It's the sound of three guys blasting their way out of suburban torpor.

There are certainly times when a bit more instrumentation (a cello, some percolating percussion, a lyrical guitar solo) would have enhanced the presentation.

Ultimately, The House at Sea provides an ideal aural retreat, a tranquil locale where calm waters create minimal waves.

Something this eerie has rarely sounded so enticing.

His latest is a bit of a challenge, but worth it for those willing to put in the time.

Looks can be deceiving, especially when you have an album's worth of decent songs to back you up. And despite a so-so start on their debut full length, they do.

Yin & Yang is an earth shattering 45 minutes of street urchin dub punk that not only reveals This Is PiL for the anti-climactic milquetoast sham that it was, but re-establishes the true soul of Public Image as it was originally intended by the vast sum of its initial parts.

The album opens, confusingly, with an electro-funk groove that becomes a trippy, multi-vocal chorale. Most of what follows is sprightly power-pop with psychedelic touches, dreamy asides and occasional dance-club thumps.

Scholarly stuff this, but also an intriguing reinvention that makes this an ideal marriage of folk and finesse.

Give Me All You Got is as seductive and enticing as its name implies because clearly, Rodriguez is giving all she has as well.

Mountains composes the soundtrack to dreams you didn't know you had.

His music has gotten more complex, more tuneful and more energetic. In Focus? is Tokumaru's most uptempo album, although that doesn't mean it's his most rocking.

With consistently strong songwriting and an intrepid grasp on its own talent, the Joy Formidable has in Wolf's Law a near-perfect follow-up record: it moves the band forward while staying true to what made it appealing and exciting in the first place.

There are new elements here, but they've been brought into a foundation so strong they cannot help but fit in on only on Yo La Tengo's terms.

Fortunately, the band that helped establish the early indie ethos remains as odd and unrepentant as ever.

As Toro Y Moi is mirroring sounds from genres past, Anything in Return sounds all too familiar.

The new album's a stunning return to, and expansion from, seminal Ubu form.

What James Brooks has accomplished as Land Observations should easily make Roman Roads IV - XI a record anyone in tune with the works of such new school guitar giants as Christian Fennesz and Dustin Wong must hear now.

Buddy & Jim in tandem is twice as nice and two of a kind.

Like other such endeavors-acoustic re-imaginings, that is-the results aren't that poor. They're just boring.

The Odds show that Fugazi doesn't need to reunite in order to make music that still very much matters.

This isn't the sound of a once-renowned band trying to cash in on their glory days; it's the sound of a band invigorated.

With its relaxing, wordless waves of pastoral hums and harmonies, LUX rightfully earns its place amongst such classic works by one of the great masters of sonic exploration.

Heavy Mood has some good songs on it, but if you'd ask me which way to point I'd still say Bottoms of Barrels (the band's 3rd record).

For those who have been along for the ride since the beginning this anthology is like unlocking a shiny, new bonus track for each of Gibbard's efforts since Something About Airplanes.

Weird, raw and beautiful all at once.

In the last ten or fifteen years, only 2005's Magic Time has delivered more consistently enjoyable songs than this thoroughly captivating collection of rants, loves, and dreams.

Cut the World isn't a major new statement from Antony Hegarty, since only one of its 11 songs are new and he's no stranger to using string arrangements. But the material is mostly the cream of his four studio albums.