For a band noted for their precious aesthetics, their secretly aggressive riffs and jabbing zings are the most essential facets to their authenticity.

Neatly cut and effortless in its melodic simplicity.

Easy Tiger is his most consistent effort since Gold and his without doubt his most assured ever.

A dazzling collection of songs, Putting The Days To Bed cements Roderick's reputation as one of the best songwriters working today.

With OH (ohio), Wagner has crafted a soundtrack of specific detail for that lazy mid-morning melancholy that comes to anyone who feels like the world is turning without them. Enjoy it.

While Young Machetes is a slight slip in quality, it is the first the band has made so far.

Woke On A Whaleheart is a pleasure, and aside from the intro to the song "Footprints," every moment on this record is immensely listenable.

Listening to The Weakerthans makes me feel young and happy and hopeful.

It's a pretty good album if you can get the idea of its dreary additions to their setlists out of your head.

Although the loud tracks are the most immediate, the subtleties of later numbers like "Reptiles" prove nearly as rewarding,; don't even think of stopping play before "Gunman" shows what these pros do with a dance number.

Overall, Hera Ma Nono left a good impression with several notable points, however, there will be no drooling this time around.

A blueprint for where hip hop should be headed.

Mixtapes can be sloppy and scattered, but every Alchemist beat on Return of the Mac works - so well, in fact, that with a little more effort, this could have been an actual album worthy of heavy promotion and radio edits.

The whole of the album is stunning and unique, and if the thematic gender-bending core of the album makes a few people ideologically shy away, then it's truly a shame.

For however much this album is worth berating, there's no denying that Subtle are an extremely talented group of musicians, and ExitingARM is not so much a fuck-up as it is a trial in exploring limitations.

Screw the band name, McBean is a temporal writer, and he channels his unique vision into equal parts regardless of his color-coded outfit. It's a bold and brash move that is working wonders thus far.

This style of mock-rock doesn’t have a long shelf life, as the songs cease to be funny and hipsters will inevitably find a new way to offhandedly make fun of/glorify themselves.

With plenty of talent, the Raconteurs have a unique sound; they only need to spend more time trimming it down.

Acid Tongue has more hits than misses. However, Lewis doesn't realize her full potential on this LP.

Drowaton is as close to an orchestral pop masterpiece as you’re going to get.

Good Arrows tempers its communal, folky feel with tasteful and restrained use of samples and loops, resulting in an inviting environment that feels soothing and organic.

Their songs aren’t radio friendly nor are they mind-blowing in scope or execution, but give them time and they’ll creep into the rotating playlist in your head.

As with other Crooked Fingers albums, Bachmann’s stories really command most of our attention here, and they serve to elevate his songs beyond just being clever pastiches of pop music.

There are pleasant moments, but by any measure Seeing Things as a whole is rather bland and featureless.

Hart’s multiple layers of sound keep his unadventurous song structures from becoming trite; though Our Thickness is pure verse-chorus-verse-chorus fare with no flashy bridges or codas, it will still take months to dive into every piece of instrumentation.

A Certain Trigger is a strong release from its opener on, though it has noticeable shifts in momentum, with a second, rousing tour de force in its closing tracks.

With its mind-blowing dynamics and wounded memories, bandaged up in affecting, mature lyrics that dissect relationships with a therapist's perspective, the wisdom of hindsight and an artist's touch, Let's Build A Fire is almost flawless.

It is certainly fun discovering each new twist and turn on One Way, It’s Every Way, and Clue to Kalo have created a great album to get lost in.