Problem is, In Space isn’t a Big Star album. Or particularly good, for that matter.

Mostly, what made Blackalicious’s last two proper albums so engaging was how Gab chose to reel in the tentacles of his glossolalia, and what makes The Craft such a disappointment is how he forgets that restraint, instead opting to crowd the tracks with ceaseless, pretentious sound.

Each song is either a seismic death rattle or aftershock.

This album is as fake as Kim’s physique, as vapid as the fashion she flaunts, as undeservedly praised as her entire career.

With a Cape and a Cane sounds almost nothing like its predecessor; the songs ring a million times clearer and the hooks bite far harder.

Set Free’s singularity is also its greatest flaw, and a band that adheres to a formula as strictly as the AmAnSet does to its will never make a masterpiece, despite the fact that every track on this album is good.

Tender Buttons feels more urgent and alive than anything Broadcast has ever recorded.

What keeps Siberia from being more of a snoozer is the fact that there’s more Will Sargeant guitar to be found here than on any other recent Echo outings, and Heaven Up Here producer Hugh Jones returns to give the band what’s arguably their fullest production values since 1984’s Ocean Rain.

It’s not often that music truly sounds effortless.

At the end of the day, this still isn’t a great album. It lacks continuity, much of a sense of rhythm, and the character that Banhart’s 2004 releases took on.

It’s hard to tell if this disc will have much in the way of staying power... but it’s a hell of a fun listen.

CocoRosie are clearly talented when they keep things focused; fact is, though, that Noah’s Ark is so steeped in its own random, garbled universe that it makes for a frustrating, unrewarding listen.

Odditorium has at least a handful of solid tracks.

While it may not match his most impressive work, he continues to challenge himself.

In the Reins is a clear success.

A sturdy if frustrating effort that exceeds and disappoints expectations all at once.

Well-constructed, thoughtful, emotionally provocative and cathartic.

Even by SFA’s lofty standards, the production on Love Kraft is little short of incredible.

With the gentle, delicate soundscapes of Let Go mostly replaced by energetic guitar riffing, Nada Surf can only transcend the limitations of the '90s sound for so long.

Here, they succeed just by doing what they do best, taking few chances, but sounding more comfortable in their own skin than they have in a very long time.

Plans is a shameless and famished record, the sound of pop slurping itself empty.

Late Registration really wants to be an album album, which makes all the more frustrating and undermining the fact that it mirrors the flaws of its predecessor: the glut and the stilted sequencing.

Is it their best album? Maybe not. Is it still the best pop album of the year? Of course.

There’s just something about it --- I like Pixel Revolt, and I like it a lot.

Infiniheart is too bright, too beautiful, and almost too good to be believed.

Björk’s biggest drawback, then, is that while “Holographic Entrypoint” is an enlightening rarity, most of Björk’s fans will find it boring. Very, very boring.

Even when the songs work (rarely), the band doesn’t; even when the lyrics work (read: never), the music doesn’t; even when guitars aren’t processed to sound like a cat in a dishwasher, the riffs suck.

The album’s arrangements are as thematically monotone as the raw lyrics, building rock beds for Elvrum’s unpredictable, but dangerously uniform, vocal melodies.