What strikes me is that past Clem Snide albums had their stronger moments, but also their weaker ones, while Hungry Bird, for all its time in development, is more solid throughout, delivering its 10 pop songs with a consistency that shows the band continuing to develop its sound.

Despite the overall melange approach being a little uneven, there are some genuine delights to be found within.

Skin of Evil, out on Soft Abuse Jan. 20, is a breathtaking, mesmerizing record, a lyrical song cycle about love and loss, affection and anger and alienation.

An intoxicating brand of synth-pop that's slicker than a Gordon Gekko coif.

Violet Cries, one of the more anticipated debut albums of the year, isn't a let down, but it's a difficult album to get a grasp on.

If you're an old, die-hard Kings Of Leon fan Come Around Sundown will upset you. Keep what you love about this band close to your heart and ignore this album, you'll thank yourself in the end.

Inevitably, this strand of the release contains more obstacles for those unable to cope with the bedroom-birthed murkiness of the album as a whole. However, with some fine-tuning this less guitar-centric side of Keel Her could rise more positively to the fore in future.

Aside from its title track, most of Kings and Queens of the Underground sounds a lot like primetime 80s Idol, untouched by the ravages of time, lifestyle, changes in musical fashions or anything else.

Is this a "mature" album? Probably. But I can't help thinking that without Nina Persson's beautiful voice, Gravity just wouldn't have garnered a whole lot of attention.

What I am here to do is to point you in the direction of Take My Breath Away, Boratto’s exceptionally crafted new album.

With those sharp synth lines, and an interesting sense of melody, the Killers have made a good album.

All in all, this is pretty good album and it is by no means horrible.

There's a nagging feeling that Life Coach is a sketchbook instead of an art exhibit, and feels a little insubstantial at times. The album hits more than it misses, though, and makes up for the fact that it doesn't really have too much new to say by trading in an impressive range of styles while managing a moody cohesiveness.

The fuzzed out riffage and ethereal interludes are in place, but Swoon lacks the diverse textures, clever lyrics, and emotional depth that the Pumpkins honed over a 10 year span. And this is as it should be.

Chthonic offer up an exceptional album that is worthy of praise and closer inspection.

Blue Lambency Downward is best played in the background of your day. When it becomes interesting (and it will many times), your ears will perk up and you’ll be impressed. For the slow and boring intervals in between, feel free to focus on something else.

The fluidity of the music allows for interpretive wiggle room. New Universe sounds like a great, sun-slowed summer album, but I can also see it playing into the feel of other seasons, making for a subdued autumn album or a twinkling winter album.

Last Light is a compelling expression of compassion, frustration, and love in a variety of forms.

Where The Messengers Meet might be the best MSHVB can do with their current MO, it's a remarkably compact album of emotionally-swollen, disillusioned folk rock -but you get the feeling that the band might be on the precipice of something much more titanic.

An original and exquisite album full of playful and energetic indie-rock that, while retaining some of the same qualities as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, is also a step in a new direction that suits the band fine.

Emoh is one of the first surprisingly great albums of 2005.

There’s so much going on here that you have to listen close. And still, it’s a fun album, catchy and wild and full of exuberance.

The band's most eminently danceable record, featuring enough grooves to work your dance party while still retaining enough good ideas to deliver a challenging experimental record that fits well with the rest of the band's catalogue and points to exciting new directions the future could take.

Ultimately, the peaks and troughs of Grinderman 2 RMX come from magnifying both the good and the so-so qualities of the original source material and from finding the most imaginative or laziest ways to refashion them.

It’s a tight, very good album and although it’ll have its unfair share of detractors, like the rest of the band’s albums, it will shine no matter what.

All Delighted People is very succinctly, a superb masterwork from a musical genius--with plenty more greatness to come.

Too much of the edge is gone, too much emphasis is placed on guitar solos, and the guitars sound, at times, rather flat and listless.

Whilst it has a few unconcealed flaws here and there, that a tighter trimmer tracklist might have edited-out, Say Yes! is a robust, well-rounded and re-signposting listen; which should reward completionists looking for choice off-cuts from their favourite featured artists, remind us to revisit the original source material and hold-up to plenty of standalone spinning.