Contraband pushes Taylor's music forward, if by short, measured steps, and the qualities that make him the 21st century's classic bluesman keep his sound deep and true.

Vee Vee is a ballsy record, and hard to love.

With a sympathetic producer in Don Was, who worked with Ryder in the 1990s with his own Motor City band Was (Not Was), Ryder is able to make a late-career statement that stands tall alongside anything he's ever done.

The overall sound feels live, where Van's ear-splitting power chords might drop out briefly during a verse, only to return right when it's time to drive things home.

Most of the record finds organic urban grooves, frosts them with sweet pop-soul hooks and serves them up hot and fluffy.

Shimmering and ethereal, A Church That Fits Our Needs finds the band as ambitious as ever.

If this is his starting point, his future seems limitless.

He knows exactly how to build and sustain interest in a song, even the ones that don't hit you over the head with obvious hooks.

The level of familiarity turns out to be one of the records strong suits, and something that distinguishes it from the Bragg/Wilco records.

The band seem as if they're still evolving and putting new ideas into play without a definitive idea of where they're heading. No worries though; Delta Spirit's spirited impulses are clearly capable of determining any new direction.

Lung of Love come[s] across like another breath of fresh air.

It looks like Bruce Springsteen finally has some help defending Jersey's street cred.

With that, this Wrecking Ball is more about a carnival of living souls moving in solidarity than a giant iron orb meant to destroy.

The most noticeable thing about the new Xiu Xiu album is ... how disarmingly vibrant it sounds.

The time apart from one another has given the band a more expansive sound and Dirty Three have pushed themselves to create one of the most dynamic releases in the catalog.

Taken in tandem, both CD and DVD provide an intriguing look at an album that ranks as one of the most dramatic accomplishments in modern Rock realms.

Those two indelible songs ["Small Bright Doses" and "Rogue Highway"] alone more than warrant the price of admission, but while the rest of the album is far more ambiguous, its dream-like melodies and beguiling intrigue provide plenty of reason to succumb to its spell.

Tunes that are both brainy and catchy, full of life.

A progressive dance-pop album that, maybe because of her background, feels a heck of a lot hipper than what her new genre counterparts can offer.

If you like good tunes cranked up on pogo beats, you can hardly do better than Meltdown

The Something Rain is not just the band's best since they reconvened in 2008; measured against their earlier work, these nine songs shadow the younger Tindersticks in all kinds of compelling ways, trading in youthful adventure for expert-like craftsmanship.

This is quite overtly a party record.

The news is, basically, modest: On the whole, Hairdresser Blues picks up where the first album left off.

Black Radio would have been more successful if the music used some of jazz's subtle spontaneity in the arrangements instead of satisfying itself by going for the easy laidback vibe.

The more I listen to Jonquil, the more I l-u-v these guys.

Temple Beautiful is the product you expect from this highly original and creative artist.

Underrated Silence is never less than pretty, and often strikingly so, yet it lacks the grit that might make these compositions emotionally involving.

Methinks come the end of the year, a lot of people will have adjudged it a keeper.

Musically, Plumb is both rapturous and jumpy.

The trademark ingredients that turned Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass into seminal classics are retained via Olson's yearning vocals, the sun splashed harmonies and their adept meld of Americana, vintage West Coast rock, strings and psychedelia.

What sets the Fray apart is that they use their music to tell other people's stories in literate, compelling ways.

This is pure, un-concentrated psychedelic boogie rock rooted in West Coast mysticism, Stax R&B and Memphis blues without pretext or pretense.

She's taken a more reflective direction that emphasizes tenderness over tenacity and subtlety above sizzle.

Hellfire is a brilliant album with no weak cuts.

Flumina is an arresting and beautiful work as deep and open as the body of water that graces its cover art.

While it's hard to shake Heartless Bastards' unforgettable prior release The Mountain (2009), Arrow is indeed pointed in the right direction with a fresh sound.

While the intricacies of Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads could be exhausting to a casual listener, those with attentive ears will be enamored by the myriad sonic nuances present in the album.

With heart on his sleeve, Wagner opts for sobriety, but when those strings swell, the effect can be intoxicating.

Van Halen have found their dazzle without a hassle.

Jurado still seems fully intent on liberating his music while evading expectation.

Jordanian remains pleasantly understated as a frontman, letting his voice and knack for raw melodies take the focus.

Melodic, dark and captivating.

Throughout the tunes, you can hear that McCartney loves the language of the old songs. He enjoys the phraseology, tickles and teases each lyrical phrase. You can hear that he's waited forever to do as much such as this.

Thomas' honesty, as much as any performance herein, is the commanding factor overall, making it easy, and in fact, all but unavoidable, to fall in love With Love.

This album is just a few hairs (a couple of tracks and/or segues) short of being a transcendent gem, or masterpiece.

The Black Session is a fitting testament to the current state of one of the English underground's most unshakable acts.

Their often-dark songs have a triumphant dimension.

The 5 songs in 16 minutes breeze by, barely after you've had a chance to absorb them, leave you hungering for more.

Not all of the songs are hits ("Met Before" falls way short as a flat, unmemorable filler), but it's much more cohesive and really helps Chairlift establish a more recognizable sound.

Points in a direction that he'd almost certainly be wise to follow on future projects.

Wallop[s] you upside the head with an acid-induced mash-up of rollicking glam, gunky metal and ghetto-fabulous art rock.

Born to Die has more hits than misses and more solidly strange fabulously femme fatale interludes than naff ones.

Leonard Cohen has made the best full album of his career (song for song, sound for sound, lyrical point for point; yes, this is true) and most certainly the best album of 2012.

No one could have predicted that they'd get to Attack on Memory's savage impact so quickly, or indeed, at all. No telling where they'll go from here.

It may seem a somewhat unassuming entry, but regardless, We Love Our Country creates a favorable first impression.

Ultimately, Old Mad Joy may not signal the breakthrough that this outfit deserves, but by rekindling the savvy sound techniques that have taken them this far, hopefully the rest of the world will catch up soon enough.

One Man Mutiny isn't perfect, but it's a highly listenable album from a man who's seen it all.

He delivers a stirring counterpoint to Quartet with an atmospheric combination of organic and digital feels that offers a stirring dual portrait of the landscape of his motherland.

He delivers a drastic shift in style that anyone enrapt with the gauzy pop euphoria of the first two Crayon Fields classics never saw coming.

She is better than you would expect, flexing a style that exists between Woody Guthrie and Def Jux as she calls out hypocritical hippies, turtle burning oil companies and the overdose that nearly killed her with effortless wit and grace.

Hospitality's debut is a sugar-rush of an album, albeit one given acerbic snap by Papini's delivery.

With Feel The Sound, it's only the music that matters and the urge to enjoy it couldn't be more compelling.

This is more adventurous fare but never forgoes its footing in melody land--well, with the exception of the off-putting "Rolling," a short track that unfortunately opens the record and sounds like a symphony warm-up with six instruments headed in different directions.

There's plenty more good and bad.

Urick is a remarkable electronic musician who pushes mainstream music to its outer limits, and as the listener explores those outer limits, expect goose bumps to appear on the skin.

Despite being together for more than 35 years, their sound is tight and refined without sounding tired.

It could easily pass for one of the group's previous efforts. Anyone familiar with the Weakerthans' catalog will realize immediately that's a good thing.

He and his group put everything they could into every track--or at least the every one collected here.

This is a wonderful, subtle album, whose songs seem simple at first, but open up and grow more interesting on repeated listens.

A good rock record is a good rock record, and The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy is a good rock record.

Finn's compelling without the usual bluster that provides him momentum--his voice never approaches its old roar but his nice melodic sense comes out here more.

Given this combination of tangled travails and expressive voices, it's hard to imagine any way these songs might be better served.

Reconvened 17 years later, Cardinal shows their hushed melodies and chamber pop sensibilities gel just as well now as they did originally.

Voyageur resonates with the kind of drama and daring that Edwards has been perfecting all along.

The melodies aren't so easily embraced; loping, ephemeral and often sounding blithely disconnected, they defy any attempt at grasping an easy hook or chorus. What's more, the loose grooves sometimes run counter to the tunes' sense of profundity.

Bruiser is an entrancing album from start to finish and a promising peek into what The Duke Spirit's future holds.

This music is big enough for a hall, but soft and heartfelt enough for the quietest corner.

All this adds to a gentle atmosphere of regret, of unhurried contemplation of things and people who are no longer around us.

The combination of hardcore punk songwriting and a pop tunesmith's sense of melody and composition gives the latest venture for this DC scene giant an appeal entirely unique to its branch on the family tree.

While some of the beats seem recycled from Thursday or House of Balloons they still sound good and don't detract from the songs [here].

This collection should be as essential to your listening rotation as your favorite album from any of the bands who continually drank from the unique brand of introspective intensity pioneered by these unsung heroes of indie rock's mean season.

This is fun music, gut music, music you can freak out to or just nod your head, depending on your mood.

He's a vibrant and, indeed, impassioned performer and Bad Ingredients is filled with enough passion and conviction to spark an entire orchestra. And a rousing ensemble at that.

Let's Go Eat The Factory proves that the pioneers of lo-fi still do it best.

Wussy reaches for transcendence and finds it. You wish it would go on forever.

There is nary a pair of finer testaments to the purity of the original SP sound than the group's first two albums, both of which have been beautifully remastered and generously expanded [here].

No other LP is more evocative of the raw essence of the Smashing Pumpkins' unique fusions of feels than this ten track collection, by far and away the most collaborative album in their canon.... This deluxe edition of Gish is chock-a-block with quality bonus material.

These songs may not scan perfectly or make much objective sense, but they feel very real and relevant and uncalculated.

Another exquisite solo performance entitled Rio.

[An] excellent record that anyone who wants to hear the graceful way by which hip-hop should age should add to their collections right away.

The combination of the two disparate methods of performance made for quite an extraordinary menagerie of styles that will definitely appeal to hip-hop, art pop and world music fans alike.

On balance, then, exactly 68.5% of this record is worth listening to.

What's been created across this baker's dozen tracks is nothing short of a poignant, powerful referendum on the state of modern England that cements CG's place as one of the finest and most resilient indie acts to emerge from the UK.

Gonzalez paints broad strokes on this vast musical landscape, and although a wee long, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming may be his conceptual masterpiece.

It's a happy, bright trance, not necessarily to be avoided. C'mon. Dive in.

Bennett harbors a magic about him that inspires you to become caught up in the beauty of his performance prowess regardless of what artist is playing second banana to him on the microphone.

Count Yer Lucky Stars is sure to be high on the critics' picks again and finally garnering the band the limelight they so richly deserve.

Eno appreciators who maintain a sense of trust in everything he does will definitely want to add this to their collection.