The album's trying at times, a bit too long but trudge on and give it a chance. There's something very different here that's worth the time.

Long and loses steam at times, but it delivers.

For now, call it a calculated risk that mostly works.

Crying’s progression into a new territory is an impressive one. The band truly shows how they have graduated from a chiptune band into a much more mature band still able to use elements from their old sound to form their new sound.

For an album with so many disparate styles and a longish 49-minute running time, Burials feels surprisingly quick and cohesive compared to other, latter-era AFI albums.

The filler tracks don't resonate at all but still, for what it's worth, this record doesn't say just anything... for fans of Max and the band over the years, it says everything.

Tigers Jaw have evolved but they're not going to drastically turn the corner. It's more of a slow bend around a hill. spin acknowledges the past, tipping its hat at it but that nod is an honest goodbye signaling a move to newer pastures.

A lot of sounds to take in and some head-scratching here and there, but overall, Bemis takes a brave step in a good direction.

Detroit Stories is fully formed and tells its story without trying too hard… or too little. The band cranks on the engine and lets Jesus… err… the Ashetons, Fred Sonic Smith, and Glen Buxton… take the wheel and they drive this record on home.

Whales & Leeches, their third full-length, offers more of what we’ve come to expect from the group, and can only be described as a hard-rocking, hard-partying good time.

Sure, Saint Cecilia fills itself with all inclusive lyrics that Grohl has become known for. Yes, there are some midtempo shifts that you wish you could skip over. But out of five songs, four are solid.

Adore Life would have been stronger as an EP, cutting off the fat and making something as lean and muscular as their songs. What we have though does suffice.

Stickles and company prove once again that there is nothing more punk than doing the opposite of what’s expected. And this album meets, exceeds and plays with expectations in the way only Stickles knows how.

Some tracks settle better than others but the fact that most tracks don't sound like repetitive iterations of the other surprised me a lot.

Whirr's clearly moving to the beat of their own drum, rotating in new vocalists (who, at least, largely tend to sound similar) and opting for more dissonant and graying atmospheres. It feels like a losing compromise, but they're more than merely competent players at it for now-just strap in and make the most of the ride.

With some new tricks as well. A Weird Exits runs a tad overboard and drags midway through but despite being about three or four tracks too long, don't let it slip by.

All in all, with bad songs few and far between, this was a pleasant surprise.

The arrangements are much tighter, the lyrics feel fleshed out in a time where we can't help but be cynical of humans, and overall what you get from Sebastien Grainger and Jesse Keeler is a buzzy spin on the rock genre that feels like two dudes just chilling while the apocalypse hits and everyone's running around with their heads on fire.

Better Oblivion Community Center acts like something cultish, but it’s really an excellent collection of songs by two great lyricists. Neither really plays too far out of their comfort zone (even if “Exception to the Rule” brings back some Digital Ash nuances) but both lend themselves to the other. The result is an excellent addition to each artist's catalogue.

California isn’t a perfect record, nor does it need to be. It displays a band getting back on the right page with great energy yet struggling a bit to find equilibrium.

Some improved diversity and novel musical ideas make 13.0.0.0.0 a much more interesting listen, though, and it's nice to hear a math rock band bringing more than just math to their songwriting sensibilities.

Beauty & Ruin is more impressionistic than, say, the Mountain Goats' Sunset Tree, but it's still a vivid, moving story about dealing with abuse.

To whereas many may have expected that Idol’s first LP after 10 years be a rock destroyer, it’s probably his most mediative to date. It’s always great to hear Idol rev it up like the rock god that he is, but arguably, at this stage, it’s more interesting to hear what Idol thinks of Bill. And he still rocks live.

If you're a fan of The Front Bottoms, you should consider that folk/indie/acoustic era totally dead. And it's not a bad thing to accept because art involves evolution and experimentation, and while it even took me a while to get accustomed to TFB's pop-mainstream aura, it's a jacket worn pretty damn well as In Sickness & In Flames shows.

"Breaking The Chain" and "War", give off a Linkin Park vibe for the 2000-2008 era of MTV and help prop 13 Voices up as one of the band's most radio-friendly and accessible albums to date. They do however take away from the rawness and grit diehards came for.

Her new album is carefully all over the place, ditching pretty much every aspect of the genre that brought her recognition.

Is it as epic as say, the swell of songs like "Continental Shift"? No, but while there's work to be done still, it's still a solid step forward.

He puts his vocals on bright display as compared to the sparse musical backing. It’s not quite the unrestrained dissection that Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series was, but it leans in that direction.