There aren't any real missteps, but neither is How We Operate a step forward.

Irving's penned a batch of songs that can hold your interest in short bursts but will never inspire arguments. And that's damnation for pop music.

Spottily effective gangster posturing.

Invitation Songs is as compelling and likeable as their combined past projects were hard and edgy, as if they've been doing Nick Drake covers all along. That's no small feat.

In others' hands, this could be maudlin or self-indulgent, but Hauschka's attention to detail is his strongest characteristic.

Sure, the albums is filled with grand, sweeping sonic statements, but they seem to come from a place in extremely close proximity to the art-rock icon's heart. That's why it works.

The Lemonheads is a harmless, melodic album that brings familiar material to longtime fans and new audiences alike.

Takes could have used a few more experiments of this nature, because while his versions of the Breeders’ 'Invisible Man' and Yo La Tengo’s 'Tears Are in Your Eyes' are tasteful enough, there’s no real sense of adventure, no real feeling that these songs needed to be covered in this way, no real attempt at making this anything other than a stopgap between records.

The best tracks here still feature his distinct blend of surrealist poetry, but the music does not even meet it halfway.

Buck the World doesn't quite match his 2004 debut.

These original songs have been influenced in many ways by what's come before (what isn't?), but they're inventive, catchy, and kick-ass enough to stand on their own.

Kelis is one of the mainstream's most exciting artists right now, and she continues to defy expectations with Kelis Was Here.

More than their previous efforts, this album exhibits the depth and experience that they have gained from such collaborations.

Though Manchester Orchestra’s dedication points to the possibility of good things in the future, Mean Everything to Nothing falls largely flat.

Dissolver is easily Iran’s most cohesive album-length statement, and it proves that there is more to the band than idle four-track trickery.

Another collection of songs that can be stamped with the compliment of being incomparable.

Largely forgettable.

Like the band members themselves, Alpinisms is full of promise and obvious talent but would benefit from a more clearly defined direction.

When it all comes together, as it does on the amazing singles "I Could Fall in Love with You" and "Sunday Girl," the effect is intoxicating. Music like this makes you happy to be alive. When it doesn't come together, as on "How My Eyes Adore You", the result isn't unpleasant so much as tedious.

War unfolds less like a cohesive concept album (though a rock-opera would be a likely future addition to the group's discography) as much as a series of telenovela vignettes.

The songs are better, the guest performers more exciting and enthused, and the production varied enough to highlight the differences between each track (which wasn’t always the case on the previous album).

Kind of like Brooklyn, which wants you to think it doesn't care what you think, The Babies are impressively adept at making it look easy, at making it look like they're not trying too hard. The truth is that there's as much skill and passion going into this slumming side-project than most full-time bands could hope for.

Gone is most of the musical adventurousness that redeemed the most seemingly cliché moments of the debut.

On La La Land, however, Plants and Animals abandon most of the qualities that made the band distinct in favor of conforming to more contemporary indie trends.

For those readers familiar with Whitman, rest assured that this record only strengthens his hold on the contemporary experimental electronic scene.

What got lost in the record’s cacophonic crash was, again, what mattered--the songs--and in Berlin: Live, stripped of Reed and Ezrin’s overproduction, the bleakly radiant song cycle about doomed junkie love is allowed to flourish.

The rock was catchy, but it’s the slow stuff that flips you on your axis with its depth.

The album certainly has its moments, but on the whole it's bogged down by too much middling material.