Vedder never has been ashamed of his bleeding heart... it's refreshing to have a record where that heart is pushed toward the center, beating fully and proudly on his lightest, sweetest album yet.

This album perhaps best shows the duo able to capture the sense of drone as exaltation, something derived from the choice of instruments used, whether old keyboards, guitars, effects pedals, or further combinations and extrapolations as desired.

Heavy on atmosphere and hooks alike, Pleasure comes one bounding step closer in the eternal quest to marry refined song craft and ungovernable noise.

At this point, EDD will probably never get the recognition they deserve, but those in the know are sure glad they're still at it.

Based on the theme of technology and the power it holds over modern life, its 14 tracks showcase Skinner's trademark hip-hop witticisms.

Adhering to the old-school MC/producer approach, Well-Done is a promising and cohesive affair which proves Bronson has the raw talent to match his much talked about appetite.

In Case You Didn't Know is assuredly going to help Murs become one of Britain's finest national male pop stars for the next little while.

Live at the South Bank is an artfully and spiritually satisfying coda to a long and criminally underappreciated career.

The end result of this is an album that'll come as a blast from the past for the band's fans and should easily get heads nodding with its affably introspective lyrics and huge choruses.

There are times throughout its ten tracks when Lloyd does appear to be testing the patience of even her most ardent fans.

200 Years is as subtle as they come and makes for excellent background music, especially if you're feeling fragile.

Music for Confluence may lack the usual highs and lows associated with film scores, but it more than compensates for them with its sad, yet lovely strangeness.

Produced by Rancid member and Hellcat Records owner Tim Armstrong, Jimmy Cliff's Sacred Fire EP is a wonderful jumble of time and place that ends much too soon.

Ultimately, 777: The Desanctification is a worthy answer to its predecessor, even as it expresses the more experimental side of Blut Aus Nord's sound arsenal.

Mirrorwriting is an encouraging first offering which should neatly fill the spacious, indie R&B gap until the XX's next record comes along, but if it could have sustained the quality of its opening six tracks, it could have been much better.

Haley's output can be enjoyed in one-track doses or complete immersion, and it often inspires YouTube users to upload unofficial videos incorporating fuzzy, dreamlike images from early- to mid-'80s television and film clips.

Bittersweet and incredibly catchy, Endless Now is the kind of album that just gets better with repeated listening.

Burning with a hot track intensity somewhere in between early evening rave-up and late-night club afterglow, Torches is a beacon of melodic dance-pop love.

Murderbot delivers the goods necessary to get people on the floor and moving their feet without resorting to standard four-on-the-floor cliches.

Like all BSP records, Valhalla Dancehall aims for the nosebleed section while remaining oddly detached.

Epic riffs play a bigger part than before, but Abasi is as jaw-dropping as ever with his double-tapping technique and arpeggiated whirlwind solos.

A cohesive but slightly repetitive affair, Ecstatics International occasionally matches the euphoria of its obvious influences, but it's perhaps a little too aimless to propel Swimming into the big league.

This combination of a tight, talented band and a tortured frontman doesn't necessarily make Falling in Reverse a revelatory band, but is does make The Drug in Me Is You a very solid album that will give fans of Radke's a chance to get reacquainted with the notorious post-hardcore bad boy.

The nostalgia-heavy lyrical bent of some songs can read either sweet or cringe-worthy, depending on your birth date and sensitivity to sentiment.

Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland chronicles a typically strong, consistent Rush show.

Southern Rock Opera should be required listening not only for fans of the genre, but anyone interested in the history of '70s rock, or even the history of the South in that decade.

No surprises in terms of material, but the presentation is exquisite, sounding familiar and fresh, a stunning re-presentation of records that were teetering on the edge of over-familiarity.

Inclusions is not an album for any typical audience, though those with more esoteric and adventurous tastes may embrace it.