For those who've longed for the return of his immediate, loose, warm, live recordings, Live at the Great American Music Hall is where it's at.

With just the right balance of brooding and brightness, Dream Cave is one of those albums that seems tailor-made for rainy day reflection, with Cloud Control giving listeners just the push they need to go into their own heads and look around for a bit.

Imperium offers plenty of haunting moments that make it very much a Captured Tracks album, as well as one that grows in power with repeated listening.

Spreading Rumours features a set of supremely catchy songs that walk the line between the Flaming Lips' bubbly psych rock and Smashing Pumpkins' '90s alt crunch.

In minor contrast to the band's previous effort, the moments of pared-down instrumentation here seem to offer a necessary respite from the intensity, providing necessary moments of calm as we anticipate the next joyous sonic wave.

Snapshot might be more successful at reassuring rock fans of a certain age that some young people find sounds three or four times older than them exciting than it is at getting kids excited about bluesy rock. Taken on its own terms, though, it's a solid debut from a band that can only benefit from more experience.

Imitations is a fine collection that reveals the depth of the songs through the openness and considerable skill of the singer.

While the album feels daring all the way through, early tracks like "Alien Days" feel relatively straightforward, mining the ornate pop sound of their previous effort.

With Dream River, fans already know what to expect from the man lyrically, and it can't be argued with qualitatively. When you place those lyrics in the context of something so subtly adventurous musically, the result is both engaging and seductive.

While there's nothing wrong with the piecemeal construction of the record, 14 years is a long time to wait for an album that sets blandness and brilliance beside each other in an almost equal ratio. When Defend Yourself hits its stride, however, it's amazing how timeless and unique the classic Sebadoh sound really is.

Burying emotional depth and even sensitivity beneath healthily sarcastic sounds, alienated lyrics, and cheeky titles like "Comfortably Dumb," Terry Malts have made an unassumingly sophisticated album.

Album closer "Banganesiba" finds Tal National climbing to the summit of their collective powers, the song encapsulating all the mesmerizing guitar patterns, blinding polyrhythms, and joyous, celebratory currents of the rest of the album as a whole.

The result is a bookend to that 2010 release [Just Across the River], with the same feel and makeup.

There are many (too many?) bands in 2013 playing this kind of raucous garage rock, but thanks to the perfect production, the high-quality hookage in every song, and the nuanced yet powerful performance The Jacuzzi Boys deliver, there are precious few bands doing it better.

Equally as detailed and as entertaining as The ArchAndroid, The Electric Lady likewise is a product of overactive imaginations and detailed concept engineering, and it also plays out like a sci-fi opera-slash-variety program with style and era-hopping galore.

For all the piecemeal recording, technological obsession and sheer ambition on the Fuse, Urban manages to fashion it all into a (mostly) working whole and maintain his identity as a contemporary country artist, even as he reaches for the mainstream pop fences.

NMA's version of Junior Kimbrough's "Meet Me in the City" here almost sounds like power pop, but filtered through a rustic moonshine filter. Every track here is like that, roaring into the 21st century sounding big, urgent, and huge, but so grounded in the local folk-blues tradition that each track seems to carry imprinted DNA that says boogie all over it.

This is vibrant, moody music that showcases a band growing ever stronger with each risk and dare they take.

It's undoubtedly steadier and unified [than its self-titled debut], built for beginning-to-end listening.

Joanna Gruesome make music that's at once breath-catchingly exciting and heartwarmingly pretty at its core, and their first album is one that noise pop fans will treasure, crummy name and all.

This is as complete as we'll get and if it doesn't present any fresh revelations, it brings the Clash's era back to life, both sonically and visually.

Solid performances and a vision beyond the obvious equate to an album that makes more sense than it should and one that pulls immediate gratification out of unexpected places.

2 Chainz is still a punch-line rapper at heart, but B.O.A.T.S. II adds some Bootsy Collins charisma and ambitious ringleader style to his discography. Pick the sequel over the original and get ready for some stinky, dank, and fun me time.

It’s Torrini's most insular yet assured collection of songs to date.

It's a joy to behold.

Fanatics only; everyone else can grab the singles.

As a band, the Vigil is exciting as much for its potential as for the multifaceted talent the group members put on display here.

On Coming Apart, she comes into herself.