It’s hard to imagine what the Plan could do to top Change, but one thing is for sure: growing up and looking forward has rarely sounded so universally satisfying.

Guided By Voices sound more assured than ever before, reflecting on the travails of life in a rock’n’roll band with uncommon honesty and power.

It's great to love an album on the surface just for the hooks, and also realize that underneath there is some true thought going into the concept.

A lot of major label-imposed ideas, like rhythm guitar and a heartbreakingly conventional new bass sound, combine to utterly ruin the record's first half. If you can make it through to News' innards, however, an EP's worth of something like better-recorded, more thought-out Lonesome Crowded West material awaits.

A very pretty, measured album of slow, organ-supported mood crawls. And nothing else.

This album's not a joke. It's too damn good.

In a way, this could be Blur's best record.

The first Mouse On Mars album to truly surprise.

Blacklisted is certainly a high-water mark for Case; a statement, if you will.

It will remind you that Stephen Malkmus is one hell of a songwriter, whether you like him or not.

Fridge seem to have a knack for making odd organic instruments fit tightly with electronic gurgles and glitches. But don't be fooled, ladies and gentlemen, their new long-player Happiness is a rock album through and through.

This mixture of revealing honesty and defiant self-confidence pervades the majority of You Are Free, an affecting and unforced 14-track album that stands as arguably her most diverse and rewarding effort to date.

The Rising somewhat falters in its middle third, as Springsteen struggles to make this a cohesive record.

The Coast is Never Clear's shortcomings fall in Beulah's tendency to recycle the same song and name it something new.... Nonetheless, Beulah is still making some of the most infectious and smart pop songs anywhere in independent rock.

This is fun, fun, fun stuff -- one of the year’s best albums, no doubt.

Whether they came on board at Daydream Nation or Experimental Jet Set, true believers will relish this one.

More in the vein of Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On than the latest Doves or Travis albums, Asleep is structured as an epic, almost prog-rock album that, once spun, reveals itself as a comfortable listen, containing a number of classic pop songwriting turns within its vastness.

An absolutely awesome album.

The Private Press does not break ground like Endtroducing... did, but it showcases a wiser, more versatile Shadow, and in many ways it is a better record than its predecessor.

The Sophtware Slump more than makes up for its repetitiveness with sheer atmosphere and brilliance.

Rachel's has produced one hell of a gorgeous concept album - a sort of Dark Side Of The Moon for the Debussy set.

Rouse pushes the envelope in a completely different direction, and with modest, although not total, success, he delivers an album that will rival the New Pornographers' Electric Version as the -- for lack of a better word -- most fun album of the year.

The uninitiated will still perceive these songs as music to slit your wrists to, but The Covers Record is actually the first time Chan Marshall lets her hair down for more than one song per album.

Over the course of this album, you may laugh, frown, cry, cover your ears, or reach for the remote to fast-forward. But then you'll want to listen to it again.

Insignificance’s length of less than 40 minutes perhaps indicates that O’Rourke is not as serious about producing a pop opus as he is interested in getting a kick out of screwing around with pop song writing.

As musically far away as it is from OK Computer, the record is actually a logical progression.

Ghost have helped Damon & Naomi reinvent themselves on this dream-pop excursion.

It's not that the music is bad, per se, it's just not very interesting.