The songs never sound cluttered despite the cavalcade of divergent sounds that make up the album, and Pearson’s vocals are adeptly deployed as just another instrument.

While this does fall in with a pretty crowded lo-fi movement going on, Happy Birthday is also an unabashed pop record unafraid to wear its grainy heart on its sleeve.

The Heartless Bastards are much better on the alt side of the alt-country dynamic.

They act as a constant reminder of the power of music that isn't afraid to be ugly, blunt, and confrontational.

The mixture of pop and mystery is enticing.

When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence contains some of the most interesting bass-centered tracks to come out in some time, and represents a progression in the current bass scene as a whole, no matter what specific genre each track belongs to.

These lo-fi pop gems have been polished, and the result is sparkling.

The album is pure Groove Armada pop at the end, but the decision to be slightly less saccharine means that it's not nearly as disposable as some previous outings.

All of this is still quite gut-wrenching, yes, but I find Caught in the Trees to be better when it explores other themes.

Like his rhyming, his production is sophisticated, earnest, and maybe could benefit from a dose of rawness.

It plays more like an album reminiscent of the days when hip-hop was something to catch a head nod instead of breaking new ground or shaking the dance floor.

Muse is nothing if not distinctive, and Black Holes and Revelations is very much distinctively Muse: fantastic at points and ridiculous at others, without much in between.

On its own merits, Phantom Punch is an assured, absurdly tuneful record, and one of the best of the year thus far.

In a vacuum, Hats off to the Buskers exists as a charming, innocuous piece of work, perfectly fine for mass appeal; in the real world, Falconer and company are gonna have to grin and bear just a few more Arctic Monkeys references.

Most of these songs would make for a devastating end to an emotionally charged, disturbed album. But ten songs like that in a row?

It's an interesting mix, but unfortunately, the album is never as much fun to listen to as it probably was for the Deal sisters to make.

You can hear the band rediscovering its footing as one of the strangest, funniest, and best acts of the decade.

The album's great achievement is that it melds the civic with the personal. Mo' Mega spans a bigger range in its eleven tracks than most albums twice its length.

Skit I Allt reminds you to wipe your brow and lean back as the heroic guitar returns. Sing along, the hooks are so strong! But keep the headphones on lest you actually hear your own voice.

While it would have been easy for Feel It Break to fall into new wave hero worship, it succeeds thanks to the singularity of Stelmanis' vision. Feel It Break announces her as a force to be reckoned with.

Horehound doesn’t sound like the first album from a tossed-off side project; it crackles with the intensity of a band that has been together longer than a few months.

This record improves on the band's earlier work and might even score them a stateside breakthrough.

Movie Scenes is further proof that Madlib is the Miles Davis of hip-hop: He's always finding a way to set the bar just a little bit higher.

Though the album doesn’t develop a theme throughout listening, the all-star analogy holds up.

Despite the occasional moment when Garden Ruin sounds like a garden-variety alt-country-rock album, its moments of pure Calexico charm outweigh its missteps.

Hebden seems to be using the Ringer material to delicately maneuver the Four Tet sound away from the folktronica tag that was foisted on previous releases such as "Rounds" and "Pause."

When Oxford Collapse pull off the throttle, the results are remarkable, and the songs are perfect for soundtracking the nights the band can’t remember.

It's a restatement of relevance, a testament to strong songwriting, and ultimately, a legacy enhancer that they desperately needed.