Daniel justly brings the band’s best attributes to the foreground and It’s Frightening ends up being a tight and concise album.

It's not entirely necessary, sure, and it's not going to be essential listening for new fans, but it's a classy retrospective on Merritt's songwriting prowess.

The Bird and the Bee is as light as a feather, for sure. It’s not throwaway, though; the darting melodies and twinkling keyboards are like some divine ringtone and the pair’s love of jazz standards is apparent in the harmonic reach and twists of their songs.

These sparse, unfastened and more importantly, exuberant covers are all flash and no substance. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t specially well done and loads of fun, either.

This album sounded exactly as I imagined it would, sounding pumped in straight from a dingy practice space from the early 80’s. It’s just that the music sounds more in service to the post-punk ideal than to the individual songs, affecting a feeling of taking a wild trip through a style instead of offering memorable individual experiences.

It’s somewhat troubling to see Jurado abandoning the genre of folk that served him so well on his last album. More unsettling is the simultaneous presence of the mopey indulgence of some of Jurado’s faux-gothic breakup stories and the honed, spare excellence of tracks like “White Center,” “Lottery,” and “Fuel.”

It's not that so many of these disparate sections sound bad--on the contrary, they're generally quite listenable and often feel like excellent mini-songs--but that they seem to willfully distract from a far more worthwhile mantle that Akron/Family are more than capable of taking up.

The truth is, practically everything on Dark Was the Night is exceptionally well done. Even when they aren’t covering but contributing original recordings, everyone brings their A-game.

Unlike other odds and sods collections, Around the Well sounds and feels like an accomplished release.

Although Violens is a bit remarkable for capturing such a specific sound ...its scope is a bit limited. The trio utilizes the same tones and mostly the same approaches throughout, resulting in only the smallest level of uniqueness for each track.

For the most part the music on Infinity is a skilfully crafted mixture of ambient soundscapes that are transformed into cohesive songs as Tiersen layers percussion and other elements across the initially sometimes formless tone generations that will inevitably have some listeners confused and others enraptured.

Together, the imagery and music provide a nostalgic, innocent atmosphere, and an album worthy of a listen.

Although it dodges near-perfection almost deliberately, it confirms that Gelb’s maverick creativity has an astute methodology in its benevolent madness.

This is certainly my favorite British release of the year.

Never before has Bianchi put so much focus on the lyrics and been so open, so vulnerable.

The Go! Team makes sure to reach for the stars and they're certainly poised to simply get more well-known from here.

Putting analytical angst aside though, in short this is another tranquil and refreshing oasis on the compelling Land Observations journey.

As much as I loved Amore Del Tropico, The Spell comes across even more striking.

This is the stuff of Hollywood film soundtracks, and Gahan's robust baritone is a perfect fit for the proceedings.

Whilst it won’t necessarily win Yo La Tengo many new fans, the aromatic potpourri of Stuff Like That There should happily intoxicate existing ones.

With all of that said and there was plenty said this album is not only highly recommended I would have to say for me at least it is one of the better efforts of 2011 and will more than likely end up on an end of the year round up.

Two years later, the five-piece returns with Simple Math – a concept album which, according to Hull himself, examines perennial hot button topics like marriage, love, religion, and sex. Again, not exactly revelatory material, but Hull has a gift with prose that turns even the most banal observations into striking reflections.

Magic succeeds magnificently because it is the perfect balance of what we’ve come to love about an artist while venturing out to try new things.

Don’t dismiss The Floodlight Collective for the outstanding introduction to Lotus Plaza it is, because in reality, it is a winning release in more ways than one.

Overall, Bubblegum, is very much a triumph of restyling, that makes it perhaps the most necessary Clinic LP since 2000's Internal Wrangler debut. Perhaps however, it's also time that Clinic developed more as a songwriting vehicle, with singer Ade Blackburn making his vocal/lyrical presence more memorably penetrating.

Get Guilty is unlikely to bust Carl Newman out beyond his inherited fan-base but neither is it likely to disappoint those listening out for more-of-the-same, albeit with obvious but not crippling disadvantages.

While Knuckle Down doesn’t wow with new musical directions, the album undeniably satisfies by being familiar and stunning.

Whether there's enough energy, fraternity and songs left in the GBV tank to warrant more new material on top of this year's LP trilogy remains to be heard but this solidly-built long-player successfully marks the end of an unquestionably enjoyable and productive year in the band's admirably contrarian career.