Mount Moriah remains committed to a sparse, skeletal vein of Americana that values precision over ambition. That’s not to imply the album isn’t a rich and varied listening experience, but its ambiguities and complexities are shaded in charcoal, not paint.

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

Ten years into their career, Psychic Ills have tamed themselves, refining into a form, but the result remains a hypnotic set of songs that consistently achieve an introspective and cerebral kind of psychedelia.

There are more standalone tracks here, ones with memorable melodies and sing-along choruses coexisting with the band’s fatalistic lyrics and jarring instrumental twists.

This album has an eccentric palette and shows off Streten’s wide-ranging tastes; if you can’t find something to enjoy here, you’re not looking hard enough.

These songs won’t convert skeptics, but they’ll give the faithful a few bloody noses.

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

You’ll be hard pressed to find another album that’s this much fun to crawl inside.

While it may not be a distinct step forward creatively, the blue-collared Allentown, PA, quartet has managed another solid effort that maintains its edge.

The rest of Holy Fire is a counter-punch to “Inhaler,” a swerve that then hits all the more powerfully for setting us up with this false start.

Nowhere is safe--still beautiful and executed to perfection, but safe.

More often on the album’s 10 tracks than not, Nielson keeps the balance, giving each part equal time in the foreground and using understatement to his advantage.

They were scratching at the surface of their emotional capabilities on their debut. With Hummingbird, Local Natives show that they can dig deeper.

Forming an identity is a difficult task, and Reasons To Live is honest about the painful and revelatory nature of that process.

The Flower Lane is a testament to Mondanile's growth as an artist that translates a prolonged history of potential into a complete and well-crafted work.

Oak Island is an album that gets weirder and more confident as it goes along, slowing down and stretching out as it comes to a close.

Foxygen is never overpowered by its influences.

Ra Ra Riot's third LP, Beta Love, is a lot like a colorful box of candy--a bright and infectious collection of songs that hooks you on first taste.

Over the course of 14 songs, when the emotional range is the difference between singing, "I just wanna get really high" and "I feel like shooting up," the content [getting wasted and having a good time] can wear on you--or, much like Andrew W.K.'s party music before it, it can fuel you.

Love Sign escapes almost all of the sophomore LP pitfalls.

While Fade's sleepy charms can appear slight when compared to the canonical totems in the band's back catalog, it's best to remember that this is a record about serenity, endurance and mortality.

Instead of making the more personal record that he intended by telling his side of the tour story, Owens has created his most detached album yet.

While Light Up Gold's re-release is quite literally nothing new, it's sure to garner a rash of deserved credit this time around, opening Parquet Courts to a wider audience that can further foster the appreciation of this excellent album.

There is a blood on the dance floor at this party, and it sounds so refreshing.

Long.Live.A$AP, his major-label debut, is both cunning and desperate in its attempts to please every possible demographic without looking like it's trying too hard.

Though Loyal is a nail-biter at its core, the journey Alexander takes you on with this album ends with calm.

Despite its excesses and missteps, the album gives Big Boi room to be Big Boi.

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.

The instrumental packaging (which sounds even more lux and sophisticated than ever) shifts constantly, but there's always a catchy melody to carry Nocturne through.

Other Worlds doesn't get overtly weird, but it's surely expansive-sounding.

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.

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

A World Out Of Time was recorded as a whole, a distinction that has some subtle effects on the album's sequencing and pacing without diminishing the elements of collage.

The recording quality is smart and sophisticated, and the overall feel of Our Nature is much richer-sounding than on In The Wooded Forest.

The album, titled Grace/Confusion, offers the chillwave sound that Hawk is known for but with a fuller, crisper and more melodic take.

With seven tracks, it's more assertive than an EP but without the fully developed personality of an album. It's just enough that we know where Knowles stands: on her own.

To match the classier trappings, Bronson puts on a slightly more professional showing--gone are the botched lines, the charming flubs and the repetitive stalling of Chips--and, for the most part, he pulls it off with style and grace.

While it is nice to see MNDR's vulnerable side on slower tracks like "Stay" and "Blue Jean Youth," she is at her best with tracks that keep you moving like "Faster Horses," "Fall In Love With The Enemy" and "U.B.C.L."

It is an unapologetically gorgeous piece of work and one that is better appreciated without considering the confines of its genre or how the chillwave brand has become passé in most circles.

On her fifth album, she discovers a new direction--and sounds all the better for it.

This lack of clear signposts can make navigating the nightmare-laden second half of Dream On a bit more difficult as the sound effects pile up and the tracks get denser.

["Be Above It"] sets the tone for an album that follows closely in the sonic footsteps of its predecessor while occupying a more streamlined headspace.

The sound is more refined without completely losing what many listeners initially loved about the band: its natural and unstructured approach.

Though the production value is still high, the songs found here are less assertive than the tracks that were considered album material.

They leave Soft Moon's second album on a multi-faceted, adventurous note, though one that remains dark and eerie.

While some longtime fans may find Just To Feel Anything's retreat from the cosmos a disappointment, the album's relative conceptual restraint actually allows it to be even more emotionally accessible, inviting the listener into the trio's interstellar clubhouse instead of only letting us peak in from the outside.

His heavy use of synthesizers might pin him to an era, but his tenor is timeless.

It's a wise, mature labyrinth of an album that's both filled with vibrant life and haunted by death.

Some tracks are wildly successful on an individual basis, but they're cut short or steamrolled right over as Riggins whips through what seems like every sonic concept he's had in the last two decades.

While not all of the rough edges have been smoothed out, there's a sense of soaring ambition, and there's no reason why there shouldn't be.

The passive, languid tone of this album often translates into emotionless muck.

Sunshine shows a strong working dynamic between the two members of Talk Normal that can only continue to strengthen.

It's definitely not pop-more like battery acid-but in such talented hands, chaos becomes catchy.

Whether you are listening to the album for its monetary-political messages or just hoping to enjoy the band's indie-punk sound, Local Business will sate both sides.

Without giving up its commitment to obfuscation or its sense of mystery, the band has crafted a fun, playful and eclectic collection of songs that reveal a more focused, melody-driven approach to writing and a surprising level of thematic coherence.

By relying on their talent and confidence, the fivesome takes the listener to a futuristic setting, one where '60s British pastoral music fuses with electro in order to fill a hole in the musical landscape.

The songs here are too strongly crafted to be mistaken for the work of some teen slacker.

The album, however, cannot shake off the feeling that it's a melting pot of Segall's previous albums from this year.

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.

It's a real relief, then, to hear METZ's self-titled debut, a tight set of 10 gut-punch punk songs that, in 30 minutes, delivers the type of catharsis we've been lacking.

Although there aren't any obvious standout hits here, that's not what FlyLo intended to create. Instead, Until The Quiet Comes blends together into a lush electronic soundscape you can daydream to.

They may not be particularly youthful anymore, but there's plenty of transcendence to be found on this record.

Sun Airway may be losing some of its psychedelic characteristics that attracted many of its original fans, but the new sounds allow its lyrical creativity and musical experimentation to grow without confinement.

Midway through Heavy Mood, Tilly hits a lull; "Hey Rainbow" and "I Believe In You" just don't pack the eclectic Tilly punch.... The pace picks back up with aggressively positive ender "Defenders."

The production sounds more expensive, but all the passion and intimacy of their previous work remains.

Although it could have ended on a stronger note, it's a fitting conclusion to the pleasant trip through Melody's spacey dreamworld.

These varied sounds signal a growth in the band, one that will ultimately save the Soft Pack from forever being stuck playing angsty teen music.

The group took more time crafting these songs, and because of that, the album seems almost effortless.

With one album completed under the new lineup, Harris and Seim show that they'll continue guiding Menomena in interesting, unpredictable directions.

LV's skill and savvy when it comes to crafting spotlight-gobbling beats presents the biggest drawback for the album in that it's disappointing that there's not one instrumental number on Sebenza.

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.

The album is at its best with "A Matter Of Time" and "From Here On Out."

While the xx allowed itself to get mildly playful on its debut album, those moments are stripped out on Coexist as the band further minimizes its already minimalist approach.

Putrifiers II is not the masterpiece TOS fans may have been hoping for. But it is another piece that let's Thee Oh Sees maintain the role of reigning masters.

David Byrne and Annie Clark (and to an undetermined extent, St. Vincent producer John Congleton) achieve a remarkable symbiosis on Love This Giant.

Through it all, Lekman's wit remains intact.

Both Campbell and Millan shine on their own, but the album's stronger tracks happen when these two team up together.

The compilation moves like a mixtape and the tracks work better together than individually.

Oddly enough, the most striking part of the record may be the transitions.

Not good, bad or disappointing, but frustrating.

Throughout all 13 of these tracks, whether fuzzed-out and aggressive or scuffed-up and jaunty, the band is so laid-back and mellow that there's never a break in the mantra: Nothing Bad Can Ever Happen [sic].

With its multiple parts, its recurring motifs and its thematic hutzpah "USA" isn't easy to parse or process, but it's not impenetrable; Deacon remains committed to pop forms and rock songwriting despite his concert-hall inclinations.

Instead of feeling like a testing ground for a series of wild experiments, White has crafted a collection of hushed character sketches worthy of Randy Newman or Bill Callahan.

Enterprising Sidewalks is a multi-layered listen.

What the album seems to lack in originality, it makes up for in classic rock 'n' roll sensibility.

The years spent pursuing other musical projects refreshed Bloc Party, and the unofficial reunion record finds the band making an intense comeback.

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

If the album has a significant weakness, it's that despite the impressive attention to detail and the impeccable production work, the record can't quite shake that side-project feeling.

When you give it [a] chance, this album blooms into something different, deeper and more resonant that, along with its musicality, should be appreciated for its originality and growth.

This music has deep roots, but Nabay's version of bubu is more contemporary and club oriented than folksy.

Instinct is an electro-pop album, but it's got that New Order-style darkness that gives it a comforting weight; this is that kind of bummer music that will make you dance.

There's a studio slickness and a consistent attention to detail here-crisp hand claps, crystal-clear acoustic guitar strumming, clean drums-that most contemporary garage-rock bands have little interest in.

There are no throwaway songs about weed, women or cars here, just 11 separate streams of consciousness, each with subtle lyrical and instrumental nuances.

Thailand and telephone love letters might not have been how you spent your summer, but Janssen finds a way to make it all seem relatable.

If this album were condensed into an EP, it would be great, but as an LP, the Aussies seem to be stretching the good stuff too thin.

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

The end result is an infectious pop album every bit as bright and dreamy as Manners yet far more straight-up, dark, honest and vulnerable.

Sometimes lying on the wood floor or recording an album of pretty retro-pop songs is all you can do, and sometimes it's enough.