Lament after lament, they start to all blend together, and all of Thomas's considerable skill as a singer, musician, and composer can't seem to create any really arresting moments, just a lot of pretty songs.

Although music lovers who normally don’t appreciate experimental noise will find some things of interest here, this is really an album for people who dig material a bit more avant-garde.

Remarkably consistent and almost infinitely enjoyable.

There are few efforts as noble as Fink’s attempt to express the realities of human suffering. It’s unfortunate that Invisible Ones can’t consistently relate these messages musically.

Twin Cinema is another great pop album from the New Pornographers, a release that's crammed with so many memorable melodies that the bumpier moments fade into the background.

In the end, I am hesitant to say that this is Vanderslice's best album; however, it is undoubtedly his most rewarding. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time with it.

Although annoyingly inconsistent, Infiniheart contains enough interesting tunes with odd arrangements and instrumentation to convince us that Chad Van Gaalen is a talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and is capable of producing engaging, lo-fi, ambient pop.

There's enough diversity amongst these 11 songs to showcase the band's unique talents.

If you've only heard of their work on The Ugly Organ or Domsetica, then I suggest picking this up. It's a great archive of the band's early unheralded accomplishments.

Those who enjoy his new approach will like the album, and those who long for his old days of guitar-driven power-pop will find some highlights that prove no matter how old Mould gets, he still is one of the most brilliant musicians and lyricists ever.

Each of these tracks will peel your face off and serve as the equivalent of hooking your brain to a nuclear reactor.

What they do best is produce exceptional electronica for people that don't have the patience for extended instrumental passages and require things like vocals on regular intervals. With that precursor, The Understanding is probably one of the better electronica records to come out this year that thankfully doesn't involve MCs from Def Jux or was composed on a laptop.

While Okemah is clearly driven by Farrar's vision, it suitably develops Son Volt's sound, bringing it clearly into the mid-2000s while giving a nod toward the influences of bygone days that have always been a factor in Son Volt's alt-country tendencies.

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

Exhausting, enthralling, disorientating, celebratory, and contemplative, Sufjan Stevens has delivered another album that will keep us listening and educated till Christmas.

Multiply is not just the year’s most adventurous album, it’s one of its most melodic, soulful, and engaging as well.

When they began their self-titled debut, they were uncertain kids from Brooklyn making a record from all the music they had ever known. They’re leaving veterans of the game with obvious talent and colossal potential.

There is no shortage of experimentation here.

This is the finest debut hip-hop album I’ve seen since Aesop Rock’s.

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

All in all, this is a very impressive record, one that succeeds on just about every little tweak of the pop idiom it attempts.

As a live album, Out West is a fair one.

Even at its most intense, Everything Ecstatic combines percussive aggression with warmth and vivid emotion.

Innovative as it is satisfying.... It’s hard to imagine a more realized meld of hip-hop, electronica, and post-rock.

The album is ambitious as it is daring, and it's the most refreshing piece of new music released thus far into 2005.

An excellent album graced by the kind of clever hooks, lines, and sinkers that color Malkmus’ best work, be it with Pavement or the Jicks.

If there’s any fault with this album, it’s the predictability in the songs: there are no hidden surprises, lacking any real breathtaking shifts or unexpected twists waiting to throw the unwary listener off-guard.

Despite including a few hallmarks of a groundbreaking record (experimentalism, eclecticism, ambitious), Wrath of Circuits is still not an easy listen for those people who don't wet their pants at every new Dischord or Touch and Go release.