Takk... is still very much a Sigur Rós album, due in large part to the ever-present, otherworldly vocals, but also because the only real changes are the activeness of some arrangments.

A game of "name that influence" runs rampant from the album's start to its closing seconds.

Perhaps it's a little disappointing on some level that Love Kraft is merely a very good Super Furry Animals [album], with few surprises outside of its alluring sleekness.

The Weight Is a Gift is Nada Surf's most honest and earnest record to date.

Gold and Green may be the band's most approachable album, but as with all their releases, it's a charming reminder that experimental music doesn't have to sound like it was hard work to make.

An album that's not just one of Yearwood's most entertaining albums, but one of her richest records, in both musical and emotional terms as well.

A radical -- but successful -- departure, We're Animals might have slightly fewer instantly memorable songs than In My Mind All the Time, but it shows that Numbers are continuing to develop and experiment in ways that make this album exciting in a completely different way than their previous work.

Unfortunately, the forced and false-sounding songs outnumber these bright spots by a wide margin.

An impressive 13-song set that's reliably original and streamlined.

A lovely collection of Sunday morning melancholy that's as gentle as it is weary.

It's less glossy than either of its full-length predecessors... and in addition to a bit of grit there is a stronger rhythmic center to what is happening here as well.

Cole's Corner is glorious, magical, and utterly lovely in its vision, articulation, and execution.

What they really are is a 21st century version of a good old Southern rock band who know all too well that the hills of North Mississippi are alive with real folk music.

A strong, engaging, cohesive Rolling Stones album that finds everybody in prime form.

In comparison to the dry, raw production of Transatlanticism, Plans is warm and polished, the kind of album expected from a band obsessed with the sound of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

West and Brion are a good, if unlikely, match.

While that may disappoint some waiting for a masterpiece, there's no shame in mining the same ground as long as they make records as tight and tuneful as this.

Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells is the 2005 American indie rock equivalent of the kind of records the Kinks were making in the Village Green era: parochial, intimate, painfully literate, and pretty close to brilliant.

Though Drawing Restraint 9 is more expansive and abstract than Medúlla, it's in a similarly challenging and rewarding vein.

A joyless experience.

For all its faraway humming and quietly steady pace, Windsor for the Derby has still made a "band" album.

Rocks harder than any Crowell record in the past.

Reliable late-night jams that will appeal to the choir, but not the whole church.

There are no missteps on the album, and the group's faithful will have plenty to rock with. But Don't Tread on Me still feels like one to grow on instead of one to remember.

China is terrifically rewarding.

Both intimate and powerful, Quit +/or Fight is a striking achievement.

Less Than Human might not be what a lot of people expected, but it fits its format as well as any hard-hitting two-track single, and it's a lot more functional than most other albums made by dance artists.

Maritime might be a light, almost frothy album, but that's exactly where its power lies.