It could have been much more, but for what it is -- a blissful summer excursion -- L' Avventura is delicately delightful.

There are entirely too many nods to the past for this album to be a fresh start, yet it refuses to slip comfortably into place in their catalogue.

It's good in its own right, but perhaps you're better off listening to it in isolation from the rest of their canon. It's not quite there, but it is definitely a good record.

Musique Automatique captures both the vibrant spirit of Europe as well as the feel of modern pop to create a wonderful album.

This is a pretty uninspired piece of work.

The change is typically drastic, but given the uncharacteristically long period spent in the studio this time around, the sum of worthwhile material is far less impressive.

Instead of consolidating their respective strengths, Broken Boy Soldiers is White and Benson compromising them in favor of finding an agreeable but ultimately dull and colorless middle ground.

The best numbers show Hart gaining subtle confidence as a composer without feeling the need to break the mold completely.

As much as a lot of the tracks are just bluster + accent + guitars, there are some melodies hidden along the way and the bluster + accent + guitars here are better than those pimped by the likes of The Others and Kaiser Chiefs and so on and so forth.

Morrissey doesn’t have that much to say now, but it’s never really been just about the words. And when everything fits into place on Ringleader of the Tormenters, he can deliver those sweet-nothings with such panache that it doesn’t really matter anyway.

One of the better American rock albums of this year.

The album maintains a consistency that was sorely lacking on Amon Tobin’s previous records. However, in doing so, the album sacrifices the innovation and uncontrolled experimentalism one expects from Tobin.

There is no denying the power of this album.

[An] extraordinarily unassuming, gorgeous release.

It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here. But until then, Blue Eyed in the Red Room is one to skip.

Surprisingly reminiscent of that other white-boy hip-hop circus freak [Beck], circa 1996’s genre-mashing breakthrough Odelay.

The naysayers do not understand. Their expectations hamstring them.... Like the glass sculptures featured in the artwork it is precise, transparent, dangerously fragile, and ominously lit. 100th Window is a masterpiece of its kind.

A warm, accessible listen, it’s hard to say anything too bad about Obrigado Saudade, which may be its biggest fault: it’s too clean, too comfortable.

Because of its unexpected instrumentation and fine songwriting, “on mani” is the only track on the album that can be praised as anything more than above average.

For all of their rock leanings, they are a jazz combo in the best way possible—each player brings a potent set of chops to his respective instrument.

Although Punk summarizes Fatlip's traumatic post-Pharcyde life, the record is buoyant with character.

That’s not to say the album is a disappointment (it isn’t) or not great (it is, mostly), but after hitting their creative and commercial peak with Absolution and its subsequent breakthrough stateside, Black Holes and Revelations clearly reveals itself to be a transition record.

With Phantom Punch Sondre Lerche finally makes good on the promise of his talent; he’s mastered and polished his intuitive gift for melody and arrangement and rightly applied it to his most natural musical inclinations.

Their previous efforts have now paid off, culminating in a condensed treatise of confusion, longing, and maturation.

Era Vulgaris gets better with each listen, and that’s mostly due to the fact that the melodies take time to sink in.

Lif’s greatest strength remains his pissy paranoia.

At its best, Calexico does expand, opening the range of sounds to provide for new colors of expression; when it doesn't work, that open sound means a turn toward the basic, allowing prettiness to get in the way of sonic content.

It doesn’t try to scrape the lofty heights of the two or three masterpieces in Heasley’s catalogue, but by not making the effort, it doesn’t sink as low as his least impressive stuff.