While Empty Days and Sleepless Nights offered songs that were entertaining enough without lyric booklet in hand, Letters Home is much more dependent on its story for emotional impact.

Overall, I is an interesting record, mainly due to Follakzoid’s uncompromising efforts to cross boundaries between electronic music and psychedelia. Nevertheless, it might be too much to take in in one setting, unless you really are in the mood or on drugs to drift away while listening.

The Brink is less immediate than all of the band's prior releases and is indeed a grower when given time to settle.

Listening to Centipede is like going through a garage filled with clutter.

Born to Die's highlights are both slightly more numerous and slightly more effective--but it's still a very strong, successful record, whether taken as an addition or a follow-up.

While it contains next to no filler, includes a sufficient amount of enjoyable anthems, and is musically accomplished (Ben Jolliffe's drums are especially impressive, the dual guitar attack is competent and the sparingly used keys are wise), Bones is predominantly a consolidatory release.

Bish Bosch is as much about challenging the people that absorbed and accepted Tilt and The Drift as it is challenging the rest of the world--and while that makes it consistent with all his work since Nite Flights, each subsequent album giving his fan base another hurdle to overcome, it also gives it a thrill that's unique to both his discography and the majority of the music you could compare it to. If, indeed, there is any.

Accelerate’s songs are generally well-constructed, almost to the point of being formulaic- eleven alternative pop songs with no excess fat around the edges.

Scars & Stories may be nothing more than a pleasant retread of The Fray's established style, but it does a commendable job of delivering quality in lieu of novelty.

In The Rainbow Rain is an uncommonly jaunty listen.

A solid, if formulaic, LP which clearly adheres to the K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) formula.

The range of emotions and material on display make The Best Damn Thing a much easier listen than the monotonous angst of Under My Skin.

Gargoyle marks another solid addition to an extensive catalog.

Hit Me Hard and Soft is a bold, well-crafted pop record rich with the personality of its creator, and like most such albums, it holds up just well if you take it as a face-value set of engaging, gratifying songs as if you mine it for complexity (aesthetic or lyrical).

Love What Happened Here is still another compelling listen from perhaps the biggest sensation of 2011.

This is a great album, perfect for a retro rave and I am happy to see the band reactivated. Hopefully, it won't take them another 7 years to release the next LP.

Myths of the Near Future is no classic- the highs don’t come fast enough to warrant that- but it’s a solid debut release from one of the least pretentious bands around.

While the most fitting genre to place Dr. Dog’s latest, We All Belong , in may be Indie-Pop, the 12 songs that make it up don’t sound a whole lot like The Shins or Death Cab for Cutie. We All Belong instead sounds like an album that was buried in Brian Wilson’s backyard for 40 or so years.

Another drug-induced and psychotic chapter in the kaleidoscopic and perplexing saga that is the life and times of one Quentin Dupieux.

Pfeffer is only 21 and already he has released an album that possesses a very original sound as well as an impressive amount of musicianship.

Overall, Attention: Deficit should be considered a successful debut, albeit mildly uneven.

Skeleta is the band’s most immediate and accessible release to date, it is also perhaps the least satisfying to early impressions, and recommends itself to a certain level of patience, paired with a prudent refusal to make the unflattering comparison to stronger versions of Ghost that populate their back catalogue. All issues thrust aside, listeners are left with a fun-loving, tasty-snack version of Ghost, regrettably lacking in satisfying meatiness, but absolutely caked in pretty frosting to make up for it.

These ten mostly filler-free tracks prove, Nada Surf only look to be growing more confident in their old age.

The primary drawback here is that even though the album does occasionally ascend to great heights, it spends at least the same amount of time strolling through monotonous buildups that never really reach their destinations.

While not enough to stand among the best the Pumpkins have to offer, Zeigeist nonetheless stands fairly well on it's own

Clear Heart Full Eyes is entirely at ease with itself, rarely forcing the issue beyond the gently affecting, but affecting is definitely the right word.

War Stories is another win for Lavelle.

Musically, he moved in a slightly different direction that works more often than not.