This is a high point in his already illustrious career; a labyrinthine and ultramodern take on hip-hop that will likely age like a Cabernet.

Oceania isn't a great record, but it's a strong enough one, filled with songs that sound like the Smashing Pumpkins you remember.

The National Health is not a poor effort, it's just woefully undistinguished.

Slaughterhouse is one of the most vital and animal rock records in a recent memory.

Handsome almost in spite of itself, The Idler Wheel is poignant, nuanced and quietly unforgettable.

With some rather boring compositions and hokey songwriting, this record doesn't have a lot going for it.

Oshin is undeniably a record tailored for driving around with some friends in the dead heat of summer, but the music also packs a range of raw emotions.

It's modern sounding, and everything seems to fall into place; the lyrics, the concept, the music, the band chemistry, even the booklet artwork is great.

It's an album that alternates between being rewarding and punishing.

The record sounds tired, dreamy, and wasted in the daylight at five in the afternoon– it tries to be breezy, but instead still feels like 99 degrees of heat.

It's ambitious, diverse, unique, and tonally and aesthetically complex.

Imperfect it may be, but as a concise and focused return, its is an unequivocal triumph.

The surrounding material is all solid, if not to be ranked as some of her best stuff.

All Of Us, Together isn't an attempt to disown his early work and roots. Jamison just made the record he felt like making, and that's why it so easily matches his best material.

[The songs'] punchiness and repetitiveness can quickly get on one's nerves, depending on your disposition.

An Usher album that is good, but not great.

As major label rap debut albums go, Live from the Underground is a relative anomaly in that the artist seems to have escaped with most of his integrity intact.

It's bold, cathartic, and essential; a candidate for not only one of 2012's best, but one of the most important records in all of American soul.

There's a lot of kinda clichéd and heavy-handed stuff.

It's sharp songwriting, strong, emotive vocals, and unostentatious attitude lead to three of the most unassumingly replayable pop songs of the year.

Rinse Presents: Brackles is one of the strongest and most immediate full-length UK bass debuts in some time and one that exceeds the promise of a young producer's previous potential.

The album struggles to find a particular voice, and make any sort of statement, leaving me more than a couple of steps off using the album's own title to describe my opinion of it.

As a whole, Lex Hives serves the same purpose as just about every Hives album thus far: dance, let yourself go, and have a good time.

There's No Leaving Now is one of the best albums of the year.

WIXIW is simply a Liars album that exceeds expectations and throws a sonic left curve that not only impresses, but reminds us how talented this band is.

This isn't yet Tucker's masterpiece. But it's surely a step in that direction.

Prophet is both eclectic and balanced, and the powerful imagination behind it makes it easier to forgive the occasional overindulgence.