With Black's mystifying decision to release all of the material alphabetically (rather than chronologically) alongside the lack of extensive liner notes and the inclusion of a mostly disappointing bonus disc (comprised of outtakes from 2002's Black Letter Days), The Complete Recordings feels less celebratory than perfun

It's difficult to avoid self-parody when you're mining a genre that largely defines itself by tacky sonic flourishes, but somehow White Hills have continued to do just that.

While their approach is a little aggressive at times, making it a little too much to take in at once, Glitterbug is full of tracks that prove there's no reason not to indulge in it.

With this album, Gallows have fine-tuned their previously established sound, creating a cohesive and powerful set of songs.

A kaleidoscope of wonder, moments tucked inside other moments like Russian nesting dolls.

The first two-thirds of this album are nearly flawless.... There are a couple of stumbles down the backstretch, though.

O'Brien manages to inhale stuffy themes of love and heartache and exhale fresh retellings.

Though Edge of the Sun is a very good record by any measure, there is something about it all that feels frustratingly routine.

For a musician who has been leaning on the same style of ambient electronic for years, Colleen bravely reaches for something outside her ethereal comfort zone on Captain of None.

On Crooked Doors, the music is given ample space to breath, giving it a progressive edge. All told, it's a huge leap forward for Royal Thunder.

White Men Are Black Men Too is a perfect storm of influences and talent that make for an unforgettable album.

Beyond a few flaws, Matt & Kim have put together a fun record, and in the pop game, that comes first.

No Pier Pressure throws out that decade and a half worth of good will by doing the exact opposite, stacking the record with guest stars like Nate Ruess and Kacey Musgraves and "updating" Wilson's compositions with heaps of undercooked stylistic diversions.

This record accomplishes what it sets out to do, engaging the listener with indisputably catchy moments, if a little inconsistently, throughout.

The album is a full hour long, and though most of the songs are captivating, a few tend to drag.

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.

The Air Conditioned Nightmare feels like another uncompromising work from the intriguing Woodhead, and in its wide-spanning sound, offers something to both long-time fans and new ones.

Yet another highlight in a career overflowing with them.

More polished than 2012's Zeros, Deeper is fuller, fatter and puts more emphasis on its futuristic electronic elements than its nostalgic ones.

Joyner's poem-songs are worth lingering over. As it turns out, his idiosyncratic sandpaper tenor and low spacious guitar style are the perfect instruments through which to deliver them.

Ivy Tripp is not a record about being in love or and it's not a record about getting your heart broken; it's about the foggy, messy tangle of the feelings in between. And they've never sounded so good.

[The] few missteps evince the fact that Wale is finding himself again, treading through the high waters to realize his ambitions. And to that end, The Album About Nothing does more than enough.

Cosmic Troubles is not only stunning, but unexpectedly so--it's not often we get musical reinventions as sudden or dramatic as this that work so well.

Though radically different in execution, The Powers That B is a compelling look at the band's ability to work with sounds both minimal and monumental, while containing some of their most riveting lyrical and musical work in recent memory.

Tales From Wyoming stays safely in the established genre without trying to be groundbreaking, but simplicity and quirky immaturity are the bread and butter of pop punk, and there's enough to satisfy here.

Whitmore pulls off a wonderful feat with Radium Death, creating a record that reads like classic Whitmore, but sounds like something gloriously new.

This is a beautiful, concise blast that conveys this band's musical essence.

There's a thin line between owning up to the voracious hunger needed to reach a new level of fulfillment and being trapped by the desperation to regain a title that is no longer his. Ludaversal finds itself somewhere in between.