There's a rich sense of open space and movement that feels close to dub reggae at times, which leaves plenty of room for LaVette in the foreground.

Azari & III's sound is less about chasing contemporary club trends than it is about summing up the last 30 years of underground dance music, so the album still sounds fresh.

Despite the production side's strengths, Two Eleven's themes and lyrics are ho-hum.

The result often sounds claustrophobic, though it's also much fuller than Soft Moon's earlier work.

By trying to please all demographics here, Clark gives little sense of who he is.

At times the album feels just a bit too airy, but it finds its footing when Jessie Stein's ghostly falsetto blends with the band's unique orchestral-psychedelic instrumentation more directly.

It helps that lead singer Tim Cohen is gifted with an expressive baritone that easily lends itself to any style the band tries on, but their subtly complex guitar rhythms and melodic hooks do just as much heavy lifting.

Lacking the jangly, well-crafted gems that made Morning Comes strong, the album sounds B-side-ish at times.

There's nothing terribly innovative going on here, but their unguarded passion is irresistible.

Lamar's invincible on good kid, and reveals just how deft his hand is.

The new textures suit singer Mark Sasso's gravelly voice and Days Into Years' historical themes, inspired in part by a visit to a World War I cemetery in France.

Psychedelic Pill is exactly the kind of noisy, joyfully loose and oddly hypnotizing guitar album we love Crazy Horse for.

Gorgeously inventive.

This album is their least messy and most consistent, but it hasn't left singer/songwriter Mike Donovan's slacker charm behind.

The Haunted Man is yearning, elegant pop music in line with the past year's best.

These are personal, contemporary story songs that centre on DeMent's signature plain delivery, the gospel-soul horn arrangements and the occasional wailed vocal

By finding the beauty in isolation, Efterklang have made their most triumphant record yet.

Lyrically, he's still clever but also much more direct, and there's greater impact because of it.

On this trippier, more scattered collection, it emerges in the looming calm, the open moments that peek through pneumatic melodies, beatific, druggy vocals and that throbbing, omnipresent kick.

Taking cues from disco and synth-pop, TOPS are better suited to drifting and daydreaming than dancing.

You can hardly call it original, but they've definitely done their homework.

Jiaolong feels more organic and warm than the kinds of bangers the genre's superstars are playing in massive arenas.

[Dead Silence] sounds exactly like what you'd expect from the maturing Mississauga pop-punk band: more middle-of-the-road radio-friendly guitar rock, with less punk energy and more classic rock than in their younger years.

Miguel's second album delivers on the L.A.-based musician's early promise, taking the best ideas from the debut--slow, lilting grooves, layered electric guitars, darkly squelching bass lines, meandering falsetto--into a more expansive, emotionally varied and personal sound.

It's mostly just softly plucked, atmospheric guitar and Webb's weary vocals building up songs that are achingly slow, sombre and intimate.

With fewer experimental throwaways, the album puts the band's best foot forward: toe-tapping, harmony-laden kernels of pop.

All the best cuts are Ye-led and stellar. He's as inventive, hilarious and potent as ever. The guest list, however, is less consistent.

This much-anticipated follow-up essentially repeats the foot-stomping, banjo-picking formula, but scrubs away the subtlety.