For the most part of Concrete and Gold, it's the same anthemic, meat 'n' potatoes arena rock we've come to expect; a little more punk or metal aggression here, a little more acoustic balladry there, but the mould is the same.

Spacey synths and trippy percussion give listeners a taste of her internal world; dreamy and wistful but also riddled with disruptive bouts of gentle chaos.

Though billed as a Mr. Tophat project first and foremost, Trust Me is ultimately weighed down by his collaborator's past triumphs. Though they are no doubt killer floor-fillers, outside the club, these three songs can't quite hold listeners' attention.

Duffy relinquished control and precision — and perhaps loneliness — in favour of something more immediate, striking, and impulsive. The resulting six-song record has a looseness to it that celebrates the uninhibited power of spontaneity and invention.

Don't call it a full-fledged De La Soul record--call it an enjoyable diversion until the full crew come back proper.

As rich and resonant as some of these synth tones are, it's ultimately an album that's more conceptually interesting than it is musically appealing.

While McVie's voice seems to have held up quite well, it's all but lost behind multiple layers of effects, combined with gratuitous use of shakers and other percussion. As for the songs themselves, most are simply fair-to-middling pop songs.

Glover is clearly better than he's ever been in almost every regard; his rapping, singing and everything in between feel refined to a point they never have. The issue is that, without the movie, there's no connective tissue between these songs, as great as the majority are. For now, Bando Stone & the New World exists as a collection of songs that are mostly great, but lack any real sense of cohesion between them.

While the rest of Nothing's Gonna Change sometimes falls prey to sheer navel-gazing, overall it displays some clear signs of maturity in someone who remains more determined than ever to carry on his father's legacy.

Cutler has riddled these tracks with a rainbow of synth ripples, making Levitate stand out immediately as a Lone record, despite heavily harkening back to a bygone era.

Cosmic Logic contains probably some of the most accessible material they've released to date, material that'll hopefully attract a whole new slew of fans.

This gloriously woozy record is era-ambiguous and the sonic equivalent of a contact high.

As a third album, it's an interesting station on the way to potential greatness, and it will definitively put the group on more than a few radars. Above all, on this album TOY makes us feel really excited about Brit-pop again, which itself is no small feat.

For all the mercurial experiments in power, Forgiveness also contains moments that scale back the theatrics to spotlight Tucker and Tividad as the sincere, gimlet-eyed songwriters they've proven to be since Girlpool's inception.

What For? is a little less varied than his past records, as the repetitive nature of the genre (particularly the lengthy jam outro of "Yeah Right") has a tendency to creep in, but it's an aspect that would have only hindered the record more had it been longer.

Beyond the overt gimmickry of the singles "Concrete" and "BLOODMONEY" (the latter sounds like she went rooting through Skrillex's trash), I Disagree is often surprisingly unchaotic.

His care and preservationist approach to each arrangement gives everything an authentic vibe that transports you back to a much simpler time.

The result is a fine record, but one that ultimately fails to leave a mark.

Ulver doesn't do anything to push the synthpop sound they pursue out of its comfort zone and this keeps the album from greatness, but Flowers of Evil stands out as the band's most accessible album to date.

The addition of synths and steady, solid backbeats, mixed in with the natural and live elements Silver Wilkinson rides on, gives the album tangibility worth grasping.

Occult Architecture Vol. 1 isn't as daring as its literary influences would suggest, but it succeeds often, particularly when it varies from its central sounds. Moon Duo should embrace the change on volume two.

The Way Things Fall remains a sometimes flawed, sometimes inspired, inadvertent return to form.

This record will surprise their fans.

There's more of the same on Dormarion, the singing drummer's reliably affable third album for Merge, which has a little something for everyone, but stops short of total engagement, like a slightly too tipsy party host.

By employing the occasional tapping lead or reverb-drenched tremolo section, the band add layers to each song, resulting in an overall sound that has enough variation to keep it from sounding tedious but maintains enough pop simplicity to keep it catchy and memorable.

It's music with a strong pulse that also whispers its truths close to your ear, like an intimate conversation at the back of a booming dance club.

Even though Protean Threat proves to be an adventurous, quirky and downright strange album at times, Osees manage keep the whole thing sonically grounded and consumable, all while keeping Dwyer's winning streak impossibly alive.

A record that moves between genres and moods with a deft touch.