As tracks like the bombastic slow jam "Ascension" and the Drive soundtrack cast-off "Disclosure" add a bit of auditory depth to the album, much of Chiaroscuro runs at a dreary autopilot pace.

Overall it's the atmosphere that haunts the album that will stick with you, assuredly.

Once adjusted to the band's change in dynamics, you're left with the distinct feeling that this is perhaps their most engrossing effort since the Young Team's debut.

Though Alcest have left the majority of their metal signifiers behind, they've discovered another kind of heaviness via gorgeous, shimmering melodies.

There are, unfortunately, a few songs that just don't connect, and when the album ends you're left feeling a bit unsatisfied, which is rare for this band. But it's still a great, short, raw blast of a melodic punk album.

While it may lack the sustained ear-catching excellence of Kings and Queens, South is another solid addition to what is now one of the strongest discographies in Canadian roots music.

This reissue of the first two Bottle Rockets albums from '93 and '94 brings back with startling clarity how in tune Henneman was with the times, lyrically foreshadowing the decline of the middle class amid the rise of urban sprawl and taking well-aimed shots at unchecked racism and political correctness, all while leading his band like Warren Zevon fronting Crazy Horse.

Post-rock, grunge, hardcore, noise-rock; it's all fair game in the eyes of Big Ups, and this album is all the better for it.

Pangaea Ultima is a cleaner, sprawling affair, but one lacking the ingenuity of some of Moore's more esoteric works.

Although Doyle's vocal melodies lack focus at times, Total Strife Forever possesses enough left-turns to satisfy the most adventurous electronic music fans.

Frustratingly, the record seems somewhat sleepily produced by her husband John Leventhal. One wishes for more flourish to distinguish these songs from one another.

Given that these recordings span different eras and sessions, High Hopes does have a cohesiveness, flow, and degrees of greatness, but unlike the career-spanning rarities comp Tracks, there's nothing about these lost or revisited songs that screams out "Jackpot!"

Forever is essentially a pop record, but while there's no denying that some of these songs in isolation fulfill the catchy promise of that genre, there's just not enough to elevate this above being a decent debut and not much else.

Anchored by the cinematic piano compositions of chief-songwriter Hazel Wilde--who seems to have learned vocals from the Bilinda Butcher School for Barely Audible Singing--and the ambient excursions of lead guitarist Paul Gregory, rarely has an album about England's eroding economy and cultural upheaval sounded so exquisitely triumphant.

Over ten tracks and 40 minutes, Post Tropical never picks up any steam, never comes to life. Mere gorgeousness is, it turns out, not quite enough to sustain a record.

Though not his most cohesive work, Marci Beaucoup is undoubtedly a solid addition to Roc Marciano's impressive and rapidly expanding catalogue.

Although Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are brilliant Motown/Stax revivalists, their stalwart '60s soul/funk, at times, hits the inevitable yawn note.

Few of his contemporaries possess a post-important-band solo discography as prolific and consistently great as that of Stephen Malkmus, but each new album firmly leaves his past in the dust.

The overall tempo has slowed, allowing for more instrumental variation and a chance for the band to explore the new musical terrain (which they thoroughly do).

The songs just sounded great, and were played with such precision, at these shows.

With Hardcourage, FaltyDL proves that he still has an endless arsenal of tricks up his sleeve; it's just what he chooses to wear on said sleeve that makes all the difference.

The Behind the Green Door EP contains some of the most comfortably weird grooves we've heard from Laurel Halo.

Burial's tracks have always sounded sentimental, but it was usually contrasted with caustic backdrops that gave them some bite; on these two tracks ["Hiders" and "Come Down to Us"], it's the missing element.

Rather than slow down and chill out, he chooses to mirror our own sped-up reality in his music, with impressive results.

Realistically, Alternate/Endings is not for everyone, but anyone who's intrigued by the dark and unconventional side of things--or thinks that jungle needs a new platform--will devour this album.

Beyoncé is better than good, slickly packaged, created with the best of intentions yet still comes off as a postmodern mash of hubris, sincerity and gloss. It will be a hit regardless.

The risk of keeping things breezy is that tracks can often lack weight.

It's only when he applies his production tricks to his own voice on tracks like "Reflection" when things tend to go awry. But its this experimental bent that makes Rap Album One stand out, and deploying these skills judicially in the future will undoubtedly pay off on the evidence of this solid, eclectic debut.