It took a lot of experimenting, jamming and digression from its old songwriting techniques for Pepper Rabbit to produce such an enjoyable album.

Happy, nature-oriented psychedelic pop that bring to mind images of sprawling meadows in mid-summer.

And things simmer along just fine like that right ’til the end with 3 Seconds To Cross, a breezy, snare rim-tapping rumination on sunny California.

Amok ends up sounding enormous through its mingling of analog and digital sounds. It’s intricately assembled, with more pieces to pick apart than on The Eraser, which feels a bit timid in comparison

A bright artist displaying skill and youthful eagerness--no shtick.

It's everything to be expected: Dinosaur Jr. sounds relaxed, takes a laid-back approach and still manages to make an album that stands up next to everything else that the band has released since its resurrection.

Every track on this album is relatable and takes us on an emotional journey through the steps of a breakup, which in Li’s interpretation seems to be frustration, pain and ultimately loneliness.

Whether sweet, creepy, epic or hilarious, all 13 tracks on the album represent Faust's ability to dismantle the structures inherently embedded in our musical expectations and free us into a world of unique and thoughtful organized layers of sound.

Gendered pronouns do not appear on the album, thus the record feels distant, as if Rostron is isolated from the listener, a tactic that makes the album intriguingly impersonal yet universal.

Matangi‘s top moments aren’t riddled with thumping bass or explosive mania. They are steady builds, relatively simple and not of a too specific trend moment, plus they have feeling.

And if you are a big fan of the band-and if you invested in the reissue, that's probably a given--this will give you hours of quality material to get lost in. But if you're not super familiar with the band, aside from being able to identify that Corgan is that vampiric-looking bald guy, then use this reissue as an excuse to revisit--or just visit--this album.

A listless cloud of heartbreak penetrates every crack and many moments teeter on the maudlin, but The Worse Things Get has fight, too.

With only eight tracks and a run-time just over half an hour, this debut is a light one but hits like a featherweight champ.

It’s clear from even the most half-hearted listen that Spectrals have found their niche space on Sob Story.

With a sound that comes off as natural, Warpaint represents a much needed departure from the ubiquity of synth-pop, and The Fool is a welcome detour.

Every detail of Ray's second full-length alongside Her Happy Hookers is imparted with vigor--be it her razor-edged howling, or the biting lyrics that comprise them.

It’s altogether more synchronized, an album that pulls you along into its wonderfully mixed-up world without getting lost.

By the time that the closing track has concluded its schizophrenic barrage of drumming, the album has exhausted and enthralled its listeners, who will be ready to press rewind and live through it again.

The roominess and the variety are what make this album so interesting.

The entirety of No Ghost is filled with poetic verses about the usual triumphs and failures of love, and taken together amounts to an emotionally mature piece of work with a healthy amount of upbeat, exciting tracks to go with it.

Despite its party-hard attitude, Natural History has a thoughtful, searching soul.

The infectious beats and catchy hooks are still a driving force, but Lewis has abandoned the bedroom vibes to surge ahead with full-on amphetamine-induced vigor.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra’s proto-punk only gets better with age and maturity, but Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything believes that today’s youth are everything for tomorrow.

The album fights back against the tide of boring, quiet music, and nearly every song feels like a throat-rupturing protest against standing still.

Difficult to place in just one genre, Braids creates a colorful atmosphere around its songs that completely immerse the listener in its movement.

It's an elegantly lush record, brimming with imagination, that was no doubt slaved over in the studio yet sounds entirely natural.

In the end, the album proves that it is the night that is the king of the dark.

Despite the brainy, composer-like attention to detail and El-P's complicated lyrics, this is still music imbued with a bracing sense of physicality. It's great stomping music.

The album can simply be described as a great band supporting quality lyrics, served up as organically as possible.

Its suicidal lyrics and aggressive guitar riffs won't disappoint current fans and will more than likely win over a bunch of kids from the Odd Future side.

Forever is a journey through the darker parts of the human mind. Death, love and a strange sense of optimism resonate through the reverb.

Not necessarily a great narrative rapper, Monch's lyrical strength lies in his ability to flip phrases maniacally and tease out tangential theoretical connections through his staggered, pile-up rhyme schemes.

With The Odds, the Evens have perfected the model of what we may consider post-post-punk: simple messages, tight instrumentation-this is grown-up grunge.

Despite reaching her eighth decade, Staples is making music that is strikingly modern, but the defining concept of the album is timeless: unadulterated hope.

Upon first listen, it sounds like all of the rest-cutesy vocals, romantic lyrics, peppy poppy guitars. But on Departing, the guitars are massive, the lyrics are gorgeous and the vocals are astonishingly expressive.

Surf City plays with a more confident and reassured sound as the group comes into its own on We Knew It Was Not Going To Be Like This.

El Guincho dons his best Animal Collective costume on his third full-length, an album filled with Afrobeat and tropical rhythms. Yet it doesn't sound derivative in the least.

Eight satisfying songs of rhythm and groove later, Underworld pulls a fast one, yanking the cord with album finale "Louisiana," which features beautiful keys, languid vocals and a gentle, time-keeping beat that lulls listeners into the blissful ether.

Killer Mike gets the most quotable lines, turning simple statements into punchlines and investing each syllable with a sense of rhythmic possibility; you’re never sure exactly which word in a given line he might decide to pluck like a stray beard hair.... Despite abandoning some of the more layered and mannered production flourishes of his solo work, El-P still packs these songs with stray details--the roar of a tiger, those gorgeous organs, the squeal of a dolphin--that can be jarring on first listen but gradually reveal themselves to be essential.

Root For Ruin is the best synthesis of its pop and oddball sides yet, with flailing, manic surges serving as comfortable bedrocks for solid melodic hooks.

Sonically, the capricious trio has brought about a fresh positive energy while still delving into the darkness that has always been present throughout their career.

Of the two rappers here, Killer Mike gets the most quotable lines, turning simple statements into punchlines and investing each syllable with a sense of rhythmic possibility.... Despite abandoning some of the more layered and mannered production flourishes of his solo work, El-P still packs these songs with stray details--the roar of a tiger, those gorgeous organs, the squeal of a dolphin--that can be jarring on first listen but gradually reveal themselves to be essential.

Whether you’re going on four years steady or trolling OkCupid nightly, Exhibitionists will hit you like a guilty post-dream high.

On False Priest, Brion drastically widens the canvas, giving the music a newfound clarity, symphonic sweep and thick low-end.

For all its ambitious digressions, conceptual gambles and silly experiments, it’s that spirit of adventure that makes the album so visceral.

A New Testament is a charming, compelling and overwhelmingly genuine piece of work from an artist who seems determined to confound expectations.

It's a complex listen that strays from the tropes of standard R&B.

Though the pure, dripping niceness of the album can start to feel dusty after a while, the constant effect of washing prevents that.

By blending past and present (and future), Daft Punk has created an album that speaks not only to the movie it scores, but also to the evolution of music that has allowed them to create the album in the first place.

It seems that this band really is fresh and only, for it has music brimming with originality via masterful combinations of genres.

Dye It Blonde blows away the fuzz and polishes the scratchy sounds off their last recordings, revealing a whole lot of something we didn't hear before.

Its [closing track Close Company] guitars are huge, its drums are pounding, and it sums up the record perfectly: dark, sexy and gargantuan.

It's a seriously cute band that writes seriously catchy love songs that you will probably seriously enjoy--if you're all right with that ebullience thing.

In between the tape hiss, the nature sounds, the subtle reverb, the sighs, it becomes clear that Bad Vibes has a soul.

It’s that sonic gluttony that makes Holter’s production an alluring tryst that’s hard to let go of come curtain call.

What makes Arcadia stand on its own is the slight, simplistic tweaks and unexpected syncopation that Polachek uses to infuse the album with an almost apocalyptic sense of silliness and childish wonder. It’s exciting to listen to, but at the same time vaguely unsettling.

That's the type of music that the band knocks out of the park: music for lovers to do romantic things to. On Codes And Keys, those lovers are encouraged to be happy-an emotion that sometimes has evaded Death Cab.

Pallett’s vocals that move from soft quiver to full tenor on the title track. And when paired with his simple pop tendencies, the intricacies are easy to absorb. All you have to do is listen.

Fulvimar has, all at once, figured out what works and built up the self-assurance to do just that.

The band’s adept at sustaining a singular sound throughout via rabid drumming, guitar fuzz at burning moss level and the fractured harmonies at freaky.

Condon's songs have always been flooded with emotion that sound both deliriously pretty and endlessly sad or foreboding, and The Rip Tide is no exception.

We know that there’s still plenty of life and love and pain to come, but we’re pretty okay with it. In fact, we’re ready to hit the road and let Lost In The Dream pull us in again and again.

Arbouretum brings back that good old fashioned psychedelia to rock music with its fourth album The Gathering.

Elephant Stone is a thoughtful and concise album that showcases not only precise musicianship from all members of the band but a distinct growth in songwriting.

The result is a smoother, more mature sound that varies with each song evoking hints of soul, funk, old-school hip-hop and some dance music for fun.

The rest of the album holds up to the single's brilliance, as Bundick traverses quite a few genres-from his trademark chillwave, to acoustic dream-pop ("Before I'm Done") and severe piano-led ballads ("Good Hold").

This isn't a joyful album, but it's inviting and almost welcoming in ways that might surprise people who primarily associate the band with the alienating onstage antics of giant frontman Angus Andrew.

Though King Of Limbs may be the band's simplest and most inaccessible album to date, the tone and mood created by the chaotic start and smooth finish makes it an exciting work.

Both aspects of the album exemplify great music played by great musicians and should be anything but a disappointment.

LP1 takes the humid isolation of Twigs’ EP1 and EP2 and twists it into ten tracks of relationship Hail Marys. But there’s a subdued sense of strength running under Barnett’s pleas that translates into a dark confidence, and in that tension is where LP1 finds its best moments.

While Bish Bosch may not be the most easy album to digest, it doesn't lack for talent or shock value.

Sadly, Dan Bejar tuned down the distinctive cross-hatch in his vocals that has made skin crawl with delight, but, as has remained unchanged for over a decade, his continental blues are heard in his quick-witted lyrics; the lovely laments of Kaputt are full of tongue-in-cheek nuances.

There’s no attempt to make any songs appropriate for looped listens or party playlists, and yet it’s precisely because of this that Experiments In Time sounds like it could’ve only come from Willis Earl Beal, and Willis Earl Beal alone.

III is an album so methodically arranged yet lawless at times that even its more flatlined moments play an integral role in its rebellion.

This is the first Fuck Buttons album that feels like post-invasion music. Victory lingers, but it also stings.

Through the clever synchronization of spaced-out vocals and rambling drums, Poliça dispels psychological trauma in an easy-to-swallow, electro-pop pill.

That sweetness is exactly what we need after devouring the indulgent, carb-heavy, extra-sauce sound that is Drop, and (at the risk of allowing this metaphor to spiral further), we leave feeling totally satisfied and craving more at the same time.

The band’s tendency to venture into festival-ready rhythms and guitar noodling has remained an integral constant on their releases. With Light And With Love is no exception, but it also finds the band exercising their unique roots-pop expertise to an even deeper effect than before.

Mohawke and Lunice prove that you can strike a perfect balance between experimentation and restraint.

All in all, Girlpool is the kind of EP made for those moments when you feel big on the outside, but aren’t so sure on the inside.

The Slasher House is like going to one of those haunted cornfield mazes around Halloween time. As you sneak through the maze, things are a little scary, and you’re not always sure what will happen next. But it’s exciting, fun, and once you realize you obviously will make it out alive, you want to keep going back in.

Refuse be fooled by the any cutesy pop leanings. La Isla Bonita is wonderful, but there are no all-inclusive resorts on this island.

The band has crafted something surprising: a poignant, reflective hard-rock album that straddles the divide between '70s classic rock ambition and '90s alt-rock theatrics.

Hot Chip has written an album that touches the many feelings on the spectrum of love, while staying true to the humorous and entertaining musical idiosyncrasies that the band has enlisted for the better part of a decade.

It’s that ability to toggle between the doom and gloom of post-punk and the restless energy of fuzz-pop that makes Jinx such a gripping, vital listen.

Lightning Dust finally sound like what the scientific matter of something called “lightning dust” should sound like: a lull after a thunder clap, a sharp beam of light, something that sprinkles down after the heated rush, something organically beautiful. And in its beauty, it hurts.

What was once an instrumental electronic project has now, in the hands of Joseph Mount, become an inventive, layered, modern pop act, perfectly capable of standing on its own and defending its place among the genre’s very best.

The songs feel like the first days of fall, where you're clinging to that last bit of summer warmth while eagerly anticipating the slower pace of a city being cooled.

Bright And Vivid takes enough elements from both Calder's debut, Are You My Mother?, and her work as part of the New Pornographers to retain its very Calder-ness, while still evolving into a robust folk-pop record.

Rounding out Bradley's raw emotion is his bombastic backing band: Daptone's funky Menahan Street Band. But however many names are dropped, Bradley's innate showmanship and voice--a mournful alto bellow--are all his own.

Every track on Tramp provides a singularly rewarding experience in one way or another. Only the album's pacing weakens its impact as a whole.

One Second Of Love is a remarkably bold move for the young singer, and when it clicks, the results are irresistible.

For the eccentric young artist, James Pants once again makes the statement that Pants' music has made many times before-he creates to celebrate his bizarre style, carefree of the expectations of mainstream audiences and trends.

Familiars‘ ultimately succeeds in delivering the third consecutive full-length gem from the Antlers.

Bahamas Is Afie is an album that draws very specific parameters for itself and makes a point of staying well inside them. Bahamas never over-plays or over-shares, hence the resulting album is one that rewards repeated listens.

It's always a pleasure when a concept album can stand on its own without the concept, and that's what NewVillager is--a bunch of fun, carefully crafted songs.

Though taken individually some tracks may have a strikingly similar feel with a lot of big, synthy crescendos, it's the cohesion of the release that makes it work in the "epic" way that Gonzalez envisioned it.

A little more daylight would balance out the vibe. But that’s a minor complaint. In fact, on further listens it becomes the album’s appeal.