It's an album that has a nice enough groove throughout, and again, the quality of the production really cannot be overstated.

The production is competent, yet very derivative for 2014, appearing stuck between ornately symphonic leftfield pop and Timberlake-brand R&B.

There is not enough energy here for one to latch onto and so the EP passes uneventfully.

Spring certainly isn't the worst Weezer album (don't worry, Pacific Daydream, that title still belongs to you!), but it's frustrating to hear them sabotaging their own songs in a futile attempt to pin down the sound of a season. So far, SZNZ feels less like a lofty concept and more like silly gimmick.

Sleigh Bells should be applauded for their attempts to move beyond their simplistic formula, but the growing pains are evident and awkward to listen to.

More Is Than Isn't showcases an artist refusing to learn from prior mistakes and not yet ready to capitalize on his past achievements.

Sonic Highways is an attempt to channel a different musical energy, but it's one that Grohl does a far better job capturing with his camera crew.

Pure, Beyond Reproach feels lost and directionless at times.

The album starts off relatively strong, with hard-hitting choruses in "Narrow Mouth" and upbeat, catchy verse lines in "Magnolia," but lose momentum quickly thereafter.

A frustrating album that manages to both thrill and disappoint in equal measure, which suggests that with some trimming, this could have been an incredible EP.

Levi hasn't exactly grown with each and every album, and his wheel spinning has gotten the better of him again, because, apart from a couple of catchy tunes, Medicine isn't very exciting.

Everyday Life has more blunders than hits, but let's give Coldplay some credit — they've got a "go big or go home" attitude that's entertaining, even when it misses the mark.

Bad Love has just too many things going on.

Interpol are far past the point of trying to recapture their glory days, but even their attempts to change things up come off as a mixed bag. Prospective fans and diehards alike are better off starting at the beginning.

Mungodelics remains an uneven effort in design alone, promptly adding another layer of mystery to this hard-to-pin-down duo.

While it provides plenty of tell, there's not nearly enough show.

There are great moments that fulfil expectations of Jesu as a dissolving whirlpool bath of glass shards, but these flashes don't carry the full weight of the album.

In a Dim Light turns out to be a frustrating listen; it's an adventurous outing by a band that plainly need to sharpen their craft.

For much of Meteorites, strings attempt to fill in the hole that was the band's characteristically dynamic, propulsive low-end, to mixed results.

Unfortunately, Keith is treated to some friendly fire here, as most of his cohorts outshine him.

Zomby changes style a frustrating amount, and all of it crawls along at a painstaking speed. He's gone for something different here, which is commendable, but the end product, sadly, comes off more pretentious than deep.

Wallows play it safe on Model, with a lack of distinctive storytelling shackling the album to its mid-tempo pop melodies, its highs too few and far between.

Molina once seemed poised to become a reliable purveyor of sticky throwback pop. But absent the visceral thrill of his early work, or anything new or profound to say about grief and heartache, Kill the Lights offers little more than the sum of its influences.

Galore, is a soulless collection that feels more like a grasp at brand synergies than an attempt to make meaningful music.

As Morrissey's ability to deploy his wit and worldliness fades, it's nice to hear him wax romantic, but for the first time on record, he seems more obsessed with others than himself. Sadly, it doesn't suit him well.

There's very little on offer to ground the listener here, which makes Maze of Woods a challenging collection; it's the aural equivalent of a 90-minute movie that feels like a 3-hour watch.

The interludes and instrumentals only serve to interrupt the flow of the record, and it becomes clear the album is a bit of a mixed bag.

With its jarring synthetic brass--which is neither as charming or amusingly ironic as its creators seem to think it is--Someday World starts off on the wrong foot from the very first bars.