The band cultivates a rich collection of emotionally complex instrumental soul, with precise musicianship meeting inspired production and a deeply studied obsession with the often sampled and less often acknowledged obscure geniuses of soul music.

By Your Side is a charming debut from a producer with an instantly appealing sound.

This uneasy listening provides a masterful backdrop for Anderson's film and also makes for fascinating listening in its own right, while once again separating Greenwood from more predictable composers.

For anyone who has followed the band, Autotheism feels like part of a logical evolution, with the band expanding its sound from album to album before really cutting loose and diving headfirst into more heady waters.

If you're looking for music that will fire up the honky tonk all night long, All Over the Road sure isn't it, but if you want to dance close with your baby after a few beers on a Saturday night, Easton Corbin's the man to see.

As it stands, its mix of tiny triumphs and incomplete ramblings will make all but Friedberger's most die-hard fans long for a Fiery Furnaces reunion.

It might take some time for older fans to adjust--its punk energy aims for the calves more frequently than the neck--but Sorry to Bother You contains some of the Coup's most vehement and focused output.

Unlike White Trash with Money, there is no unifying sound or theme here: it's just a satisfying set of strong songs.

Nothing here indicates they won't continue to rank among progressive music's leading explorers, well beyond those temporal musical fashions discussed earlier.

While the fury he displayed on Total Decay is sometimes missed, by the time "sdnE tI" brings the album full circle (or is that full zero?), it reveals Zeros as some of the Soft Moon's most fully realized and satisfying music.

While it is a meditation on Christmas, it makes no attempt to manipulate the listener's feelings. Instead, with its sheer musical quality, and the depth of tenderness and empathy in Thorn's voice, it highlights the season's complexities in the face of everyday life.

As far as graduations from mixtapes to major-label releases go, this one is still satisfying and a step forward, plus slicked up and pimped out in a way that's entirely Maybach.

Produced in the same Luddite fashion as Break it Yourself, Hands of Glory takes that austerity one step further by recording all of the proceedings on a single microphone, resulting in a set that sounds both out of time and incredibly immediate.

This is Christmas music that can be enjoyed by those who otherwise loathe it.

While there are still some bright pop moments and interestingly demented freakouts like "Who's Running My Ranch," the album as a whole feels more hollow than even Pollard's sometimes tossed-off song fragments.

Made Possible finds the Bad Plus openly wrestling with the complex interrelationship between rhythm, harmony, and improvisation (individual and collective). It offers a more inviting aural view of the group confronting these questions, and the historic weight and imposing boundaries associated with "the piano trio" in jazz.

This is by no means an embarrassing stroll down memory lane. It can be quite fun, actually, even if it is somewhat baffling.

The high points are so affecting and brief as to provoke small acts of violent ebullience, like the destruction of fragile objects on shelves. But it will never tire. It's another remarkable achievement in magician-MPC interface.

All in all, though Bugg's debut may not share the wordy precociousness of Conor Oberst's formative steps or the political astuteness of Willy Mason on Where the Humans Eat, it's his sheer earnestness and rare gift for writing simple, hook-filled tunes that ultimately charms the listener.

There's little here that suggests Swedish House Mafia is more than the sum of its parts, and as Axwell, Angello, and Ingrosso split into three equally powered powerhouses, it seems this supergroup was more a fun lark than a focused project. Still, it's as fun as larks come.

On these songs Banks fashions more of an identity for himself as a solo artist outside of anything he's done before, and arguably works even harder here to separate himself from his established project. Some of Banks' songs feel unpredictable even after a few listens.

Going into this with no expectations should prove to be beneficial.

While Sugarland's alien rawness is missed occasionally, Sunshine reveals a Talk Normal that is a little more immediate and a lot more assured.

Maybe there's a touch more swagger than solutions on the set, but Minneapolis' secret weapon really should have saved the title of his previous set, Never Better, for this one.

Free Dimensional lives up to its name by serving up lots of sparkling pop with depth as well as heart and brains.

cal Business is an afternoon barfly telling his problems to anyone willing to listen and stump up for a drink, and fortunately for listeners, this drunk has a lyric book that they'll want to spend some time with.

Blak and Blu's production (by Rob Cavallo and Mike Elizondo in collaboration with Clark) is too polished and processed for its own good, but if this album isn't likely to change your life, it will make an hour of it a lot more interesting, and there's no arguing that Gary Clark, Jr. is a talent strong enough to match his record company's hype.

Focus and restraint might not sound exciting in and of themselves, but The Haunted Man is more direct than any of Bat for Lashes' previous work, and manages to keep the air of mystique around Khan that has made her one to watch and listen to since her early days.