What we have here is another excellent Chris Smither album, reason enough for celebration.

It captures the band's rambunctious, not-especially-reverent approach to Ethio-jazz.

This is a just a great sounding record. In truth; just great, period.

Each three-minute zinger is an aptly kilned piece so crossly pollinated, it should be studied.

This is the merde, and essential for anyone interested in the history of alternative dance and 80s electronic and industrial musics.

The the three original albums -- I Just Can't Stop It, Wha'ppen? and Special Beat Service, from '80, '81 and '82 respectively, still hold together well....The Complete Beat offers completists an ideal opportunity to ditch that well-worn vinyl and get in the groove with a compendium that puts all the music in one place.

A magical must.

Never before has there been a band that has brought all those elements [Crazy Horse, Television, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Dream Syndicate] together in a manner so crafted and explosive as these kids do with their fevered compound of ragged rock and summertime roll.

To drag out a well worn cliché, The Best of Quantic is the proverbial embarrassment of riches, but boy is that true. This is just a feast of plenty for anyone interested at all in smart, sophisticated, well conceived and recorded global music in the 21st century.

Excellent.

Throughout this very odd but engaging album, she manages to slip and slide over the exposed guts of the blues without contradicting her clean, punctual, precise arrangements.

Everything is pushed harder, faster and into more extreme corners on Unsound, and, remarkably, the band seems to get tighter and more impactful as things become more difficult.

A treasure chest of riches that provides considerable new perspective on the band's processes and progress through the years.

Another cohesive set that plums the same territory songwriters have spent centuries on, - that Mandell can still rivet our attention is testament to a great songstress.

This current incarnation of Swans swim across the salty sea of the group's three-decade strong catalog, executing a balance of grind and grace that casts a new light on old classics.

Skelethon ranks among Aesop's greatest work yet.

[Swing Lo Magellan] is instantly likeable. It makes perfect sense, but unravels into nonsense and complexity on second glance.

Rhythm and Repose [is] the superb solo outing from Glen Hansard.

Like it or not, the synths are here to stay, and The Minimal Wave Tapes Volume Two adds several more fascinating pieces to the puzzle.

If Laswell hasn't made his masterpiece--and it's easy to argue that he has--clearly he's come close.

Stephens' voice is, as ever, quite compelling, as capable of guts and blues as of delicate trilling flourishes. She sounds stronger and surer than ever here.

With nearly each track including a mesmerizing hook or chorus that slowly permeates your subconscious - "Clone" and "Breathing Underwater" leap out from the pack in this regard - Synthetica is a solid album.

Do Things has a few missteps, but May just keeps smiling and charging forward.

Segall pushes things towards 11.

Lumineers is an album that successfully weaves a homespun, roots-folk feel with poetic prowess.

No surprises, but impeccably predictable.

Across eleven cuts Parallel Thought utilize their deep knowledge of Del's Elektra years to weave a beautifully updated pastiche of early '90s throwback grooves.

Jukebox the Ghost proudly wear its pop influences on their sleeves and quite frankly don't care whether you like those influences or not.