Instead of exposing any weaknesses, the group has highlighted their strengths by stripping things back to their essentials for A Vintage Burden.

Mathy, but hyper melodic, it packs more ideas into forty minutes than most releases that are much longer. Stern has clearly side-stepped the sophomore slump.

With the new directions in sound, there are a couple places where the group stumbles just a bit.

For a debut, it's a remarkabley inventive and interesting release.

It's kind of a mess in places.

It's probably not substantial enough that it will stick in my head all year (and possibly not even until the ground thaws), but it is a highly enjoyable pop album from a young group who are riding some hype and getting slapped with backlash at the same time.

It's a psychadelic haze of an album with layers upon layers of sound, many tracks so dense that lead singer Isobel Sollenberger just becomes another element.

An excellent third album from the Swedish trio, Writer's Block should make sure that the group remains in obscurity no more.

It feels more like a band effort, allowing itself to breathe a little more in places.

Point is playful and fun, and although it sometimes sounds like different tracks are constructed exactly the same as others, just with different instruments, it also makes for a much more cohesive release than his debut.

If you like well-constructed pop/rock music with female vocals, it's definitely worth a look.

There's a lot of great moments here, but is the least consistent album from the group in awhile.

While there aren't any downright bad tracks on The Magic Position, it does have several places where it seems to lose a bit of focus before honing back in on things again.

Spaced-out and seriously hypnotic, Where You Go I Go Too is one of those releases that is custom-made for late summer evenings. It's not too loud, but at the same time has enough of a pulse to be a guide for steady movement.

While these experiments don't always quite work, at the very least the group isn't falling into a rut.

Would most likely appeal to everyone from fans of Will Oldham and Palace Music to everyone who bought the recent Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and wanted to branch out a bit into some slightly (but still thematically similar) territory.

If you've listened to any amount of industrial music at all, chances are that you've already heard about every variation of mid-tempo, snarling track, and unfortunately several of those make an appearence on this disc as well.

Everything feels a slight bit too polished, but that's not a huge fault.

I find Venice quite beautiful and downright stunning in places, yet simply good in others.

Although the music of the group has taken quite a few strides forward, it is also once again the voice of Trish Keenan that holds everything together.

There are several places where the disc seems to lapse into very familiar territory, and at other times it definitely feels like it's coasting a bit.

It's a solid return to form.

It's perfect for backing music, but has enough going on that you might find yourself seeing mirages as well.

A highly enjoyable album that doesn't beg to be parsed too deeply.

Sounds sort of like a cross between a more mainstream New Order and Daft Punk.

Like Belle And Sebastian, one of the main weaknesses of the group is that they're just to darn precious at times for their own good.

The Private Press is not only more ambitious, but simply more all over the place as well (which makes for brilliant moments as well as some inconsistent ones).

As a debut full-length, the group is definitely doing some excellent stuff, but like any band that gets swept up by the hype machine, you may be disappointed if you expect too much.