Largely, (III) is an excellent album. Crystal Castles have not just recreated their first two records, they have developed as a band and their sound has morphed greatly.

At the end of the day, I don't know exactly where I'd rank Koi No Yokan--somewhere in the top three, but really it's not important. What's important is that this is a f***ing great album.

Overall, Tame Impala have created a steady sophomore album.

Isis' Temporal is an honest and respectable attempt to not only chronicle their career perhaps intrigue a few more people in the process.

Overall, About To Die isn't particularly great. The EP is quite unnecessary.

Hands Of Glory is yet another right step in a discography which is yet to falter or fail. This is as essential as a bits and bobs album comes.

Overall, Young Hunger is the sound of an artist spreading himself too thin.

Title Fight isn't trying to reshape the sound of punk--they just want you to listen to better music. Floral Green accomplishes that and more.

Lyrically and musically (guitarists Luke Kilpatrick and Jeff Ling showcase impressive tapping and riffing throughout), this is Parkway Drive at its best--combining the best elements from its previous albums and expanding on them to create an album that encompasses all your senses.

The album never gets stagnant and avoids the pitfalls of sticking to the same sound or mellowing out with age and ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have quite a few albums in them yet.

Blak and Blu is the very definition of a bellwether, and the resounding answer to all of the many who have predicted such greatness.

We Don't Even Live Here is the weirdest, angriest, and best P.O.S album to date.

Waking Season is the most dynamic and affecting record of this year and probably last year (too lazy to look).

It's sexy, daring, and complete.

One Wing is equal parts raw, deranged, beautiful, and immense--it's a very primal and exhausting release; something you can feel pouring out of your speakers.

Both daring and down right difficult to turn away, consider this among the band's finest work of their career thus far.

The album lives up to its title in every way and should prove essential for old and new fans alike.

Shields not only matches its predecessor in Grizzly Bear's back catalogue, but it exceeds it.

Comprised of many songs he has tucked away for years, the album is everything one might expect from a Gibbard solo album: daring, delicate, verbose and indelible.

Bad Books' II is the band finally discovering its sweet spot, as the album's eleven tracks are firing on all cylinders.

As daring as it is confident and poignant in its execution, this album captures both the Converge we know and love and a Converge we're not quite accustomed to--leaving us with an album arguably as striking and challenging as anything the band has done before.

While it may lack the immediate magnetism of Weathervanes, there's plenty of reasons to think when all is said and done, Diluvia will be the album that carries them forward and cements their status as one of New York City's most creative and rewarding indie bands.

Though it can be long and drags at times (namely "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair") Pour Une Ame Souveraine is a compelling album and another notch on the belt of an artist who continues to pursue her own agenda.

The Wallflowers have always been a band that excelled at bringing new life to things we'd heard before, and that remains true on Glad All Over.

119 is more concerned about power flexing than it is being simple, fast, direct, and catchy (and there are way less 30-second spurts than before); it has a hefty presence of East Coast ferocity, and Spielman's signature chokehold commands the band's socio-political magnitude more than ever.

There are some parts you'll have to suffer through, but there are at least a handful of tracks that we can save and enjoy into the future.

Awakened makes for a reasonable continuation in the band's sound, but finds the group making a significant stride in their ability to mix their talents together while keeping the songwriting at dizzying heights.

Young Guns are vastly talented and laden with armfuls of potential. One listen to Bones proves that.

You're going to need more than a few listens to truly sink your teeth into the meaty layers and themes, but once you get it, you'll find that this is one of the most rewarding albums of 2012.

Chances are, his best work is still ahead of him, but for now, Tomorrowland is another fascinating statement from one of music's most promising young players.

Overall, The xx have created an album that is just as interesting, attractive and sexy as it could possibly be.

Battle Born is the kind of rock 'n' roll record that almost nobody makes anymore: it's bombastic and excessive and oversized, but it's also a grand and universal statement, a master class of album structure and sequencing, and a culmination of everything Brandon Flowers and The Killers have done up to this point.

Unfortunately, a handful of good moments aren't enough to outweigh an album jammed with songwriting that just doesn't amount to anything.

Despite displaying their love of hardcore through certain parts of the album, Dinosaur Jr have created the most accessible heavy album of this year, with every track being suitable for any radio station or soundtrack.

Grace and Lies is a terrific disc and the signal of a strong new talent, but far too often the entire effort feels like a solo album and a vessel to showcase Krans' alto voice.

In short, a few stray hiccups only gives a listener more reason to be excited for the next release.

NOFX take a crack at pressing matters both inwards and outwards, succeeding in not only making a seamless expression of both sides but cranking out some truly memorable jams to boot.

The quintet has a real pulse on how to be memorable, melodic and magnificent without sacrificing their defined visions.

Maintaining the melodramatic indie that Stars do so beautifully, The North manages to channel every aspect of the indie rock spectrum, whilst creating a body of art that is perfectly coherent.

What we're left with is an album that sounds like something of an identity crisis. It's far from a total loss and there is much here that is definitely worth revisiting in that old reliable Avett Brothers sort of way.

Freak Out! is an undeniable tour de force in hook-filled songwriting with a sharp spike of punk wit.

With Painted, Narrows sophomore release isn't just a bunch of vets attempting a comeback, they're showing listeners why their names are already synonymous within the scene to begin with.

Gallows will arguably divide the fanbase between a hint of less grit at times and a vocalist not quite harnessing the same volatile nature as before--therefore yielding what is arguably the band's most diverse record in terms of execution.

Overall, The Vaccines have released a great album in the form of The Vaccines Come Of Age.

Though it is far from perfect and has far more filler than one would hope, North is indeed a fine effort.

Where When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes was safe at times and perhaps slightly predictable, Southern Air keeps listeners intrigued and invested throughout. This is the best pop-punk album of 2012.

Oceania lacks the emotional force that it needed to transcend what it is: a former rock star trying to sound vital again.

When the band puts their best foot forward ("Monkey Riches," "Father Time," "Applesauce," "Mercury Man," and "Pulleys,") they sound like an outfit deserving of all the hype and praise bestowed upon them.

Musically, The Circle in the Square is a bit too wobbly to stand up even amongst the rock acts channeling hip-hop a little less obviously.

The beauty of an album like Don't Let The Sun is that in between the rickety monuments to group songwriting, there is a simple and subtle message of camaraderie.

While some tracks may feel more like Bay and Ratner, Ross more often than not hits his mark.

This is necessary listening for the carefree weeks before school picks up again in the fall, and it's a record you'll end up holding near throughout the entire semester and then some.

The combination of Vigil's honest, yet relatable lyricism and the powerful instrumentation make for the band's most powerful statement to date.

When combined with crisp guitar work, meaty bass lines, and thunderous drumming, the screams fire bullets against the enemy track after track, and unlike with Attack Attack's This Means War, Memphis May Fire are winning the battle with Challenger.

It is that constant desire to create new music that makes Heaven so deeply rewarding and so worth the time.

The combination of his idiosyncratic creative mind with his highly personal and conflicted lyrics has resulted in something spectacular.

While mewithoutYou is still as ambiguous as ever with their music, they've never been as creative and daring as they are on Ten Stories.

Even if this isn't your preferred genre, there is no denying that Life Cycles is one of the most personal and genuine albums of 2012. There's nothing manufactured here.

A genre-bending, head-turning collection that vaults ZBB to the top of the roots-rock pedestal.

Make Do And Mend has released the best album of their young career and one of the essential, must-have albums of 2012.

So while the disc may not his best album, it is still one that makes you think and challenges you.

As listeners, as fans of music, we've already hit the lottery here.

Rooster Rag is a fun and inspired effort with far too many careless throwaways. The only lasting grace is that despite mountains of adversity, the Little Feat train keeps on rolling.

Marriages created a ride not worth getting off until it ends.

Their latest is yet another gem that you could spin for a room full of the most down-on-their-luck sad-sacks and get them all high-fiving.

The results are loud, punishing, totally lacking in subtlety, and at this juncture, almost completely predictable.

Heady Fwends, rather inexplicably, plays much like a proper follow-up to their 2009 mindfuck Embryonic, and their ability not only to bring a project like this together at all, but to make it work so cohesively and effectively, is as strong a testament as any to their genius.

While not every song is up to a "Moves Like Jagger" or "Payphone" standard hook-wise, the co-writers and producers never stopped breaking into new grounds for the band throughout the record.

Forging a path not quite dismissing their last batch of cuts, Architects' drive to re-assert their heavier influences makes for a back-and-forth slug match that draws on a little too long at points – yet is still memorable enough to keep you coming back for the highlights.

This record takes everything the band has done in the past and gives it to us in a rather different, yet just as captivating way.

It's ... very much worth your while. Many bands should wish that their most impressive work was as good as Motion City Soundtrack's least impressive.

Certain songs on The Temper Trap are just not worth listening to more than a couple of times.

Combining the huge sound of Of Men & Angels with the youthful honesty of Hello, Good Friend and Do You Feel, Avary has created his best record yet with Life Will Write These Words.

A fist-pumping, hip-swerving rock record that roars with energy and makes for a most exuberant return to form.

Vulnerable contains its share of lemons, but there is a spark, an energy, that hasn't been heard from McCracken's voice in a while.

It's punk rock for the same fans who loved Hot Water Music years ago.

Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired is just completely enthralling.

[The lyrics] carry a meaning that doesn't stop when the song does.

The flow of Strange Clouds tends to vary between songs that are helping make the album great ("So Good," "Arena," "So Hard to Breathe"), and then the ones that keep pushing it down the route of a sophomore slump ("Ray Bands," "Just a Sign," "Play for Keeps"). Right when there's about to be a trend of some consistency, it ends up falling short.

Twelve Years is a record that can and should become the soundtrack to many a young person's life in 2012.

As a whole, Born and Raised is contrite, earnest and warm.

Picture Show may not have as much mainstream appeal as a song like "Animals", but it definitely shows a band honed in on creating enjoyable, addicting tracks that seem fresh without losing the hint of the past this album seems thankfully unable to shake.

[Harmonicraft] finds Torche further indulging their pop muse. The result is a set of songs that retains most of the heaviness we've come to expect at this point, but with even more single-ready ear candy than ever before.

Myth seems like one of those albums that can really thrive in a post-critical world.

With a record this charming, one can only hope they last two more decades.

DSOL speaks the dirty rocker punk kvlt language that could put Pantera and Gallows fans side by side.

The fiery temperament of former releases often gives way to that aforementioned arena-sized pop sensibility, making No Gods sound bigger (and more attractive) than anything this band has written before.

If Move Along got the name in lights, it's Kids in the Street that ensures The All-American Rejects to be burning bright for years to come.

Our Home is a Deathbed is not only a vulnerable record lyrically, but also for its time and place in the current hardcore scene as well.

Anarchy, My Dear is a record that promises that anything could happen at anytime, and Bemis and company do their very best to shake up what has been expected from them as a band.

This is one of the better electro-pop albums of 2011, one that will stimulate your senses and rope you in with its instantaneous catchiness.

The musicianship and songwriting is easily on par with Magic and exceeds the output on Working On A Dream, and as a whole, Wrecking Ball stacks up considerably with The Rising, which to this day I consider a top-5 Springsteen album.

Wide-ranging, engrossing and incredibly powerful it represents a new height for a band who has hinted at towering heights before.

Come Back As Rain is a pleasant...not a surprise, but reaffirmation...that Good Old War is one of the most talented bands around at this point in time.

This is Winterpills at their finest, this is Winterpills with a direction and a clear focus.

It's not all slow and mid-tempo numbers that litter the forty-five minute duration of The Slideshow Effect. There are also moments where the band is unafraid to lift the urgency, to create a semblance of sustained momentum, and to incorporate a few timely hooks and memorable melodies along the way.

The best songs from this album are all but unforgettable, and there are a handful of tracks that will certainly survive the test of time.

Bigger, badder, and louder than ever, Ex Lives will go down as the definitive Every Time I Die record.