Yet there's certainly no shame in falling behind three albums that are as brilliant as those are. For the fans, this is a blast - suddenly, trip-hop's Godfathers are back on track.

It’s a respectable record with easily enough depth and conviction to hint at something thoroughly vital, but it folds so much of itself along lines too deeply creased into forms too clean-edged to bear the kind of authorial stamp its many raw qualities beg for.

It ends up being a mixed bag of give and take, but as an assault on all senses it always manages to succeed.

As a whole, Shadow Kingdom might not be a revelation, but it’s an interesting experiment with plenty of solid results.

Down and dirty, it grooves by on soulful power chords and Carney's relentless hammering of his kit.

Their vocals throughout the entire album are fantastic and they work together only like sisters could, even if they live across one of the largest countries in the world.

this is a Mono album through and through, so much in fact that this reviewer felt déja-vu during some of the more lulling parts. Depending on one's feelings towards the band, this will be a key factor in whether or not this is a worthwhile listen.

Meet the new Rush, same as the old Rush....and as it turns out after all these years that's a pretty good thing.

All in all, The General Strike is all we can really ask for from Anti-Flag these days: a solid set of tunes for the pinko bastard in all of us.

So no matter what audience The Big Deep finds, one must respect The Sleeping for this sincere and passionate performance... For this truly is now a band that feel comfortable in their own skin.

If you were one of the many that loved "I Am A Bird Now" when it was released, then you'll undoubtedly enjoy this just as much.

Even though The Nightmare of Being doesn't gather all the necessary ingredients to establish itself as a masterpiece of the genre, it is most certainly a worthy and surprisingly contrasting addition to the band's discography.

Lyrical content aside, Thirteen sees Megadeth do very little wrong.

For an album heavily predicated on Adams' historically hit-or-miss songwriting, Ashes & Fire is surprisingly steady.

Sometimes The Blues is Just a Passing Bird is a quieter set of songs, and an EP that continues to reveal both the talent and ambition of one of the most exciting folk artists of recent years.

What it lacks in punch it makes up for in being a more focused effort than its occasionally mixtape-esque brother, and thus, Oxymoron isn’t so much a backpedal for Q and TDE as it is a solid side-step.

Although Too True is not Dum Dum Girls’ finest hour--that would still be the cathartic Only in Dreams--it remains a commendable shift from an artist on the verge of being swallowed up by memory.

It is basically the quintessential Avril Lavigne record, featuring the soaring choruses and melodies that made us fall in love with her over the past ten years, as well as the silly (and sometimes stupid) quirks that range from endearing to flat out annoying.

This represents a new territory for both Dulli and Lanegan, and it's one that they (generally) excel in.

Trees Outside the Academy, as a whole, is not the musician’s best work, but it’s worth the listen for anyone interested.

Sonik Kicks rather helpfully lives up to its name.

For all of her posturing and ruminations on life, love and other such considerations, you may well ask yourself whether she is merely playing a part and recycling old themes or if she has the experience she so eloquently sings about.

In The End It Always Does is a mixed bag, but I wouldn’t describe it as a minefield; it’s more like a diamond mine and a minefield are engaged in a land dispute. Amber Bain’s ethereal vocals and meticulously crafted melodies make this an album that I certainly recommend checking out, if only for the allure of the stronger tracks that constitute a little over half of the record.

When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go is a volatile launching pad. This is anything but a safe debut, which could make Eilish a star In her own right--in the realm of dark pop--or alternatively could see her collapse under the weight of her enormous aspirations. It’ll be a wild ride either way, with plenty of dissention along the way.

There’s no attempt to recapture their classic sound, no blatant radio single, and not even an attempt at performing more than what they’re comfortable with. If you’ve followed Metallica beyond the black album, you’ll find a very good, honest, release in Hardwired… To Self-Destruct.

Penny Sparkle's brisk length works to its advantage: music this glacial just can't be endured for too long. But this isn't to say Penny Sparkle doesn't (possibly) foretell a interesting future for Blonde Redhead; in fact, I'd say I'm hoping more than ever before that the band sticks with this newfangled direction, to see if they can work out the kinks and make the kind of record Penny Sparkle could've been.

Flying Microtonal Banana is essentially the same King Gizzard album from last year, updated for the sake of its own consequence. But it's also better than most other albums of its sort, specifically because King Gizzard appear able to coherently piece together a fun anthem with a sense of musical direction.

While it may not be a classic record and won’t be the new soundtrack to the revolution, Appeal to Reason is filled with faux-punk rock anthems and memorable lyrics and basslines that will satiate anybodies need for Rise Against.

Being able to grasp a second chance has provided Collins with real impetus, and we as listeners can only sit back and reap the rewards we can from the resulting output.

While I can't rate this as highly as I hoped I'd be able to, a song like "Felt Just Like Vacation" seems like what this band is and has always been, different though it is.

While the album as a whole is far from being perfect, moments of it are some of the most gorgeous and interesting things I have heard.

Musically, the release doesn’t live up to the promise of the vocals. There’s not much here beyond standard indie. Nonetheless, it is very pleasant to listen to.

Night of Hunters feels refreshing, unique, and utterly lovely; it's another great success in a career that has quite a few of them.

Thunderball would greatly benefit from another 10 or 20 minutes worth of mid-to-low tempo grooves to grant their now-besotted audience a chance to sway like sluggish Evangelicals in a primal stupor.

It's a solid album by anyone's standards, and a real testament to Four Tet's unassuming mastery that he folds such a range of stylings together without any individual one going out of its way to announce itself as such (we'll forgive the geetar).

While Dark Adrenaline doesn't break down any barriers and won't win any points for originality, it is still a very solid release and probably the best thing Lacuna Coil have done in almost a decade.

Yes, it is undoubtedly inferior to its predecessor, but it instantly delivers an enjoyable crowd-pleasing package.

It is sad to finally see the unpredictable hero of lyricism finally write an album that is only good. I'll still be listening to this album for weeks, I just hope it stays as consistent as the man's other work has throughout my life.

The real highlight, though, is the title track’s sentimental musing on a lost lover or friend or relative, simple but gorgeous and drenched in honeyed harmonies. It’s the best thing here by a substantial margin. ... I Walked With You A Ways is undoubtedly a solid album, and you could do much worse if looking for a straightforward and accessible record in the country/Americana sphere.

Emotional Creature provides enough to keep the group’s longtime fans happy, while also extending some tendrils to explore potential future evolutions. In short, it’s one of those transition albums whose legacy will heavily depend on reception to Beach Bunny’s future output. Growing up is hard, but for now, Emotional Creature serves a solid portrait of a band in motion.

There's little that goes out of its way for your attention but the elegance and restraint is exactly what gives most of the songs, like "It's Hard To Get Around The Wind" with the preceding "Even if you know which way it's gonna blow" line, their colour.

The only concern with this LP is that it doesn’t really explore new grounds. It somewhat recapitulates their experiments, albeit in a tighter, more experienced manner, instead of taking steps forward. Despite this setback, the record is arguably their hardest hitting in over a decade.

Through the Window distinguishes itself as a welcomed change of pace for the artist and a standout addition to the extensive Prurient catalog.

While the ten tracks here can switch from sexy to mature, dark to funky, and the differences make themselves further known with extended listening, the heavy reliance on the synth does, unfortunately, keep that complaint intact. Omni is still a very solid record.

It's like the debut, but slightly different, definitely better.

The group has expanded its vocabulary and in general made its sound more broad and enjoyable.

It's a shade better than Send Away The Tigers, itself heralded as a return to form, and in a year that hasn't really been anything special so far for straight-ahead rock, this is a standout.

A handful of jukebox-friendly hard rock tracks and a thoroughly replayable album is almost as good an outcome as could be expected from this group of aging rockers.

When Slug is at his most Atmospheric (ie, emotive storytelling), he's at his best, but it really doesn't matter. Nothing here really sticks with you, but it's more or less the Aesop Rock show through and through; hopefully he puts out more in the future.

Ringer may not be as varied as some of Hebden’s prior releases yet it is certainly a unique stab into the vast world of electronica.

Where the album ultimately succeeds is in its song-craft, with everything from its diversity and song structures clearly improving, without significantly forsaking the trio's effortlessly catchy and engaging melodies.

Too many of the songs’ flourishes are really just tricks of production rather than genuine songwriting ingenuity. Her ability to turn a phrase, her gorgeous voice, and her sheer charm can justify a lot, but she needs more than those tricks in her bag to sustain what will hopefully be a long and fruitful career.

What this all boils down to is another solid outing for the group.

So Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust is just another Sigur Ros album, but if I can be the first to say it, our "first vital band of the 21st century" is starting to feel old hat.

Following the explosive opening, there are a fair few standout tracks and moments in the likes of "Chasing the Drum" and "Tioga Pass", but the stylings and influences begin to blur together into something of an easy-listening haze, the sequencing becomes a bit stop-start, and momentum flags.

Lie Down In The Light is still slightly marred by this uneven pace.

The flickers of brilliance are scattered all throughout Man’s Best Friend, and for the most part, it’s a great album with some moments of weakness. It’s a clear step ahead of Short and Sweet, and hopefully, will be another stepping stone on the path to her magnum opus.

While his lyrics may not make complete sense and can be hypocritical at times, Nas is on top of his game with Life Is Good.

Compared to previous outings, this may be the most bold and unabashed offering of Annie Clark’s career. It certainly isn’t her best collection of songs outright, but there’s a certain amount of style points that she garners for remaining so committed to bucking the expectations set by her audience and industry.

It is not as good as the ARIA awards will undoubtedly make it out to be but still one of the better mainstream listens of the year.

Romance has its problems. In a vacuum it sometimes sounds cloying, as overtly cinematic as a Marvel trailer, and indistinct from its forebears. But it also does something I've never experienced before: making Love an impetus is the kind of staging trick that allows realism and idolatry to exist in the same room.

Sure, this is the worst Charly Bliss album, but it’s also the most fun I’ve had with music in a while: it’s an innocent, radiant celebration of life’s lovely parts.

A spunky, Hayley-driven vehicle that nonetheless proves that Paramore justly deserves whatever critical acclaim it was getting.

Solid and relatively consistent, Hope is better than a "finding their feet" experiment, yet that is ultimately what it is.

Long Live the King serves as a supplemental EP worthy of a glance from the casual listener, and most certainly from every fan.

Metals, in its muted, gray imperfection, feels vital--even when it isn't.

Perverts’ 90-minute runtime and average song length of ten minutes could be intended to alienate, and undoubtedly harmed the record’s replay value for me as I continued to dig deeper into it. Perhaps this is the point, or perhaps I’ve missed it entirely. Either way, my respect for these compositions never dwindled because of their bravery and clarity of artistic vision.

"Unbroken" is her best effort yet. Ignoring the first 4 songs, it's a great album, filled with songs that have meaning.

There's nothing wrong with writing four-minute protest songs that relish in the best of their psychedelic influences, but it'll be when Portugal. The Man really unshackle themselves and start writing what they do best that they will establish themselves as a band on par with their forebears.

It's different, its harder, and its honestly a bit of a disappointment.

Beyond’s main flaws come in a lack of variety.

Part of me wishes that Swift would do a bit more soul-searching. The Life of a Showgirl is good entertainment, but I'm still trying to figure out how any of it matters on a deeper level. If you’re not fully invested in all aspects of her life, and whatever drama stems from it, then it’s tough to get emotionally on board. That makes this a glossy, surface level pop record for the majority of listeners. It’s arguably her most infectious, energetic, and fun release in several years, which will buy this LP some instant mileage in terms of streams, but I wonder how its replay value will hold up once the novelty wears off.

The Unnatural World is the punk rock ethos of Deathconsciousness coming into its own and it feels really good to hear. New comers to the underground darlings will find quite a lot to love here.

A shorter, more focused affair could've easily been just as essential as Uncaged, while other cuts might have been more suitable for side projects or standalone singles. Few people will enjoy the album from start to finish, being clearly sewn to have something appealing to just about everyone, so pick up what you like and add it to your collection.

If Guster can grow old and still sound so damn cheerful, maybe everything won't be so drab after all.

Essentially, Infinity On High is From Under The Cork Tree, except this time done well.

Lyrically, however, the album is just another soul-searching journey, and while he may be getting too old to call a “boy genius”, he's not lost any of his wistful intelligence.

A Thousand Suns is an extremely well-crafted rock album from a band whose (self-directed) anger is, for once, well placed.

The multi-genre approach of The Colossus is refreshing.

Airtight's Revenge sounds like he had a lot of **** he needed to work through, but from great talent, and great catharsis, has come great art. It's hard to imagine that this will break through to any major audience, since it's even less accessible than the rejected Love for Sale, but it seriously deserves it.

Guns is a fun album, made for fun people, but that doesn’t mean that instants of awkwardness don’t result.

All told, this is an album which will almost certainly be enjoyable if you like kinda hazy, kinda ethereal, kinda catchy indie/alt thingamajigs, but it’s also an album desperately lacking the hint of an edge which would give the total product further potency. Even so, it’s a solid comeback from another crew of aging shoegazers, just don’t set your expectations too high.

Though it lacks depth, the music is exceptionally pretty. And rather than epiphany, Samia finds satisfaction in brief, glittery moments of quiet revelation.

Despite some missed opportunities, Violent Waves is exactly the album Circa Survive needed to make.

Architects have never shied away from clarion calls to action, but this is the band at their most inspiring and effectual, filling in the empty space left behind after a monumental loss. It is an epitaph that nonetheless suggests a bright future ahead.

With Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., he’s given us his biggest curveball yet. It may not be perfect, but the hustle deserves respect.

Most of The Bird and the Bee is average, albeit highly danceable and fun, Pop music: worth the download, but hardly the purchase.

Occasional flourishes reveal brilliance (‘Lost’, ‘Start Again’), but mostly it’s a homogeneous trudge through palpable emotional intensity. It culminates in some stunning imagery, which makes it worth the journey especially when you consider the relative brevity of the whole thing.

What’s impressive is the wide swathes of bubblegum pop Vol. 1 manages to cover.

A refreshing yet sweltering collection of acid rave and breakbeat conundrums, all held in check by Lone's perfectionist qualities, but despite the upheaval Lone's latest LP fires on all cylinders only when he chooses to hold onto that which has served him well in the past.

With False Priest, Barnes finally seems to be settling into his own skin, cherry picking from his long history and patching it all back together into something that Of Montreal could ride into the new decade. Just no more concept albums, please.

This album and a few videos of Stetson playing (the guy is a monster) will probably be enough to convince most people that he's a genius, but you don't need to be that smart yourself to appreciate what is probably 2011's most unique album.

Keely has stated in interviews that it's this kind of record that he grew up listening to and wanted to emulate, and maybe that's why Tao of the Dead ends up being the most focused Trail of Dead effort in years rather than a space-rock sham.

Black Cascade should be taken for what it is: fodder for the band's increasingly heralded live show and, at its simplest, a strong output in an increasingly stagnant, attention craved US black metal scene.

The important thing to note when it comes to In Prism is that as hiatus records go this is one of the best in the last couple years.

There are moments here worth returning for time and again, but not much to put Eternal Turn of the Wheel in the same level of esteem as its distant predecessors.

While it is still caught a little in-between moods and is clearly front-loaded, ‘The Optimist’ feels more instinctive than ‘Fantastic Playroom’, and is ultimately a step up because of that.

Hurley proves that Rivers still has some gas left in the tank.