Many of the songs feel like incomplete character sketches that simply gesture at yearning and crisis.... Salad Days is, nevertheless, an interesting piece of work.

There isn't anything remotely 'neat' about The Monitor. Instead, it's a rocking, joyful, epic beast of an album that rattles with energy and pulses with the heart of a raging bull.

Phoenix doesn’t need to be groundbreaking to reward us with a joyous, endlessly fun album that should sit comfortably in the top 10 on everybody’s list.

May be the perfect pop album.

One of the best albums you'll hear in 2003.

Whether you end up liking this album or not, it is going to be one of the most intense things you've ever heard.

The Renaissance is arguably, the best hip-hop album of the year.

Quiet, diligent, and touching--this could very well be These New Puritans’ masterwork.

He’s resonating some true beauty here; entirely lost in his nostalgic feelings and openly retrospective about where he has been, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle is absolutely beautiful.

In Do You Like Rock Music?, there seems to be a condensed clarity of vision, that vision being rock bigness and youthful enthusiasm and curing inertia and malaise, in the vein of the aforementioned past British masters.

With Fade, they’ve come across ten songs that all sound tight and of course, refreshing, against the backdrop of what might be their most consistent album to date.

A career-defining work.

One of the most surprising, challenging, and important albums of the year.

This is a magnificent debut, filled with endless melodies, memorable hooks and plenty of toe-tapping moments.

Wild Mountain Nation keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time and it’s a fine piece of music.

Whilst long-time fans may still understandably prefer the more complex and organic ilk of 2007’s The Rook or 2010’s The Golden Archipelago, Jet Plane And Oxbow enjoyably expands Shearwater’s widescreen reach without losing what can make the band so special.

The first two songs eclipse any other songs on the album, but I'm not saying the rest of the material is weak.

Crafted with a strong presence in realizing the sequencing and tracking through it all, it unquestionably rewards with repeated listens.

This new EP is a terrific welcoming of fresh, new thriving music from one of electronic music's leading men.

What is truly magical on Silent Alarm is how it astutely grafts the accoutrements of wiry post-punk austerity to pop hooks fortified with soulful melodic intent.

So if you can make it to track six - the lush “Only Love Can Set You Free” - Love Songs For Patriots becomes far more palatable from then on in.

It is an ambitious effort, and it could very well leave your brain hurting by the time all of the songs have wrapped themselves around you, because there is so much going on and so much to digest.

A transitional yet still solid standalone long-player in short.

Everything is here: melody, harmony, great lyrics, smart instrumentation and pure emotion. It’s book ended by two of the best songs of the year and everything in between is music gold.

Hadreas is one of the strongest songwriters we've seen develop this year, and Learning puts that on display beautifully.

Overgrown continues to build on a fantastic reputation: one that much like his music is aided by layer and layer of calculated additions that all together showcases one of music’s most gifted composers.

Ultimately, Silence Yourself is eleven songs of balanced, well-constructed rock music.

Springsteen does more than just an adequate job; it’s difficult not to get swept along by the infectious energy of his performance.

The National seems to have settled into a fine balance between the hungover brooding of Leonard Cohen and the more mellifluous tendencies of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen.

The compositions, the choice of songs, the sequencing, his spoken word--the entire package--is a firm reminder of the immense talent Antony is; Cut the World remains another worthy release to take hold of.

The listener gets acoustic ballads, guitar-driven rock exercises, poppy refrains, and jazz-inflected asides in a single package, and at no point does it really feel that the Scottish quartet is overextending itself or sacrificing the vitality of its work for the ability to slap the name of another sonic digression on the board.

Unfortunately, the mere manufacture of unique sounds isn’t enough to rescue them on La Forêt.

Although this record reeks of Matador Records looking to score capital off Fucked Up, it’s not a bad way to go. Couple Tracks would be great for someone who wants the Fucked Up experience.

There are a lot of moments that gently wash away, against the pushing drive of the other songs on the album. Segall mostly attempts to create different spaces of time and is able to make many of them work to his direct advantage.

As much as one would assume that times have changed, Vile is able to supplement his strengths with newfound diversity and very simply, delivers a formidable sophomore album.

In an era when few can truly be said to be following their own unique aesthetic, Sixteen Horsepower continue to pad their resume as one of America’s greatest reinterpretors of the American folk tradition.

A dark, moody, hypnotic monumental masterpiece with songs that unfold subtlety from one elaborate texture to the next so that you almost don't notice the marvelous hooks until they have dug their way beneath your skin and buried themselves in your soul.

Nothing much is different with their latest triumph, It’s Blitz!, a sprawling, eclectic set of dazzling new music.

Condors, is a restless, richly-detailed amalgam of intricate, glitchy electronic ambience, guitar reverberations that range from gently acoustic to furiously rockin', and ethereal to keening female vocals that recall Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, Nicole Barille of mr. Gnome, and Bjork.

Perhaps the best thing about Up To Anything is that The Goon Sax seem so fully formed already whilst remaining open to the durable possibilities of longevity. One of this year’s most promising and addictive debut albums all told.

There Is Love in You comes off largely as an effortless work, content to just gently glow in its own hazy bliss.

Whether or not you love their music, Brothers represents a champion sound for the duo, one that covers all of their best strengths onto a terrific album; you can’t ask for a better present than that.

This is the record Pulp could/should have made as a sequel to the seminal Different Class.

Post-Nothing is an album that deserves listens and that will definitely gather support with this re-issue.

May be his most mature, fully realized offering to date, though not necessarily his most thrilling.

The expansively visceral Condition does arguably need to be swallowed whole to make sense of its engrossing immersive scope, although a half-time breather is perhaps advisable for those with more delicate dispositions.

Everything on Lay it Down is gorgeous, memorable and absolutely stunning.

I admire the band's unorthodox approach to its music and its combination of disparate rock and non-rock elements.... That said, I will probably never be able to listen to this entire album in a single sitting.

The album is a tight yet tensile affair, that shows the old dog still knows how to learn a few tricks with scholarly shrewdness.

It may not be as enigmatic as Silent Shout but if nothing else, it is a fantastic album on its own accord.

In the end AM not only signifies a career-defining moment that neatly places the band on a proper pedestal for all to admire--this is where not only Arctic Monkeys have come but in many ways, how they’ve masterfully conquered and continue to simply win.

Vampire Weekend's penchant for throwing an occasional obscure reference into their work doesn't change the fact that Contra is an obvious early contender for one of 2010's best.

Both more deeply melodic and somehow more resigned and melancholy than his previous albums, White’s latest may just be his best.

The beats on The Mouse and the Mask are remarkably consistent, satisfactorily complex, and surprisingly subtle.

She's advanced from before and turned in a mirror translation of music from her personal life. The swagger comes in the form of knowing your strengths and for Stern, she's put all of them on display with Marnie Stern.

This is some of the most mature and eloquent music I've heard in quite a while.

Closure is undoubtedly a reliably contrarian, brutally honest and uncompromisingly human album for a great band to--at least try--calling it quits on.

Another accomplished, cohesive effort that finds the group continuing to tweak without significantly changing its sound.

Sounds come and go but the inspiration and wherewithal to realize your own goal in tone is paramount. Women seem to know exactly what they stand for and in presenting it they've entirely outdone themselves, again.

Cold Spring Fault Less Youth is as confident and assured as any great follow-up can be, showcasing a group that is not afraid to cross genre-borders and cast aside the meek post-dubstep moniker.

It's best to purely take in the dissimilarity of this exceptional new album in contrast to Hospice--it's downright astonishing on its very own.

Yeah, they're good at what they do, but what they do is just not that palatable.

A gentle yet insistent collection of songs, Wilderness is marked by its subtle beauty and meticulous attention to sonic detail.

Its warmth, honesty and intuitive sensitivity capture Stuart Staples firmly back to the dizzy high-quality heights of his cherishable early-career with the Tindersticks.

This kind of hunger, this kind of uphill battle and this kind of gritty determination leaks out onto Monomania with tremendous results; the ending fruition is another gleaming winner for Cox and Deerhunter.

Music that's at once beautiful, joyful, and pure aural pleasure.

It sounds like the Ramones covering OK Computer. It's also one of the best debuts of the year.

It suits them well that as musicians that have worked their entire career just to get noticed; for their newest album, I Learned the Hard Way, to be a beautiful representation of what real, honest and true soul music really is.

Boca Negra is certainly not the easiest entry-route into the post-jazz catacombs of the Chicago Underground, but its steely determination and non-conformity is nevertheless refreshing and worthy of respect.

Thankfully aside from a few superficial blemishes, Here’s The Tender Coming’s world is dense enough, and interesting enough to merit a visit.

It's always great to see one of our better artists achieving a return to form, but it's usually successful with leveled results. But on The Ecstatic, Mos Def is certainly back and he has released the best hip-hop album of the year, so far.

The eleven original songs all sound distinctively unique and yet, uniquely familiar all the same. And even when Oldham covers a song, he is able to make it sound like one of his own.

It’s symphonic, seductive, resolute, yearning.

Brilliant.

This is a gorgeous pop album that deals maturely with a wide range of emotions and ideas.

It never really builds steam until the end, when it is almost too late.

So whilst The Obliterati is certainly not a patch on the seminal Vs. - given that it lacks the same magical combination of cerebral claustrophobia and kinetic psychosis - it’s easily more potent than the over-oiled ONoffON.

Although amERICa perhaps lacks a few more songs that could standalone from its conceptual connectivity, as a combined entity it captures Eric Goulden catching an inventive and much-deserved third wind for his charmingly contrary career.

Whereas his previous long-players were primarily personified by their hushed beauty, dusty experimentation, and nostalgic romanticism, Post-War pushes forward a more boisterous and band-orientated vision for Ward’s sturdy songwriting.

Whether it is the new production, the new sounds, the new language or maybe just the unique cover, everything works for Sigur Rós; on Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust is something exceptional.

You are There is a fine example of post-rock that outshines both Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor's latest or last affairs.

Once again, the Pale Young Gentlemen has crafted a singularly noteworthy record unlike anything else.

Rounding out his catalog, Jay Stay Paid makes a worthy addition to any hip-hop aficionado’s collection.

Mostly though, this ethereal mix of multi-layered and textured dream-pop is frothing with jangly and heavily reverbed guitars, amid shoegazing drones and electro-style beats, that displays Atlas Sound’s sense of adventure and pop experimentation while providing the listener with countless entertaining spins.

I cannot overstate enough the cross genre appeal that is contained within Sentenced to Life. There is literally enough here for everyone; while it lacks a black metal vibe I feel it would still be relevant enough for those that jam out with corpse paint.

With engaging songwriting, creative instrumentation and melodically special music, not only is Actor everything we imagined it would be but Clark has redefined the definition of pop music.

This album shows that these guys have plenty of room to expand stylistically while still absolutely owning blues rock.

Be Still Please is the best work of McCaughan’s career.

I bet that The Milk of Human Kindness will appear on my and others’ “best of 2005” lists.

On Metals Feist combines the sublime magic of her voice with songs that feature equally strong compositions to render an album that is easily one of the best of the year.

Animals in the Dark is a natural progression from Whitmore’s previous stripped-down affairs.

It’s another astounding album from a great band and one that we should get much, much more music from for many years to come.

Not a career-changing collection as such but a quietly redemptive revelation that satisfyingly sustains its author’s veteran status.

Overall, this is sophisticated pop with a folky twist crowned by a heaven-sent voice.

Liars have created another standout album that while dissimilar from the rest, is nothing short of amazing and nothing of a surprise from such an exceptional band.

The more I listened to Tanglewood Numbers, the more I liked it.

As Perfume Genius, he's [Mike Hadreas] developed a strong second album with Put Your Back N 2 It, a modestly personal release.

All in all, for The Clientele this is another great album in what’s getting to be a long line of great albums.