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.

As presented on LP3, it appears Ratatat's music works best as a fleeting burst rather than a long player.

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.

At Mount Zoomer is interesting and focused, but safe.

On their third album O, the day-glo Omaha quintet Tilly and the Wall spoons some peanut butter into my mouth. After an initial scare with the typically saccharine, non-album single 'Beat Control,' they diversify after all, which doesn't mean more overdubs.

The thirteen-song cycle does a lot to support the minor hype that's built around the band, yet simultaneously flattens some of the bubbling hyperbole.

The Bronx III is muscular and solid and is, more often than not, good clean fun.

Help Wanted Nights may leave longtime fans of Kasher's tension-and-release cold at first, but after repeated listens it probably hangs together better than any other Good Life release.

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

Kenna has the indie roots to bridge the gap between pop and everything left of center. This effort has already created some stir between the two. My only concern is that the album's lack of balance may make for a one hitter quitter.

So here we are, with the record Shimura smartly did not title Same Shit, Five Years Later…, because that would've made it slightly easier to tell he's stuck in his own brain.

MGMT seem determined to break the mold they made for themselves, and while they deserve credit for trying, the outcome just isn't as much fun as the MGMT whose tunes could punch up movie trailers.

When the sun comes out, you'll want to put Milkwhite Sheets away for a long time. It leaves you with an inexplicable chill and a sense that Campbell overplayed her hand.

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.

The creative engine has stalled on Baby 81.

Terry has clearly reached a new level of musical maturity on this album, but flirting with sounds that don't quite fit in the face of such progression only keeps Or Give Me Death from fully harnessing his newfound growth.

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.

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

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.

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

Cansei De Ser Sexy is an intriguing group with a lot of budding talent and real potential.

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

Fun, emotional, experimental-ready and personally uplifting.

While Joan of Arc’s latest is a relative failure as an album when compared to everything else coming out in indie-rock these days (dropping them under .500 in my book), it is a winning effort, relative to the whole of the Joan of Arc/Tim Kinsella catalog.

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

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

Review #1: As pandering as the lyrics may be, they could be forgiven if the songs still brought the rock, and they don’t. [score=35]; Review #2: Worlds Apart is stunning. [score=95]

It's whether or not This Is Happening stands on its own merits as original composition consistent with the quality of the LCD catalog. It falls short on both accounts, unfortunately, in what basically amounts to a final victory lap for a band that made its mark and doesn't have much more to say.