Pawn Shoppe Heart is the type of thrillingly raucous, visceral, harsh, storming brand of balls-all-the-way-out rock familiar to anyone paying vaguely close mind to current Detroit rumblings.

Their music though—and probably the reason they’re used to such great effect in “Friday Night Lights”—actually feels more compelling as an accompaniment to visual drama, in part because the internal drama of the songs themselves are really specific and their presentation is a little tired.

Daedelus does with electronic and Latin music here what he and others have already done with experimental hip-hop: boiling genre to an essence and re-imagining it with novel or illuminating instrumentation.

Sing ‘Other People’ leaves behind much of the violence of Gira’s approach but retains the same soul-plunging ambitions, both allying him effortlessly with the druggy expressivity that characterizes practitioners of newer psychedelic music and belatedly identifying him as an influence and antecedent.

Unfortunately, the magic of [the] first three songs is never captured again.

This is a staggering debut with layers of errant, mystical roars born from man’s relationship between his guitar, a chord, and a speaker.

A slow burn may not be quite as exciting as a scorch, but this is a hotter flame than most anything else you'll hear this year.

As beguiling as much of Under the Skin is, these songs would benefit from the Mac’s supple, still-underrated rhythm section.

It’s a classic first album: A band unpretentiously tangling various genres they--or even listeners--thought would never sound so brilliant together.

So, is this genius or is this madness? As enjoyable as it is on occasion, I’m inclined to side with the latter.

The slight progression of the group here is discernible with a better understanding of balancing the musical peaks and troughs.

The majority of the album is comprised of covers that don’t deviate enough from the source material to validate their existence.

The group’s move toward a math-metal-industrial fusion is a welcome one that should help to bring them fans that have never heard the group before.

The Grind Date is as notable for what it lacks--skits, filler, bullshit--than for what it has.

You can actually hear the moment when the album turns sour.

The sheer amount of misfires makes Songs for Christmas impossible to recommend to anyone but the devoted Sufjanite.

Now Here Is Nowhere stands as a very good album, delivering on most of September 000’s promises and proving that music not only existed in the early and mid 70s, but it rocked too.

Sometimes the after school special feel of it takes its toll... But they win you back, because that's what underdogs do: they eventually win.

An excellent album.

Nashville is chock full of weeping slide guitar work, soaring harmonies, keyboards, and Rouse’s lonely breath of a voice pushing out from the relatively lush production.

Ultimately, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead displays a type of artistic growth almost alien to the genre.

The album, like most of Vanderslice’s albums, meanders along like a pleasant afternoon: it is all fair weather and blithe breezes, fairly consistent in both tone and tempo.

Fans of â??classicâ? psychedelic music will find few greater pleasures this year than Happy New Year.

As an introductory My Morning Jacket mixtape, Okonokos is top-shelf.

Easily her finest effort since Ray of Light.

On the whole, Animal Years seems dashed off. Of course, dashed off by a clever songwriter with a helluva voice makes Animal Years a decent album.

I was a huge fan of Low before A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief, but the perspective it casts both by amassing so much of their beautiful music and by casting new light on the people who make it make this box set utterly essential.

Feels like Interpol-by-numbers.