MeYouWeYou is an ambitious and confident record from a band with enough smarts to keep one foot in the electronic realm while letting the other roam free.

No Better Time Than Now is a mature, immersive work that carries with it an intense emotional weight--the passionate, human energy of the live drumming dovetails beautifully with the optimism and spiritual healing expressed in the melodies.

Expertly recorded by Martin Bisi (famous for his work with Swans, Sonic Youth and White Zombie), the production is perfect and the songs are mostly more than compelling enough to make it work.

Despite the massed personnel, nothing sounds cluttered or excessive.

Segall may not be bouncing off the walls on Sleeper, but its decided shift shows his range and ability to continue churning out great releases at an alarming speed.

In contrast to comrade Rocky's music, Trap Lord succeeds largely despite its production, fuelled by Ferg's oddball enthusiasm and sincerity.

Doris isn't the classic many anticipated, but it is a strong, uncompromised debut from a very talented young rapper. For now, that's enough.

There's no question Hero Brother is a tremendously accomplished series of recordings that hold together as a whole, but one also gets the sense of being at the beginning of a journey that could get better as the years go by.

It's not time to write Porcelain Raft off, but Remiddi needs to bring more ideas to LP number three.

The sparse chug of "Defector/ed" and the dirge-y mantra of "A Ceiling Dreams of a Floor" reflect the rough-hewn elegance of the duo's raw musical material.

Though they won't repeat the trick, Diana plunder '80s-aping blog-pop and find surprising riches in a long washed-out gold mine.

There are enough unexpected moments--a nice peppering of saxophone, the gospel choir on "I Like It In the Dark" and the velvety hum of closing ballad "Un Chant D'Amour--to distinguish this as the best album yet by these sunglasses-at-night-wearing rockers.

The album's arrangements are the least complex they've been since Superchunk's early days, making these 11 tracks less immediately sticky than previous efforts. A bit more teeth would have made this one for the ages.

Most vividly, Loud City Song evokes the easy, tingling drift of early Robert Wyatt.

Raph's lyrics, meanwhile, dig beneath melancholia and insecurity to unearth beauty in the small victories of self-discovery.

What Whitfield lacks in originality he makes up for with a tireless push to the end zone.

The Wild Feathers makes a solid first impression, but if they can dial down the earnestness a bit in the future, they'll have a better shot at becoming the great American rock 'n' roll band they clearly have the potential to be.

The band's natural tendency toward tightly knit pop music, combined with an increasingly evident and more fully realized awareness of their strengths, makes Shaky Dream a great release.

This is no B.S. heavy metal and it makes you feel good, which is way more than many were expecting. And, no, the bass isn't embarrassingly loud in the mix.

Providing a counterpoint to the dark rumble of the remainder of the release, dBridge has crafted a record that traverses the emotional spectrum in its three tracks better than any other drum & bass release has in the last few years.

At times, the blend is less than palatable and, frankly, too busy, as on the title track. However, this franticness is occasionally contrasted by a song that manages to draw you in.

While Filthy might not be soundtracking any pool parties this year, it is one of the most vital releases of the summer.

Despite the barebones recording techniques and instruments--East German drum machines, a toy Casio and a Soviet-made Faemi organ, all recorded and overdubbed on primitive Tesla machines--the sounds on The Lost Tapes are immersive, complex and also difficult to classify.

Paracosm floats by like a wonderful dream, from which only the most jaded music fan would wish to awaken.

While there isn't much on display that will impress those with little desire for more of the same, genre buffs or fans of Counterparts' first two full-lengths will find the absence of filler and spirited momentum more than agreeable.

It's all very un-Explosions-like, but it works to not only create diversity in their discography, but also as a moody album that can provide moments of levity.

Raffertie attempts something a bit bolder with "One Track Mind," but the building, repetitive, tinny synths fail to gain a foothold, in comparison to the rest of the album. That aside, Sleep of Reason is an eloquent release.

The unlisted, sludge metal instrumental with crashing, crushing, demo-quality production only adds to the overall awesomeness and crazed attitude behind it all.