If you want to get in on the ground floor of something good, then check out Cross and see where Justice leads; with cuts like these, it will certainly not take long until they're all over the place, in commercials, on the radio, and on TV.

It’s amazing to see how the Decemberists have grown. The songs from their first EP, 5 Songs, seem like a man and an acoustic guitar, where Picaresque feels like a full blown orchestra.

[Palomo's] instincts fill Psychic Chasms with the kind of intangible pleasures that make for a dynamic, lyrical-sounding record and a wholly enjoyable listen in spite of any cynicism towards the fad it encapsulates.

One of the best albums of 2006.

Though the songs eschew familiar structures, their triumphant, readily accessible moments occur with surprising frequency; multiple hooks litter the lengthier compositions, and the shorter pieces usually contain at least two winsome passages.

The BBC Sessions comes on the heels of "Push Barman to Open Old Wounds," which succeeded simply because it made neat work of the "Lazy Line Painter Jane EP Box," but BBC Sessions seems to somehow simultaneously offer more and less than that compilation.

Armchair Apocrypha is a wonderful record.

You In Reverse is equal parts subtlety and over self-indulgence, and its problems lie with the latter. More often than not, the stretched out jams seems to take up space rather than move the songs forward.

This maturation of lyrical character is the Bonnie "Prince" Billy we would hope for and expect at this juncture in his career. While there may always be a darkness, it's refreshing to bask in his newfound light.

Set Yourself on Fire is a release of unexpected dimensions.

The album is a classic from start to finish, and only adds to the already monumentally impressive discography the band has produced in the past decade.

Like an undergrad philosophy student, Mono would be much more likeable if they didn’t try to sound so deep all the time.

To put it succinctly, Amy Winehouse has made a really good record.

Overall, Black Forest (tra la la) is one of those albums which grows in likeability the more you listen to it, as the charming sounds of many subtle instruments appear with more spins.

While the slower, wandering songs certainly make the composition and mood of the record, it's the more upbeat tracks, never Cox's previous forte, that shine on this disc.

Whereas the last album came across like the more muddled and aimless moments of Fiery Furnaces or Frog Eyes/Wolf Parade songs (all bluster, arrangement - nothing memorable even if expertly played), this record comes across like the more finely tuned pop songs from any of the aforementioned groups.

Shut Up’s biggest downfall is it’s speed, or lack thereof. The songs lilt and twirl with Krug’s yelp, xylophones and processed guitars, but rarely does the pace exceed ballad-like levels.

This is deceptively simple, back-to-basics rock music that no honest American can help but enjoy.

It’s similar enough to past efforts that one can trace his artistic trajectory with a steady arc, but it’s the point in the arc where the slope takes a radical increase, making the name change seem like an appropriate signifier.

Throughout, Cee-Lo’s crazed Muddy Waters-meets-Al Jarreau tenor drools soul and exudes liquid-nitrogen cool.

However early in the voting period we may be, Drums and Guns will undoubtedly go down as one of 2007's strongest albums.

While the record pleases on most all levels, the flavor of sound at times feels somewhat generic and a bit too lethargic, which keeps the disc from being great.

Deerhunter have indeed created a masterpiece. While it's not perfect, it has the charm and scope and full realization that was lacking in the band's earlier work.

Black Dialogue: a hip-hop classic? Maybe not, but pretty damn close.

The creativity on display here is jaw-dropping.

If Of Montreal were previously a bit on the superficial side with their beatific pop, Hissing Fauna adds a welcome additional ingredient: a sense of gravity.

Tastefully fashionable, Saunier's truly grandiose drumming bits serve to keep the listener well entertained while never flagging as the band's backbone; Dieterich, now bolstered by Rodriguez, sharpens the material with catchy guitar riffs; and Matsuzaki's well-timed and particularly soft voice provides plenty of flavor. Never conventional, bordering on the impractical, the formula nevertheless works.

Although not nearly as hot as early 2006’s Donuts, The Shining shows for a handful of great collabo’s and bangin’ beats and further paves the way for Dilla’s powerhouse legacy.

At 48 minutes, Icky Thump has enough genre-hopping, rip-roaring tunes to get even the 70s rock purist nodding his head again.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a music snob who can’t be won over by Cantrell’s lovely compositions.

A captivating release from start to finish.

Mixing breeds of folk, psychedelica and white bread hip-hop, Why? is genetically predisposed to the same experimental tendencies as Pavement, Grandaddy, Enon, the Beta Band and They Might Be Giants. Each song is a musical Frankenstein, pieced together with live parts of the bodies of all those acts.

After their breakthrough, The '59 Sound, the Jerseyian punks appear to have taken a Green Day-like career shift: finding a concept that struck a chord and beating it to death like one of the down-and-out ciphers in the B-movie quality Springsteen worldview they've constructed.

On the whole, The Sunlandic Twins makes almost everything else today seem diluted and stale.

There are some very danceable tracks on the outfit's second release, but nowhere is there a worldwide hit to be found.

Triumphant, bitter, despondent, but never false or insincere, The Last Romance is one of the early great listens of 2006.

Superwolf is collaboration in the truest sense of the word, and the talents of the two musicians involved feel revitalized and meaningful in ways that they may not have for some time.

Kortedala is a touch shy of a great album because Lekman's ornate tendencies towards full-on kitsch get the best of the still A-level songwriting.

Rainwater Cassette Exchange certainly finds creative ways to transform their music and expand their already impressive catalogue, even if most of the songs are quite short and leave the listener yearning for more.

One either engages with the gears of this get-up, or not. If you do, the delights abound from start to finish, and it really makes no difference whether each song intends to evoke a different French city, as they do on The Flying Club Cup.

Transference is a challenging, mature statement from a band generally known for more for refining their approach with each release.

Clever, catchy, and moody, Maudlin Career is what contemporary pop music should be. It is wholly as satisfying as Campbell is unsatisfied.

Superbly imaginative for someone still considered a "lad."

The Wedding is certainly a new direction in some ways, but it’s still the same brainiac rock that Oneida has been dishing out for the past eight years.

If you bought Nouns and wondered what the big deal was, this is your chance to find out. No Age continue to grow as conceptual artists and songwriters, and after a summer of dumbed down garage band shenanigans (cough, Best Coast, cough) it's fun to have something that's both challenging and fun to listen to come out of that scene.

Her ability to draw out more and more truth with each album is indisputable, and on The Greatest, she reaches a golden landmark of self-assurance.

Depending on how interested you still are by the record's third act, this can be either good or bad. It depends on your taste for disorientation.

Whether or not you choose to accept it, the FACT is that Scotland's own Hutchinson brothers have created a sweet and powerful collection of tunes with The Midnight Organ Fight.

Though he may not have the experience in years, he more than makes up for it in the way he crafts his songs.

It wouldn't be inconceivable to describe 13 & God as the predictable outcome of a Notwist/Themselves collaboration, but, considering the degree of originality demonstrated, this is by no means a shortcoming.

While some tracks are absolutely reminiscent of these lads’ former bands... Maritime comes off most like Tahiti 80 or the Postal Service, crafting lofty, affable pop concerned with pristine beauty.

At a time when Internet buzz can make the latest bands seem like old news, listening to Vivian Girls is still exciting even after many times through; the band do not create something new so much as something now.

All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone is an intensely atmospheric album, and stands as one of the band's stronger releases.

The disc is a dense, cerebral, sweated-over work of art.

Rife with contrast and irony, Infiniheart plays like a series of short stories or films, somehow interwoven to a common conclusion.

The clincher is A Place to Bury Strangers' impressive final quarter: almost structured like a minituarist's 'Zen Arcade,' the nasty pyrotechnics show set off first as a statement of intent, followed by the true songs, and then takeoff is achieved in the denouement with true anthems.

Thoroughly theatric, Pale Young Gentlemen's measured approach is channeled by the bricolage upshot of their composition.

The Grind Date is almost shockingly excellent. This is De La Soul at their most focused – no skits, no filler, no weird interludes.

While not as fleshed out as some other remarkable debuts, Album is a fully realized personal vision.

If you like intelligent song writing with killer sing-along choruses, then you desperately need this album.

I'll Sleep When You're Dead is too smart, too relevant, and too dangerous.

The band’s performance overall is agonizingly perfect and deserving of much praise.

Encapsulating everything that has come to pass since their debut with "Organix" in 1993, Rising Down is the best The Roots release to date, bar none.

Consciousness is fleeting and I fall asleep knowing that tomorrow will be tough, but that the dreams to follow will be as soothing as the music that preceded them.

Although Outside, Closer dwells in cheerless minimalism it is a joy to listen to.

Further Adventures of Lord Quas is a record that can satisfy the cult fan just as it will sate anyone who has an open mind to music that creates its own barriers.

Earlier pieces that amused or excited the listener have given way to more approachable sounds constantly on the verge of blending in completely. While seldom bad and almost wholly listenable, Vapours proves to be a bland disappointment from a group of usually creative musicians.

The album does have its duds--like 'The Prince of Parties' and 'Boom'--but a cut like 'The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)' makes the album entirely worthwhile.

There's something captivating about the project, and you will find yourself returning to the album over and over again.

It's fun and light, and even though for all I know he could be singing about the destruction of mankind, it is bursting with joy and happiness.

A grand experiment in vocal manipulation, Son makes Bjork’s Medulla seem like child’s play.

Liars is an ingenuous reflection of a band in total control of their wild creativity.

Furnished with seductive melodies, dry beats, translucent tonality and a variety of bouncing electronic arpeggios, So This Is Goodbye is filled with pure synth-pop oxygen.

Ultimately at this point, the songs that I'm most attracted to are still the slower, more intuitive weepers showcasing Vedder's voice, and alas, such simplicity is scarce on Backspacer.

Distortion is really a triumph of the evening-out.

As with any such wildly anticipated album, the reverse motion could be a case of perspective, of personal expectations being insurmountably high, because Now We Can See is by no means a bad album. It just seems a little pedestrian for such a talented and unique band.

As well as being their most accessible, The Campfire Headphase emerges as the most solid Boards of Canada album to date.

Yellow House is a keeper.

It is immediately more slanted than their standard fare - incorporating electronic elements and seething mystery at times - but it still sounds like Teenage Fanclub, which is, on all counts, a thoroughly good thing.

In far fewer listens than you'd expect, BiRd-BrAiNs sheds its outer shell of defensive harshness and becomes an easy, enjoyable and addictive listen.

The Audience’s Listening is artistic, witty, comprehensive, technical, but most important of all it isn’t pretentious.

On Get Color, though, the frenetic impulses from two years back have been carefully tempered, the percussive backbone more sharply honed and the ear-bleeding textures more cleverly implemented.

Strange Geometry is something special to listen to; it feels like an album to treat yourself to as a reward for lovely deeds.

Autumn Of The Seraphs is more of the same I have come to expect from Pinback--lovely harmonies and catchy hooks, all with an underlying emotional depth.

The good far outweighs the bad on this lack-of-thread-concept-album, and if you are dying to hear a modern day take on the 70’s soft rock band, check out Midlake.

This is, by no means, Mogwai’s finest hour, but Government Commissions deserves praise for its proof positive of the consistent quality of the band.

As accomplished as Black Cherry was, Supernature completes the suspected evolution from the quasi-avant-garde stylings of old to intelligent, sophisticated pop music.

The Eternal is absorbing and raw, from the slower, affable 'Antenna' to the pounding 'Poison Arrow.'

In Defense of the Genre does defeat the emo stigma and the double CD stigma easily, and does improve slightly on the pretty-good "…Is a Real Boy." But these are minor inventions; any "genius" is pretty much limited to the bites and nuggets reported here.

It's really hard not to get excited about this. Perhaps the bar just gets raised as I get less and less surprised by your typical garden-variety rock, but this sounds like a band hitting their stride and bashing out a great record.

Every song is steeped in melancholy, but the underlying beauty that ties it all together is in the courage of Ashworth's characters to face the unforgiving reality they occupy.

The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter finds namesake and frontman Ritter boldly claiming musical territory with a reinvented sound, turning from the meticulous arrangements and somber ruminations of his previous album to a more daring, moxie-charged approach that yields some of the freshest, most captivating songs of his career.

Wincing The Night Away covers all the bases and proves what loyal followers have known all along, that The Shins are, for better or worse, rock stars.

Weighed and measured, Graduation is easily the best rap album this year.

The Collective's aspirations come off as bland and blurry, as if aspiration alone was the sole goal for this jam, spread out over three quarters of an hour.

Those listeners who recognized Black Mountain as one in a long line of inward looking, backward thinking bands will find that In The Future ups the ante. That's not automatically a great thing, and it means that Black Mountain will yet again be greeted with abundant I know what you're doing and I don't like it reactions.

A wonderful pop record.

You'll find yourself wondering if Nouns is really all that good or if you're just shocked to hear such songs on a No Age record.