Flume's debut certainly fits into a post-2000s club vibe and DJ culture that borrows liberally, and often with inspired aplomb, from cut-and-paste hip-hop, avant-garde electronic composition, ambient pop, and contemporary R&B.

Drawn-in listeners are sure to be rewarded with increased payoffs after multiple listens, but even they may long for the simpler days of "Radar Detector."

We Will Not Harm You does just what it does on the tin, and so much more.

A predilection for brevity and simple pop craftsmanship ultimately tempers their more obstinate tendencies, resulting in a smart, well-executed set of staccato dance-rock anthems that flirt with excess, yet never overstay their welcome.

Not surprisingly, it's the less propulsive numbers that truly resonate on What the Brothers Sang, as Oldham and McCarthy sound less emotionally constricted at a more measured pace, and when they allow their muses to meet, as they do on highlights like "Breakdown," "What Am I Loving For," and the beautiful closer "Kentucky," the results are transcendent.

As a fully realized collaboration, this record sees STRFKR dimming the lights just a little bit and coming into their own more than ever before.

Ford is a rare talent and, for now at least, she's got the right band and seems headed in the right direction, not that Untamed Beast is a transitional album. It's a full-tilt arrival.

All in all, Clash the Truth is exactly the record Beach Fossils should have made at this point, reinforcing all the things that made them good while adding some excellent new wrinkles and boosting the production values.

It delivers some of the most abstract, and most visceral, music in their career.

Much of No World is so slight, tentative, and ill-defined that it easily slips into pleasant background listening for intimate encounters and soul searching.

Granted, Lidell has more of a retro touch than any pop group would dare consider, but these songs are just an AmIdol appearance away from the commercial mainstream.

Iceage have developed a record reaching out in many directions without straining to make any points.

The sonic sea change is deliberate, but given what a vastly musical band the Bad Seeds have always been, this more economical approach is jarring and delightfully unsettling.

While this album's predecessor evidenced his accomplishment in the instrument's creation and operation, The Orchestrion Project reveals that Metheny's possibilities with it have only been tapped.

n. Out of View is an impressive debut but, more than that, it's the sound of shoegaze and early-'90s guitar pop at its best.

Ultimately, Biffy Clyro's gift as a band is to craft songs that balance immediately catchy hooks with complex arrangements that only help to reinforce the drama of the pop moment. Thankfully, there are plenty of these dichotomous yet rapturous moments on Opposites.

Atmospherics and meticulous recording are as important as ever, and while you can take a copy to the stereo shop to make sure that amp sounds rich and warm enough, the album is slightly more song-based than previous efforts, so finicky fans might gripe when the lyrics go quite Depeche Mode or James Blake.

As with the first album things follow a basic title format of band name and number, giving the sense of installations in a larger process. Sometimes that results in things that steer away from re-creation to new inspiration.

This is one to keep handy when graceful and cool are what's required, since Pillowfight are happy when it rains, and happiest when it mists at twilight.

Everyone in the band is a seasoned Nashville vet, so while they never sound like they're trying to consciously stretch the limits of bluegrass, they do so just by being themselves.

Untogether's aloof beauty comes as something of a surprise given how free-flowing and whimsical Blooming Summer was, but while this change takes some getting used to, it's an impressive debut from a group that has taken the time--and space--to refine and develop its sound.

While any new album from Shorter is an event at this juncture, Without a Net is special even among the recordings made by this outstanding group.

The casual listener might think it drifts too much, but fans who wrap it up in the Slaughterhouse universe will find it's a somewhat jumbled effort with plenty of literate, thoughtful writing to explore.

Oh, Mayhem! won't make anyone forget Palomine, but it is an amazingly strong album that shows they have plenty of life left in them. And truth be told, this isn’t really that far off from Palomine.

More comforting than revelatory, M B V reaffirms that My Bloody Valentine are one of a kind; the subtlety to their melodies, instrumentation, and the way they blur together belongs to them alone.

Ultimately, Anna is something of a return to form after Falcon, but still lacks the spark of the Courteeners' early days.

While it makes for pleasant music to have on while you are sleeping away the afternoon in a cubicle or fighting insomnia late at night, the album is something of a letdown for anyone who, not unreasonably, came to it expecting something a little more interesting from Schnauss.

A heady and quirky mix of Regina Spektor, Leslie Feist, and Joni Mitchell, the second album from Nataly Dawn, the female half of heady and quirky indie pop duo Pomplamoose, is held together by the French- and Belgium-raised, Stanford-educated, American singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist's gift for gab, unique phrasing, and sophisticated musicality.