Em's new songs give a facelift to old themes — but thanks to his still-astounding wordplay and creative beat choices (Rick Rubin's work on "So Far..." and "Love Game" is a hoot), you can still get lost in the wrinkles.

All in all, the disses, weird comments, glitchyness, folky bits and ravey big bass — among many other sundry bits and pieces — come together to create something that will make many people dance. This doesn't sound like an album as much as a terrifically curated DJ set—and that's more than okay.

While it's a great attempt at a first album, Pick a Piper's tune could have been a bit sweeter.

By toeing the party line--one that many critics and fans have completely rejected--Made in California paints a false picture of one of rock's most enduring and puzzling acts.

No Blues is precisely the grimly euphoric lift-up it purports to be, validating Los Campesinos! on their own terms as connoisseurs of perversely thrilling, desperately mundane misery.

Surfing Strange feels like a transitional album, as the group look to define themselves with their artistic voice, rather than those of their influences.

Much like forbearer k.d. lang, Ortega just wants to be herself, and the image she's built up over her previous two albums has now fully matured on Tin Star.

This ranks amongst Gelb's most vital albums in an already storied career.

Free Your Mind won't surpass Screamadelica on any lists--it's far too much indebted to both that record and era--but you'll have a difficult time finding an album in 2013 that's as utterly energizing and sublime as this.

Most songs fall into well-worn territory about young love and teenage politics, while there's sameness to too many of the songs. But when it works, and it often does, their charms are undeniable.

Whales & Leeches doesn't see Red Fang veering far from their signature, grooving sound, but they deploy all the tricks in their musical arsenal extremely effectively, refining them into a terrible, sharpened point.

Fans will be deeply impressed with the improvement of their songwriting and the record's cohesion, while totally satisfied with the energy and muscle they employed to execute their vision.

It's wilder and brighter than their previous efforts, which is definitely a good thing.

UZU is an album that uproots us and transports us into the unknown, but it's an adventure that we would happily go on again and again.

Wenu Wenu does a decent job presenting the veteran singer, but your desire to return to this disc hinges upon your enthusiasm for that instrument's unique sound.

Black Radio 2 will leave fans hungry for Black Radio 3.

Tall Tall Shadow (the long-awaited follow-up to 2010's Heart of My Own) sees Bulat lifting her voice once again--high above the fussy introduction of electronic elements--to a place where joy and despair mingle in heady measures.

Eight months on, Unknown Mortal Orchestra return with Blue Record, a chilled acoustic EP that grooves down and quietly electrifies.

Their blend of bluegrass, blues and ragtime isn't unique within the current old-timey undercurrent of Americana, but frontman Pete Bernhard's songwriting contains enough contemporary flair to provide a solid backbone for the album's ten tracks

The connection between Hatfield and Caws makes Get There a great pop album that will appeal to more than just fans of both participants.

Reflektor goes after this eternal, existential tension in masterful strokes and is a significant musical contribution by Arcade Fire, who continue to find ways to tap into universal expressions while making music that's refreshingly topical, infectious and completely their own.

He may be hard for most country music fans to take, but there isn't a more vital artist working within the genre right now.

Russian Circles' fifth studio album has a bolder, more polarizing sound than previous efforts.

Halo's music has never felt beholden to nostalgia or thematic consistency, leaving Chance of Rain as a shining example of an artist striving to operate within a creative vacuum.

Krug doesn't let the instrumental limitation restrict him and, while the listening experience jarringly contrasts his past body of work, it exposes a rawer, more intimate side of Krug, to much success.

Guilt Trips is as unclassifiable as it is dazzling, a fine debut from an artist who continues to progress.

You will be hard-pressed to find a fresher-sounding dance LP this year.

Stars Are Our Home is too much of a hodgepodge.