[Producer Ryan Adams] allows Johns’ emotionally driven music to simply and effectively do its job, capturing a two day moment in time that will continue to resonate for years.

Live From Atlanta is a more effective career retrospective for the alt-country stalwarts than any formal greatest hits compilation could ever be.

Established fans will appreciate the trip back in time and perhaps acquire new respect for the more obscure tracks such as “Persuasion.” But those new to Richard Thompson are just as likely to relish these terrific songs played and sung by a master still at the top of his game and wise enough to realize he actually can improve on the originals.

For the first time, a new Spoon LP feels like business as usual, a creative step sideways.

While O’Connor never really went anywhere, this self-assured and confident release feels like a comeback. It has elements of what made her so strong and startling back on her still dynamic 1987 debut but tempered and matured with the wisdom of a quarter century of experience.

For all the eccentric performances and approaches, it’s hard to warm up to these songs.

By any standards, this is an expansive, terrific and lovingly curated set that displays the impressive life’s work of a classy, talented, journeyman rocker yet to find the commercial or critical acclaim he deserves.

As befits his sideman status, McLagan is neither a particularly riveting vocalist nor songwriter--some of his lyrics are rudimentary bordering on simplistic--but he makes the most of his limitations by sheer heartfelt resolve.

Hypnotic Eye is a bastion of consistent excellence.

The contrast of light and dark has always driven the Raveonettes’ music, but it’s especially effective on this beautifully realized collection that shows the couple to have plenty of tricks left in their already unique and compelling sonic bag.

Where Cale would experiment with horns, vibes, female backing vocals and even restrained orchestration, these tracks stay rooted in a respectful if rather heavy lidded closet.

On stage, the stretched out pieces allow the group to more seamlessly stitch their tapestry together, a talent that isn’t quite as effective in this occasionally inspired but just as often hectic studio set.

Ultimately you wish they would have put more effort into what seems to be a really relaxed, yet not lackadaisical release.

For all its timid trepidation, Stay Gold is an ambitious sounding record, full of massive hooks, and expansive arrangements.

Because the sound is so jam-packed with instrumentation, and Martin’s voice so often bouncing about in the same patters, the sound can sometimes get a little muddy--a little salt to cut the sweetness would have been welcome here and there.

Stripped of the beefy, full-band arrangements of The Constantines, Webb loses none of his potency. He’s just found a way to channel it without cranking up the volume.

The Voyager, however, is Lewis’ most cohesive and powerful set of songs since her Rilo Kiley days.

The result is a warm, generally introspective but far from musty set that revels in predominantly acoustic material sung with Hiatt’s increasingly gruff, whiskeyed voice.

World Peace is an album that rewards patience, and the deeper one goes into it, the more fun there is to be had.

More than anything, it’s refreshing to hear an artist with Bird’s skill set bring to life a set of songs that deserve an audience far beyond the small cult that has already discovered them.

Based on its variety and power, Strand Of Oaks’ Heal seems like that special kind of album that can serve as a temporary buffer for others just as the aforementioned artists did for Showalter.

Bauer has been sitting on these feelings for over a decade, but he chose a great way to share them.

X presents Ed Sheeran in somewhat of an identity crisis. Still, it’s fascinating to hear him work out whether he’s a hopeless romantic or just a guy who thinks romance is hopeless.

There are highlights here but not enough to leave all but the most rabid Black Crowes fans hoping for much better from a once riveting frontman who can’t seem to consistently catch that ever elusive groove he so effortlessly used to harness.

The high bar he has set with a tremendous back catalog makes us yearn for just a bit more out of Mutineers.

This may be a side project or a one-off, except in many ways the sum exceeds the (very distinguished) parts in terms of emotional effect.

This is challenging Americana that never takes its audience, or its influences, for granted.

Band of Brothers is Willie Nelson’s first album of largely self-penned tunes in almost two decades, but on his latest, Nelson mostly proves he’s still as sharp a vocalist as ever.