Even though Vek doesn't find or offer any easy answers on Luck, its highlights capture the most challenging and engaging parts of his work.

What makes it a better, richer work is how it simultaneously holds every side of White, existing at the crossroads where modernity, tradition, hard work, and inspiration all meet.

Things Are Great Here is a lovely collection and another unique release by one of the era's most distinctive artists.

With James' voice and nearly iconic harmonic sensibility as a guide, these genres flow into, rub against, and ultimately redefine one another. His creative reach, at least at this juncture appears to be boundless.

It all makes for a complex, often beautiful debut album that affords Kelly even more expression and possibilities than what he's done before.

Ultimately, with Whispers, Rosenberg has crafted an album of sweet, hummable anthems for tender-hearted troubadours everywhere.

Ultimately, with Love Me, Barfod has crafted an album of highly engaging, emotionally resonant pop music that's as creatively rewarding as it is accessible.

Their voices are strong and clean (maybe too clean) and the parts are played well enough, but when you remove the punk from pop-punk, the attitude goes with it and you'd better be sure that the material underneath is something of greater interest than these largely forgettable acoustic emo ramblings.

Anathema's trademark emotional resonance and musical adventurousness purposefully re-engage earlier electronic forms to make this album a compelling--if controversial--undertaking.

rouble & Love is unlike any other "heartbreak and healing" album; its hard-won, experiential, Buddhist-like wisdom borders on the profound.

Even when the songs sound coherent and have some interesting moments, the jarring beats still come on as incessantly aggressive with no actual power, inspiration, or deeper statement driving the noise.

While there is still a handful of metallic rockers, III is built on a folky, acoustic foundation that gives the music extra depth.... Of the first three reissues, Led Zeppelin III contains the highest quotient of unheard tunes: precisely two, although one of these doesn't quite feel new.

There are certainly some strong tracks here and it will be interesting to see how Mr. Little Jeans develops, but as a whole, Pocketknife is an uneven debut.

Copper Gone is a mix of tried and true plus smarter and new, and it's an excellent reason to check in on Sage's evolution.

It's obvious that Superunknown was consciously styled as a masterwork, and it fulfills every ambition.

While Led Zeppelin II doesn't have the eclecticism of the group's debut, it's arguably more influential. After all, nearly every one of the hundreds of Zeppelin imitators used this record, with its lack of dynamics and its pummeling riffs, as a blueprint.

Although the album isn't as varied as some of their later efforts, it nevertheless marked a significant turning point in the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal.... Zeppelin never felt this nervy again: they harnessed their majesty and knew how to deploy it, but here it still seems like they weren't quite sure of their limits, which is why it's a particularly exciting bonus disc [a concert given at the Olympia in Paris in 1969].

This self-aware mortality is the trump card of Beauty & Ruin, as Mould neither denies his youth nor his age; as he explores his pain, he finds emotional and musical narrative to tie his past to his present and the results are powerful.

Invisible Hour is a beautiful, haunting collection of songs that only Joe Henry could create, and whether you're familiar with his work of not, you're likely to find something that will impress you on this album.

While Early Riser was pieced and patched together, it flows as a gleaming focused set that combines left-field electronics, alternative R&B, and futuristic jazz.

While listeners will have to wait a little longer for a break in the clouds, Ndegeocello and her associates have soundtracked yet another emotional storm in vivid, enthralling fashion.

Heavy Reverie does seem a bit like a holding pattern, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, not with a band as good and as maverick as this one is, but it leaves one wondering just how good these guys could be.

It doesn't take long to notice that the men of Camper Van Beethoven were having a lot more fun up north, while El Camino Real finds them playing with a technical skill that puts their early classics to shame but sounding curiously short on the joy and spontaneity that were once this band's trademark.

New Eyes remains such a small, subtle, and soft record that by the end, it doesn't feel very daring or different.

La Grange's newfound electronic experimentalism also fits nicely next to works by her similarly inclined contemporaries like Goulding, Grimes, and Alex Winston, adding a unique and unmistakable twist to the subgenre that makes it seem all her own.

This Machine Kills Artists is a worthy experiment, and a few tracks work rather well, but ultimately Osborne should aim for a more distinct game plan before he goes acoustic again.

Emma Jean even stands out from its excellent predecessors in performance, arrangement, production, and inspiration.

The result is an album of beautiful juxtapositions, steeped with poetic gravitas that nonetheless never fails soar.