Even with a few overdone songs, though, Shut Up I Am Dreaming is a solid effort.

The first half of this album serves up to be a dynamite, nearly EP-of-the-year standard, if it was an EP. But, the whole album seems less focused and ideally not so much of an album but more a collection of tracks.

The only major drawback with Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee Bobby Dee is that Ferree throws so much of his energy into writing about Driscoll that the songs don’t work nearly as well outside of the collection.

She's ditched the medieval allusions to dragons and fairies and most of the courtly, classical sound that marked so much of the later Helium material and her early solo material. But what results in many ways sounds like a rehash of her previous work.

If Jungles presented the formula, Ideal Lives gives us the answer.

Root for Ruin doesn't have the ecstatic heights of Let's Stay Friends, but it's more level-headed in a way.

Despite Delta Spirit’s anarchic (i.e., creatively opportunistic) sampling of everything from cold war folk to the Cold War Kids, when the band members hit their stride--as on the rumbling, locomotive grooves of piano-stung epic Americana on 'Trashcan'--Sunshine becomes nothing less than an ode to musical joy.

They sometimes drift back to that comfortable space, and those moments make the record feel a bit longer than it is, but overall this is another interesting twist in the band’s sound.

A Sunday-nap headphone-record that successfully conveys emotion.

It's true that many of these tracks are not for the casual listener, but that's also not the point.

Ditherer is a lot of great noise from a small band with big talent.

Gold and Green holds some wonderful sounds -- and others that just seem strange for the sake of being strange.

What stands out on Etiquette, what makes it so powerful, isn't the full instrumentation -- it's still not exactly a wall of sound -- it's the moving and earnest lyrics Ashworth deadpans over his dark, minimalist beats and minor chords.

Ascension doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's a welcome addition to the Jesu canon.

The album is more polished and accessible than the band's previous work and other childlike plinky pop like Danielson.

Maybe it's my lowered expectations for major-label rap debuts, or the fact that I never had Wiz pegged for out-and-out greatness, but Rolling Papers sure feels like a qualified success. The album's high points earn Wiz forgiveness for his mistakes.

The EP feels more like a work in progress with aspirations of something greater than the ultimate collaborative effort that so many said this would be.

With West, Wooden Shjips is just breaking in its new soles--and hitting its stride.

For all its questing, though, the album's--and the band's--heart and soul are the simple arrangements which, layered upon one another like a stack of firewood, often signify something greater than their sum.

No matter what band he's playing with, Froberg has always had a great ear for guitar tones, and here, he and second guitarist/vocalist Sohrab Habibion whittle down their instruments into scythes, dialing down their more surfy tendencies in favor of guitars that lurk during the verses and slice only at the most opportune moments for maximum impact.

Glitter is a guilt-free collection of mature rock/pop.

John Neff’s expert, dreamy pedal steel and Shonna Tucker’s soothing, pitch-perfect harmony -- somewhere between Lucinda Williams and Neko Case--make Brighter another solid entry in the band's catalog.

The Sound the Speed the Light pushes the same boundaries that Mission of Burma has always pushed, and no doubt it will lose points for not pushing any new boundaries.

While she may have slipped down the pecking order, Witness proves she’s still a more interesting pop star than she’s often given credit for.

It's quiet but it gets your attention, surrounds you, and makes you feel a part of it all the way through.

Sincerity is one of the hardest things to pull off in music, so it’s to Bouchard’s credit that he does so effectively.

For all the bravado of its title, Destroy Rock & Roll is in fact a neat, listenable trip.

Ultimately, Hearts is an adolescent album in every conceivable sense.