So it's hard to know how to peg Vaccine, ultimately--it's both a brave move and a safe one, both a shock and something you could have seen coming. What's not in doubt, though, is that it's a very good album.

The Taking is the sound of a man with no corporate or musical responsibility simply doing what sounds and feels right.

This is good because Letlive know their strengths here, hooks and Butler, push both ahead to the front, and come out with the best eleven tracks of their career thus far, easily.

Matilda expands on the palette considerably, shooting off on several tangents without muddying the overall aesthetic at all. It's harder to get into than Stateless, but once this sinks in properly, it's even better.

Be it progression or passion for art, it is the key unifying force behind TV On The Radio, and it's not here.

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

It's still a decent addition to Atmosphere's discography, but if you're expecting something on the level of GodLovesUgly or When Life Gives You Lemons..., you may want to look elsewhere first.

Tomboy is every bit as good as it promised to be, and more.

Wasting Light isn't a masterpiece, nor does it see Grohl really reinventing the wheel as far as the band's sound goes, but it's clearly painted from a broader pallette of colours and it's clearly their first consistently good set of songs.

The end result is that even when stumbling across an interesting idea, Francis botches it by coming off as childish, attention-seeking and occasionally repulsive.

If you get past this wall of noise, only bothering to burden Share the Joy for a freaky sixteen seconds, you'll find a record contained within its little motto, the noise dropped, the joy shared tenfold, the delightful "Dance (If You Wanna)" circling our heads, encouraging us with a smile.

The end result is that The Unforgiving is easily Within Temptation's most ambitious record, an album that benefits from an increased energy level and strong songwriting in order to deliver a collection of the band's strongest songs to date.

Despite being a free mixtape, House of Balloons feels like a true album, a true labor of love (and pain and hardship and everything else), more genuine than more prominent R&B stars, but perhaps that is due to The Weeknd's anonymity.

Ultimately, Killing Time is another solid collection of songs from Bayside... Yet another base hit, but still no game-winning home run.

By combining these previously worked on sounds in new ways Thursday have created an album that is not only new and unique, but also unmistakably their own.

Blood Pressures is the band's most coherent, consistent work to date, an album painted in gritty black-and-white blues and Mosshart's sexy, venomous vocals.

The ONE… doesn't feel like work for G-Side, rather it feels like a first love, a record that gives a hundred percent to garner every compliment it earns: flowing, smart, sexy, and even global to those who hear it and its grand tone.

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.

It's as colorful as it sounds, and it makes for an album where one can never quite know what to expect next.

John knows what he does best and that's exactly he delivers, every damn time like clockwork.

Revolting, messy, lazy, and undeniably Sum 41, Screaming Bloody Murder is a dead band moaning in its grave. Any highlights here more or less just belong to other, better bands, or even Sum 41 themselves from the past.

The production is solid and his voice retains that smooth edge that still carries with it the slightest sense of vulnerability.

Many listeners will hear Emery's heaviest album to date, while others will find it their catchiest. Some may enjoy the gradual come down after the initial blast, while the rest will believe it lacks cohesion.

It is more of the same: overproduced, generic disney channel beats by names no one knows, derivative choruses and melodies that obviously sound manufactured by a tie-wielding Atlantic executive, and lyricism that fails at even being anthemic for parties.

The problem with Something To Die For is that it's an album built to succeed on the strength of its hooks and not its songwriting.

The Golden Age of Knowhere is the perfect party album since it has something for everyone. And while it will most likely work better in a live setting, it still makes for one hell of an excellent record.

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 band sounds fresh from their rest, aren't trying to be something they're not again, and most importantly, they sound young and sincere. Welcome back, Yellowcard.