As with any Kristin Hersh long-player, Learn To Sing Like A Star will of course take a dozen or so spins to reveal its true merits to listeners.

Akin to AM era Wilco matched with Big Star's #1 Record.

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.

The indulgences and overreaching take away from the really good songs.

This is not Tom Waits’ best record... But the whole package... is riveting, a collection that should humble lesser musicians who only can aspire to the mantle of Waits’ discarded work.

This album bleeds politics.

If you've yet to experience PJ Harvey, The Peel Sessions: 2001-2004 might be the perfect initiation. If you're a long time fan, don't pass this album up simply because you recognize many of the tracks listed.

Alas, it feels like In the Absence of Truth finds the band both spinning its wheels and running out of ideas.

One of the most accessible, pleasant releases of 2006.

Upon first listen, some of Calamity, though fun, sounds like partial ideas rather than full-fledged songs. Some tracks never recover from this symptom after a dozen spins; some do.

Roots & Crowns encircles the listener and flows effortlessly as each song melts into the next in bewitching bliss.

Micah P. Hinson And The Opera Circuit is a very unique album that can be as warm and familiar as it can be chilling and alien.

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

The overall effect is some formidable, quirky inde-rock.

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

The songs are catchy, well written, anthemic, and fun.

The Decemberists have always had a flair for the dramatic, but it's refined and realized more than ever on their amazing new album The Crane Wife.

It’s the best batch of songs he’s had in a while.

No alarms, no surprises.

Beach House is the perfect accompaniment for an introspective day, or night, of watching the globules of a lava lamp slowly float and sink.

This is a punishing record that manages to be both incredibly dense and yet highly listenable.

The lack of complexity, tension, and propulsion in most of these songs is a big disappointment because the soundscapes are not grand and glorious enough to overcome the simplistic musical lines and repetitive nature of the lyrics.

Frankly, you could pick pretty much any song at random and be guaranteed either a gorgeous slab of jubilation or a bittersweet drop of beatification.

The Letting Go is arguably the most pretty and richly detailed record Oldham has released in years.

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.

Almost everything that YLT can do - and largely do so well - is here, alongside a sizeable smattering of new tricks and treats.

The brilliant new album Dark Light Daybreak sees Now It's Overhead mixing the smoldering and beautifully layered guitar sounds from 2001's self-titled debut with the haunting synth-pop beats from 2004's Fall Back Open and taking them a step further by including more intricate melodies, polished arrangements and even grander guitar-scapes.

By the end of the album, you're likely to forget that the band band has been tagged as stoner rock, because there's a lot more than that going on here.