A two-disc set documenting archival demos and an early live recording, The Singing Postman Delivers demonstrates that for the most part, John Prine's musical persona emerged fully formed.

Barfly's 11 tracks find a band unsure of which direction to take, eventually settling on a version of muddled garage rock.

Hazed Dream is the perfect place for you to tune in and turn on.

While some tracks prove unradical, it is when Astronautalis fuses heavy bluesy-rock influences with his beats that Science truly shines.

This scorching set of amplified electro-acoustic spiritualism between the pair and the mighty Mats is an effective snapshot of the potential for what could have been.

Gold Panda seems most interested in the former on his DJ-Kicks mix, keeping the dynamics understated, but the results are consistently interesting, melodic, and effective.

El Camino offers, like they say in Spinal Tap, something none more black, lean mean T-Rex-ish blues party pop (because the melodies are audaciously and apologetically catchy) that spirals nearly out of control yet is reigned in (really?!?) by producer Danger Mouse at his most spare and frame making.

Once just another also ran in a genre destined for obscurity, Jack's Mannequin have moved out of the emo ghetto and settled in nicely into a nice indie rock neighborhood.

Good News is an immediately infectious work.

COIN COIN is not an album made for casual listening (that's probably the idea) nor is it entirely successful, but it has an absorbing quality that warrants further listens.

Maybe it's just a question of getting used to this new Mangan, but you can't help but lament the old one's demise.

Perhaps the most tangible set of songs he has produced yet.

At times, Pterodactyl wedges in too many layers, so that the parts blur together in a formless murk.

Sit back, dig The Cambodian Space Project, and be prepared to be impressed. Very impressed.

With U feels fresh, new and mysterious.

Ersatz G.B. is a lesser Fall album, not as good as Your Future Our Clutter or The Real New Fall LP, and certainly not on a par with earlier landmarks like Slates and Hex Induction Hour.... Even so... there's enough fire and venom here to excuse occasional soft spots.

On Wonder/Wander Koone transcends such dippy, blog-generated catch-phrasing, displaying a sense of genuine dominion within the art of experimental laptop pop.

It's Apocalypse a-go-go for the Georgia gentlemen. Go with them.

Despite the obvious care for craftsmanship, no standouts emerge.

Not a weak track on the album.

In the end, though there are sublime moments on In Animal Tongue, the language of these insular and dark songs does not always translate well.

Hum-worthy ditties that suggest Artificial Heart is definitely the real deal.

Her Space Holiday brings together all the key elements of Bianchi's decade-and-a-half of coloring outside the lines of the pop infrastructure to deliver a swan song appropriately fitting for his underrated one-man-act.

The remastered discs sound great.

Every Step's A Yes is a stylistic mish-mash with a few notable gems worthy of downloading.

Peggy Sue's Acrobats is one of the most scattered, schizophrenic, soul questioning--and beautiful and best records of the year.

There's still plenty of glamor and atmosphere in the Crystal Stilts' aura, but with this EP a significantly clearer sense of structure and purpose.

With Major/Minor Thrice have stripped away unnecessary studio production, added instrumentation and pretention to offer simply a great rock album.