At Mount Zoomer is interesting and focused, but safe.

This is proof that Campbell made the right decision in leaving Belle And Sebastian.

Without a heavy-handed disposition, Department of Eagles manages to convey the sentiment of another time while reaching a modern audience.

As with songs like "The Orchids" and "Spider's House," the continued confidence in slow, sleepy numbers, hinting more towards the ambient side of experimental folk, like the devastating "Krill" or the aforementioned "Evidence" suggests that as Rutili ages, his music will only grow in accessibility, relying less and less on the clatter of his youth. Songs like "Gauze" used to be austere nuggets buried in the noise, but these days, the noisy abstractions are, for the most part, the odd-man out.

The natural maturation of Ben Bridwell's vocals and songwriting, bolstered by an increase in creative control, has yeilded what is easily one of 2007's best albums in Cease to Begin.

Supreme Balloon's vintage synthesizers and basic drumbeats make for the least sonically varied of Matmos' recent albums.

Texture and detail separte M. Ward from other solo singer-guitarists, but his general songwriting formula is what gets him to the peak of exceptional list in the first place.

Taiga is a surprisingly approachable album.

In short, Maths + English is an ideal sellout.

If you’re looking for a record whose smirk is as intoxicating as its smile, or one that proves that pop doesn’t have to be straight-laced to be delectable, Laughter’s Fifth should be sly enough to sneak its way into your favor.

For such a dense, demented album to have a definite ending should assure listeners otherwise afraid of institutionalization that further listening will not only be safe, but worth it even if it wasn't.

Crimson may not be AK3s best album, but it’s a welcome, mature effort from one of Vagrant’s best bands.

There are no apologies necessary for this wonderful debut album.

At the very least, it should win new converts just in time for the long-awaited reunion.

Boys Night Out and producer Lou Giordano (Sunny Day Real Estate, Paul Westerberg, Taking Back Sunday) still have taken a fragile overarching concept and pulled it off, delivering one of the strongest rock releases of the year.

If the choice comes down to being obvious or oblique, the band could take a forty-five minute saunter down the road less musically traveled. When they do, I'm hedging that the result will be a masterwork. Until then, releases like A Mad and Faithful Telling will be as engaging as anything that has come before, but will only offer hints at what these colorful characters might do when they finally release the catapult.

But what makes Made In the Dark their best album to date is how great the ballads are, a trick no mere techno act was supposed to master.

Timeless and universal, everyone can identify with Willie Nelson's songs, as sung by Houck, as Phosphorescent's tales of heartbreak, wasted youth, and harsh introspection.

Although not an album of the year candidate or (unfortunately) likely an even noteworthy nod, Collett nonetheless delivers a fine collection of songs.

Just shy of a dozen songs, the ensemble of tracks on The Stand Ins is as rich and musically textured as any previous Okkervil River album

It’s weird, (but not annoyingly so), it’s catchy (but not annoyingly so), and it’s fresh (but not annoyingly so). Face the Truth is the work of a songwriter at his finest hour.

One must realize that this album was created to be fresh but not necessarily edgy. The difference means that the effort is intended to be highly enjoyable but not breakthrough material.

When you boil Real Gone down to its tracks, you’ll keep finding more reasons to love this man – more than anything, you can sense his easy grin.

It is the closest you’ll get to The Bends in 2005.

Although the new parts of their "new" album aren't the best, the band certainly deserves some praise and attention for the marathon of 2006. The Broken String will be noticed by at least a few people.

Yes, the album sounds beautiful - there's little doubt about that - but living solely on a good sound isn't enough.

Where Songs for the Deaf found the perfect middle ground between aggressive rocking licks and experimental flourishes, Lullabies falls to the experimental side.

Even though the album may be too erratic to cohere into anything thematic, its eccentricities do an excellent job of keeping it interesting.

A mostly brilliant, though occasionally lackluster, album.

The Life of the World to Come isn't exactly a head-nodding compendium to the Good Book as much as a shoulder-shrugging desire for surrender. For some, an album with such strong religious overtones may distance those disenchanted with the church.

Kaiser Chiefs manage find their footing early on and this success forgives them their meanderings later on the disc.

It's a brutal record that changes you the same way prison changes a man.

Though it has its strong and weak points, Trouble In Dreams will no doubt receive well-deserved commendation. As a whole, however, it is the result of a grand but imperfect design (which, as we all know, has merit of its own).

A disproportionate amount of the album's tracks sound like a commercialized knockoff of previous songs, past highlights revisited after a process of radio ready distillation.

If you are a long time fan of the Danielson Famile... Ships will not disappoint.

Viva Voce have always been musically intriguing and continue their winning streak with a diverse suite of songs that come together as a cohesive whole.

One coup this unexpectedly friendly record makes me miss is when my favorite records used to have a string of highlights as moments rather than memorable refrains.

While they are not afraid to bang the drums and rock out, Menomena keep the majority of this album behind a beautiful mask of complimentary melodies.

Carousel Waltz is an extremely personal album, sublimely disguised as a sweet bit of pop fluff.

This new bag of tricks is implemented with due subtlety that bolsters the charming simplicity qualities, while filling the tracks out and, cautiously, adding some curves.

Everything All The Time runs not only on imagination but on determination – the mix of the two is what makes it exceptional.

Is Is will especially appeal to fans who found "Show Your Bones" a little soft. On the other hand, this release should appeal to any and all Yeah Yeah Yeahs aficionados.

More Fish has a fishy flavor and smell but has little else resembling the hard-hitting potency of its mind numbing predecessor, Fishscale.

Meanderthals are a collaboration between Idjut Boys and Rune Linbaek, with a sound that is a bit of a fluffier than what we have traditionally come to expect from the Smalltown Supersound label roster. That fluffiness adds a fresh breeze to the otherwise unassuming mix of throwback downbeat and Scandinavian folk strumming.

The sequel is a graceful transition into more polished product with an emphasis on detail and melody-all while retaining the visceral screech of the debut.

While there's no immediate pop hit present a la "Feel Good Inc" or "Clint Eastwood" to get sucked into straight off, Albarn's ability to juggle his rotating ensemble cast and still spin a cohesive yarn for all of sixteen tracks remains something to behold.

The complex emotional duality of the disc is nothing less than penetrating. Most of the tracks are danceable as well as lonesome, and can be enjoyed in a variety of settings.

Its sagging middle aside, Valende may be one of the stronger psychedelic pop releases to come my way in the last couple of years.

The Age of the Understatement is weirdly epic (Nick Cave), full of harmony (Mamas and the Papas), a little charming (Robbie Williams) and dead fucking sexy (any James Bond but Timothy Dalton).

The music is what makes Lupe's pretensions palatable.

One of the most exciting and substantial records so far this year.

Sons and Daughters stand apart from their poppier counterparts with their less-produced sound and their sturdy foundation of nothing more than a chugging rhythm section, intense vocals and that awesome mandolin.

If you’re looking for a roaring, well-executed good time, look no further: the Ponys are practically peerless.

Now then, aside from all that, "After the Garden" and "Families" are right up there with "Rockin in the Free World" for displays of board-stomping bravado, which is of course much less the goal here than raising awareness.

Celebration is pure ecstasy, a sexual, spellbinding listen that acts on you physically.

Califone’s latest offering is not to be missed and certainly one of the best albums of 2006.

This is not a complete or coherent narrative of despair, as the two album halves don’t particularly work with one another—it really feels like two EPs sewn together. But the effort is more than evocative enough to scare the hell out of you, at least for a little while.

It boasts the asset of versatility, possessing the buoyancy and charisma of a distinguishable party album whilst remaining resistant to the usual temptations associated with the so-called “lap-pop” tag.

Laura Burhenn just smolders over a piano-heavy groove. It really is as close to Dusty as they get, but what makes this record special is the way that even when the lyrics clunk up some of the smooth blue-eyed soul (opener and sort-of title track "What We Gained in the Fire" comes to mind), the production is so plainly gorgeous that it really feels like nitpicking (even if it really isn't).

Leo and company go over a lot of territory on this release, but it is not bothersome or a stretch; the band pulls off all of these styles very well.

It goes without saying that The New Year is an album that will draw comparisons to the Kidane brothers' previous group. The good news is that in the face of such unavoidable observations, the album easily stands up on its own.

Most of these tracks can be found on the Internet in their original Iron & Wine incarnations, and all but one sounds 100% better that way.

Dents and Shells is human in the best and truest kind of way: it is the work of a man, appreciative of feeling and progress, warts and all.

Rehab has every right to coast on the momentum of Ghost's hot streak--exploit it, if you will--for an overload of same.

This album's brilliance comes from the titanium-larynxed Tom Gabel's juxtaposition of the listener's jaded expectations of punk with too-direct-to-be-dishonest sentiments.

The '59 Sound delivers just about everything you could hope for in a well-written rock album.

The band seems powerful at their best moments, but may yet be too tentative to really grab hold of their own work.

Reznor and Ross have pulled off something fairly remarkable here, creating a record that could've existed on its own as an original NIN production, but serves almost perfectly as the sonic document of the evolution of an online phenomenon that began in the dorms of Harvard and eventually took over Silicon Valley.

Show Robyn some love - she deserves better than one-hit-wonder tag she's been saddled with, and she's finally getting it.

Mainly, Crazy for You manages to reference weed without being lowbrow and her cat without being twee. Sun-drenched guitar licks go woozy and Cosentino's crystal clear vocals lament and wish and hope. You don't have to be West Coast-born to feel the weight of an "I miss you so much" chorus and a slow drum beat.

Spiritualized have always possessed an impressive grandeur, but on this album it is grandeur with a purpose--Songs in A&E is the sound of healing.

Why? the person always had unique ideas, but, for the first time, Why? the band complements these thoughts and feelings with consistency, creating an accessible, exciting and complete work.

Sounds are given room to breathe and interact, room to develop detailed relationships with each other, and therein lies Abandoned Language's most compelling facet.

Although an amateur sound bleeds through all the songs on Skeleton it is obvious that this group of Danes take themselves seriously. It is that seriousness that makes this album so enjoyable, as it affords the band a certain degree of confidence in their quirkiness.

Through all the fascinating genre shell games, the constant on Trying To Never Catch Up is a smart pop sensibility that rarely expels an unoriginal thought.

The slightly pretentious concept, though, is balanced by the equally lavish music and specifically Khan's voice.

With a marked improvement in lyrical content, !!! have also brought the beats.

Like each of Owen Ashworth’s wondrous works before it, Etiquette is intimate, often sorrowful, bedroom glitch-pop, but here it is more substantial.

Listening to The Avalanche is a lot like going back to visit old friends - familiar, cozy and safe.

How does it compare to his previous three records--or eight, if you count his former band? Suffice it to say that's a rhetorical question. If Joe DiMaggio made albums... well you get the point.

Present are the hints of early Guided by Voices, spotty Who outtakes and country-tinged acoustics that make East River Pipe so beloved, but here these influences tread, weighted, underwater.

While Chrome Dreams II was clearly modeled after his more "classic" sounding work, it finds Young sounding like little more than a knockoff of his former self.

Despite its lack of youthful anarchy, The Hawk Is Howling is an impressive record. Mogwai are among the world's most gifted musical collectives; perhaps they have just been making music too long to want or need to reinvent the game again.

A River Ain’t Too Much To Love has more in common with great books than it does with great rock albums; it’s intelligent, introspective, sensitive and best experienced in a very quiet place.

Robyn returned this year with two new EPs with an alleged third one on the way and while the construction of each flatters the contents, taken as a whole, they're wildly uneven. The stronger of the two is Body Talk Pt. 1, with three of ten best singles of the 2010.

The Secret Migration has the power to cast a spell over you with its dreamy, wraithlike keyboards. Many won't fall for it, though, and will undoubtedly find them too melodramatic.

We’re left with a brilliant, often mesmerizing but all-too-sketchy defeatist manifesto on the surface, which, with further musical fleshing-out (Verve guitarist Simon Tong is woefully underused), might have been worth serious investigation.

It rather gorgeously hums low and disturbing, hiding in the grass like some kind of jungle cat.

The first must-listen record of the year.

To simply not want to skip tracks isn't exactly saying anything, and certainly not that Wilco has made any kind of return to relevance. But Jeff the person is doing just fine, and instead of chastising this release, let's be happy that the guy who gave us more serious, occasionally harrowing masterpieces such as Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot finally seems to be having some fun. Next time it'd be nice if he let us in on it.

Their strength lies in the fact that the threesome are capable rockers with conviction, and just enough irony to make it work.

Different and perhaps more mature than S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D., this recent release from Out Hud measures out a liquid pulse, fervently paying homage to their antecedents and feverishly shaking their asses.

The sound on Alight of Night is a swinging, noisy, glammy and overall dark evolution of garage rock.

Interesting, unique, weird and inviting.

Whoa, is it ever tough, but wow, is it ever great.

At once soothing and energetic, ferocious and effeminate, beautiful and ballsy, No Shouts, No Calls is a passionate, confident effort.

Alopecia is a very good, occasionally great record that is just a little bit closer to nailing this hip-hop acid nightmare of a sound than what's come before it.

Like any good instrumental album, Maritime does its job in providing a getaway.