Occasionally, it feels like she's trying a little too hard to reach American ears, but she balances the conservative neo-soul vibes with just enough hard left turns to keep listeners on their toes.

Despite any bugaboos, he's a plain great songwriter, and Skelliconnection is firmly above average.

This sounds more like an album and less like a collection of singles and ideas, and the pop and funk elements are a bit more refined than before.

This career-spanning retrospective helps put Fucked Up’s unlikely critical-darling status in perspective, and serves as a handy catch-up tool for those who’ve come to the party late.

Pluto nicely refreshes current rap trends and offers some genuinely forward-thinking hooks.

Thematically he might travel into dark and desperate places, but the idea that one can find salvation in music is made vividly real by the rush of energy that is Atrocity Exhibition.

Sometimes the vocals are uncomfortable (that goes away after a couple of listens), and sometimes, like on Caribou or Rabbit, they're crystal clear and beautiful. The instrumentation is just as amorphous.

Lyrically Ditto is in top form, striking a sage tone to dish out relationship advice (I Wrote The Book), console a friend (Do You Need Someone) and reprimand an ex-lover (Open Heart Surgery).

There's much at play here--personalities, loud/soft dynamics, noise vs melody--and Williams and Baldi strike just the right balance.

Akron/Family do joy justice. You could focus on the psychedelic country folk experimentation and the odd song structures, but what you really take away from this album is pure childlike joy, even during the darker minor-key moments.

On first listen, the album as a whole seems repetitious--there aren't any 12-minute odysseys like on breakout album Person Pitch--but its diversity reveals itself with multiple listens.

This album, like everything else Legend has done, showcases his skill as an artist, but it lacks the passion that would help him reach the Stevie Wonder status he strives for.

Pop hooks aside, Images Du Futur is not a feel-good record. But if you can deal with some dark, creepy, bummer vibes, it reveals new layers with each listen.

[Drummer Mimi Parker's] songs, like the uncharacteristically jaunty, slowly swelling Just Make It Stop, are the highlights.

Riveting, memorable, substantial stuff that’ll make you sit up and listen, and possibly wear you out by the 11th song.

Foxwarren doesn’t feel like Andy Shauf and his backing band; it feels like a creative, cohesive group.

There are shades of classic 50s-style crooning in Cox's vocals, but his voice has a sublime spectral quality that adds a lingering disquiet.

These details--textures, feelings and moods translated into sonic imprints--elevate the work to a cohesive and impressive debut. It’s proof that taking time, both in creation and in listening and metabolizing an album, is more valuable than ever.

The Ecstatic begins with the Middle Eastern/rock-music-influenced Supermagic and doesn't let up on the sound clashes until the very end. Production by Madlib, Oh No, J Dilla, and Mr. Flash (yes, the Ed Banger Records Mr. Flash) keeps The Ecstatic's instrumental canvas as multi-textured and eclectic as they come.

It’s been a while since Fiery Furnaces released an album with songs that stick in your head. I’m Going Away, the Brooklyn band’s eighth release, is full of them.

Despite all the gifted-beyond-his-years hype, that over-arching concerns still feel inextricably teenaged, albeit precociously so.

Happy New Year is unpretentiously unique, challenging and eclectic.

Kid Koala might be known for his light-hearted approach, but nothing here feels inappropriately kooky.

It's a record full of straight-up good songs from a band that should be (and would be, except for Doherty's fuckery) much more important than it is.

An album for piano and string quartet, this follow-up to the superb Solo Piano II is another soothing listen, and fine orchestration by Hamburg's Kaiser Quartett adds greater harmonic complexity to Gonzales's songbook.

Although there's cosmic energy in the music's upward trajectory, it comes from a decidedly earthbound live-off-the-floor approach rather than meticulously sculpted production.

It’s a beautifully crafted album that heralds the arrival of what’s sure to be one of the most subtly affecting voices in pop.

As a feel-good summer dance mix, Sidetracked is fun and doesn’t rely on obvious monster hits to keep the momentum.