.

Hayman's brand of pop has always been on the intellectual side and the archival nature of these Morris texts dovetails well with the kind of music he's been making in the years leading up to this fine release.

Somewhat disorienting, MIFLSA is a messy, incredible collection of damaged pop, and shows a band that's been forming for a while stepping into its full capabilities.

Even though listening closely enough on some songs reveals Smith shouting out the changes to his band, the collision of off-the-cuff recording techniques and intricate songwriting produces another colorful chapter of Sonny & the Sunsets' tireless and always beautiful work.

In other words, it's the best kind of reunion because it's not only lacking in nostalgia, it shows that some things can be better the second time around.

Ultimately, although colored by personal trauma, Into Colour remains one of Rumer's brightest, most enjoyable albums to date.

On their second LP for Epitaph, San Diego-based hardcore act Retox continue to whittle away any extraneous trimmings, delivering a needle-sharp set that is brutal, fast, and rigidly concise.

Creatures is an album as wonderful as it is unclassifiable, but it is aimed at those who like warmth with their edgy art.

The constant is the familiarity of Spacek's voice, his low whispers and high exhaltations, like he's serenading a nearby audience of one.

Time reaffirms that there's more to Ekko's music than ballads, but a little more consistency would have made this a confident debut instead of a promising one.

Country Music manages to have very little going on in its sonic landscape but still radiates an overwhelmingly dense feeling. There's a distinct stir-craziness to the album, feeling by the end far more like a haunted house than an idyllic bungalow.

This trio aims at an interior center, finds it, and pushes out, projecting Iyer & Co.'s discoveries.

The soundtrack to Fifty Shades of Grey winds up as something conventional: high-thread count seduction with nary a hint of menace, suitable for any romantic evening you choose.

Holding All the Roses delivers on every promise Blackberry Smoke have made to themselves and their fans.