Both immediate and a grower, Boys and Girls in America stands tall as The Hold Steady’s masterwork – full of grace and gritty charm, full heartbreak and raw emotion.

Compelling and emotionally charged.

Endearingly sorrowful without descending into outright misery, Leaders Of The Free World is exactly what we the listeners should expect from a band's third album.

One good single does not a great album make, and unfortunately, the rest of the record becomes pretty tedious, pretty quickly.

Glossily produced, the new album is much less thorny than Marshall’s earlier works, showcasing the artist’s songwriting and soul singing talents.

What’s most apparent on this record is that despite having a fairly eclectic approach to creating a pop song, and cooking up the occasionally psych-y moment to epic-ify the songs, if there’s one emphasis on here, it’s on great melodies.

The overall effect is of an album written and recorded on prozac that never achieves the emotional highs or the lows needed to make this kind of country soul great.

It’s confident and cohesive, but the precision may not be the Gossip’s ideal sound.

Slogging through the whole disc for the few shining moments just isn’t worth it.

It’s not that Diamond has recorded a masterpiece, since quite a good portion of this is decidedly B material. It’s that the good stuff represents Neil at his best, exploiting his considerable knack for melody and structure to the fullest.

Reminiscent without sounding derivative, this is another fine effort from Tan.

The great achievement of Feels is that it throws everything at every track yet never loses sight of the tunes themselves.

It’s definitely going to be divisive, this album – there are some who simply won’t welcome this definitive stride away from the electronic psychedelia that’s been the Boards’ purlieu for so long.

It’s all tons of fun, and is almost guaranteed to cheer you up with its overwhelming chirpiness.

If you like the singles, you won’t be disappointed by The Magic Numbers, but you won’t be astounded either.

A compelling failure.

The excellent-to-annoying song ratio on this album is definitely high. Still, their first record was solid from start to finish, and this one smacks so much more of Lennon/McCartney than Kapranos/McCarthy.

An album you should definitely own, and a band you should definitely watch.

As bouncy as it is insightful, as flashy as it is understated.

Wolf Parade is a great band, and while one will automatically think of Brock when they first hear You Are a Runner I Am My Father’s Son, (or any song featuring the first of the band’s two vocalists, Jason Krug,) many of the album’s strongest moments actually come when they more closely resemble other bands.

This album is nothing short of a miracle.

The result is that most rarefied of things, a Paul album with no throwaways.

Certainly, it feels as though Takk emerges from a group who, despite arriving at the zenith of their capability, has, at least for the time being, run out of things to say.

Frankly, Love Kraft sounds like a different band, which would be fine, if it wasn’t so less loveable and not nearly as bizarre.

In short, it's no Mass Romantic, but it will do quite nicely.

It sounds like good musicians doing a rush job, kind of like Blood on the Tracks without the spellbinding genius.

Nothing ground-breaking, but an all-round good proposition.

As usual the songs are superbly crafted, and very well-executed.