Even on the tracks with mediocre melodies and concepts, T.I. plugs away at the beat and never loses control of King.

Each of their albums so far has been misleading because none of them have really caught what Embrace are about properly, who they are. This New Day, warts and all, finally does that.

They’re good at what they do, but what they’re doing is painting-by-numbers from someone else’s book.

The combination of Treacy’s back-story and the complexity of My Dark Places makes it hard to live with at times; it is a supremely disquieting record.

A manically strange, darkly and violently beautiful, and deliriously pop album.

An immensely pleasing and happy album.

A bit uneven.

They sound laid back. They sound like they’re having a blast. They sound, well, loose.

There’s a really good EP waiting to be edited out of this.

But despite better production and the unbeatable chemistry of Coomes and Weiss, When the Going Gets Dark just doesn’t have as many memorable songs, nor does it spark the same kind of curious sympathy their best micro-miseries have.

This is the Prince album we wanted Musicology to be.

A remarkably notable debut.

Murray’s Revenge feels tired, the work of a mind either distracted or unwilling to commit to any one thing.

All at Once is still challenging, but it’s a challenge without much reward.

Morph the Cat is too complacent, too enamored with its own lacquered contours.

For fans of indie-rock with a poppy slant, Stars of CCTV is an absolute necessity.

Mercury Rev... mostly eschew their distinctive brand of chamber pop, scaling back the saturated psychedelic orchestral flourishes for something a bit more terrestrial. In doing so they’ve fashioned the perfect complement to Dunger’s emotional voice and poignant songs of love lost.

Cuts Across offers a surprisingly persuasive clutch of rock ‘n roll that beg for barnstorming live performances.

So the form of vaguely electroclash pop delivered with frighteningly robotic efficiency has been mastered, but the content itself is the problem.

[A] lean, effective debut.

There’s little to differentiate Mr. Beast from Happy Songs, and less to recommend it in the face of Mogwai’s potent catalog.

That’s why there’s no cacophony and very little white noise: the finished product is essentially of a common mind.

Unsurprisingly, everything on Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is sublimated beneath Case’s vocals: music, momentum, the need for tunes.

His wheels may not leave the traction marks they once did, but the evidence here suggests the ride isn’t over yet.

Axis is an easygoing, engaging listen, an album whose relative triviality easily forgives its flaws.

I wouldn't want to call it a "return to form" because Lil' Beethoven was actually pretty good, but it certainly perfects that album's aesthetic and infuses it with some of the giddy energy of the earlier Sparks stuff.

The result aims for a “shitty is pretty” messthetic that is more novelty than anything else.

Sure, the songs are serviceable, even great at times, but if you take away the new instruments, the tracks are spitting images of their younger brethren.