Solid yet understated, it's Hannigan's obvious gift for melody, tasteful arrangements, and remarkably emotive elocution (when her voice breaks, the heart follows suit) that keeps Passenger afloat, while the world schemes and churns beneath.

In a way, this is overkill indeed--over 100 minutes of remixes for a 40-minute album. However, it's also fascinating to hear how this current crop of producers--spanning abstract hip-hop, house, dubstep, bass music, and experimental techno, all selected by Thom Yorke--twists, bends, adjusts, and appropriates the source material.

The melodies remain fuzzily in focus, so Ashes & Fire winds up as ever-shifting mood music, sustaining an appealingly lazy haze residing somewhere south of melancholy.

New Blood isn't always as astonishing but that's fine.

While nobody expects cohesiveness from these guys, Monkeytown is at least commendably concise--their leanest and tightest offering yet.

It's a testament to Hawthorne's songwriting ability that this wall is easily scaled after one or two listens, and that the man sounds more natural and loose than on his debut might be this album's greatest asset, making the vulgar drops and other nods to the present feel less mannered than before.

yron Gallimore, who previously produced Sugarland and Faith Hill, gives Wildflower an appealing gloss that helps disguise the ordinariness of the material along with any of Alaina's shortcomings, and that slickness serves Wildflower well, making it a much more enjoyable piece of product than McCreery's Clear as Day.

There's a cohesiveness issue that keeps this one off their top shelf, but Erasure have settled nicely into that groove that the best veteran bands often do.

Loyal fans of underground hip-hop already know he's earned that crown on the cover, and with this purposefully packaged showcase now in place, the uninitiated have no excuse.

Educational and emotional in a uniquely approachable way, these songs are a lovely part of a bigger picture.

The Suicide-meets-Can growl that opens "Green and Blue," for instance, may be a familiar element in other revivals, but Cronin puts enough of a hooky spin on the feedback rampage to help make it stand out as the album's first down-the-line success.

Red is a strong step forward for a very promising band that arrived with an intriguing voice already established and has now made it even richer and more interesting.

These quintessential Rifles offerings may appease those deterred by the album's unexpected wistful nature, but Freedom Run's inherent charm has the potential to elevate the band into the big league, regardless of how many longterm fans stay on board or jump ship.

A Dramatic Turn of Events, while not a perfect offering, has enough of what makes Dream Theater attractive to make it a necessary purchase for fans.

Until Morrison manages to infuse some of this raw honesty and emotion into his sound, he's always going to struggle to create that one great record that his impassioned and soulful voice deserves.

As life seems to move at an ever-faster pace and information threatens to overload, Breakers offers an uneasy but welcome respite if we just take the time to listen.

Luckily, the majority of Gracious Tide, Take Me Home plays to the band's beautifully swooning strengths, and in doing so, produces one of the most majestic debuts from a British act this year.

Tarwater's continual evolution into something other than what it was before, however subtle each individual step might be, proceeds as ever on 2011's Inside the Ships, the group's 11th full-length.

It makes you wish the two talented guys behind the record would chuck their day jobs and just keep making records this good together instead.

Most of Modern Love is almost meticulously inoffensive, shot through with a middle-of-the-road approach that rarely overswings or underwhelms.

Ultimately, comparing For True to Backatown is pointless: they are of a piece. While you may prefer one over the other, they are, in essence, two parts of a compelling and dynamic musical aesthetic that is firmly in and of the 21st century, as they look back at history and forward to create it.

While most film trilogies adhere to the law of diminishing returns, World War III's clever storytelling and unexpected shifts in sound show that Madina Lake have wisely saved the best till last.

Cattle Core may well have a future as a metal subgenre, but Hank3 may want to shoot for an EP or a single next time rather than filling up a whole CD as he does on Cattle Callin.

It may not be as pretty as Red Devil Dawn or as road trip-ready as Forfeit/Fortune, but Breaks in the Armor has got more gas in the tank than either of them.

Although the album seems like silly fun on the surface, there is enough complexity to the interlocking synth lines and clattering rhythms to give the music some weight.

Deeper into Dream is, ironically, far more captivating when it appears to want to send listeners to sleep.

The album deliver psychedelic pop with an expansive, cinematic feeling, letting listeners get lost in its slow, drifting melodies.

[The second version of Just in Love is] a minor blip on an otherwise immensely entertaining and enjoyable pop record--inspired, tons of fun, and positioning Joe Jonas as a worthy successor to Justin.