Compared to the majority of the material on the parent releases, they're placid, ambient pieces that are not nearly as disturbed but recall the quiet menace of 23 Skidoo's Urban Gamelan and The Culling Is Coming, as well as the drum-less ambient dub side of Basic Channel.

Allo Darlin' is most reminiscent of these artists' earlier, scrappier efforts, but the sophistication is there, most crucially, in Morris' songs, which strike just the right balance of clever and heartfelt, wittily specific, and broadly relatable.

Sexy, transformative, and utterly impressive, Shapeshifting is a not simply a landmark album for Young Galaxy, but an unexpected joy to listen to again and again.

The simple fact is that Daydreams & Nightmares isn't just a joyous reinvention, or coming of age for Those Dancing Days, or even one the best albums of the year--which it certainly is--but, like any good dream, it comes when you least expect it, born out of your purest desires, and haunts you for those dancing days to come.

The combination of songs, sound, and performance make this another near-perfect album from the trio. Those who have fallen under their charmingly sweet spell can only hope it doesn't take another six years for the next one.

At their best, Hudson and her collaborators provide the kind of mature R&B that is not felt merely in the mind, throat, chest, or hips but the entire body.

It digs deep into emotional territory by way of tight, almost suffocating songwriting and killer arrangements, making this one of the defining Brit folk-rock albums of the period. It holds up well in the 21st century as a true testament to the excellence of Chapman's craft.

They deliver thrilling song after thrilling song that'll have you hyping them to all your rock & roll friends as soon the album stops spinning.

The Sleepwalking Society is a stunner; a jazz-pop record with brilliant R&B and folk undertones woven throughout.

What really matters is that nearly ten years after Songs for the Deaf, Josh Homme's influence finally rears its head on a Foo Fighters record, Dave Grohl leading his band of merry marauders -- including Pat Smear, who returns to the fold for the first time since 1997's The Colour and the Shape -- through the fiercest album they've ever made.

He's merely living in his time and reporting, returning with an album that's vivid, vibrant, and current in a way none of his peers have managed to achieve.

On Deep Politics, Grails sound more like themselves than ever, while taking their music to an entirely new level.

They're one of the most consistent bands in metal, and this is a terrific example of them playing to their strengths.

While this may not make it the most immediately exciting album of Explosions in the Sky's career, it easily stands to be one of their most rewarding.

Everything sounds gorgeous, from Little Scream's hazy warble to the two minutes of rainfall, audible rush-hour traffic, and wind chimes that end the album. This is an absolute beast of a debut.

All this hurly-burly camouflages the essential truth of The Hot Sauce Committee: that the Beasties could sit on an album for two years to no ill effect to their reputation or the record's quality.

The album does not merely transcend period-piece status. It's the high point of Saadiq's career, his exceptional output with Tony! Toni! Toné! included.

Wild Beasts continue to find finer ways of expressing themselves while still holding onto the primal passion they've always had, and Smother is some of their most accessible yet creative work.

Given the the Heavy Eights' strengths throughout, it makes more sense to say that Kilgour's definitely found his own personal Crazy Horse.

Cave In has always been a multifaceted band, but their stylistic range has never been as thoroughly explored as it is on White Silence.

Since the band cooked up an excellent 12 songs in only a few weeks last year (which they made available as a free download titled the Last Day of Summer), it should come as no surprise that the laboriously constructed follow-up is a masterpiece.

Basically, Woods have put it all together on Sun and Shade, matching inspiration with performance and crafting their best record yet, one that will stand with the great folk-psych albums of the past 40 years, from the Notorious Byrd Brothers to the Rain Parade's Emergency Third Rail Power Trip to Either/Or to now.

When Art Department stick with their signature sound, even though it might not be exactly unique--it's easy enough to trace a lineage through seminal Chicago jack tracks, early-'90s disco house and the sleeker end of electro-clash to contemporary peers like Soul Clap and Benoit & Sergio--the results are nothing short of mesmerizing.

It's rare for a band to keep getting better over time, especially after 15 years, but the Ladybug Transistor have done it, and whether you've been a fan the whole time or you are just discovering (or rediscovering) them with this album, there is enough good stuff here to make even the coldest-hearted music snob admit that there is music being made in 2011 that's just as good as anything made in 1965 or 1977, or any year.

Howl of the Lonely Crowd will get some notice due to the people who produced it, as it should, but at its core it's further proof of Comet Gain as one of the great hidden rock & roll treasures of the last 20 years.

The Harrow & the Harvest is stunning for its intimacy, its lack of studio artifice, its warmth and its timeless, if hard won, songcraft.

Most of the successive leaks and singles continued the trend, and King of Hearts, in turn, is clearly the singer's best album yet.

There's an amusing irony that one of Sebadoh's most straightforward and tuneful albums is accompanied by an hour's worth of the sort of indulgent four-track murk Sebadoh seemed to be actively moving past, though as such things go, there's plenty of adventurous lo-fi sound collage to be found, as well as some prime examples of Barlow staring down his neuroses.

The Secret is a giant leap forward for Farka Touré as an artist to be sure; but it's a stone killer for listeners.

She's the rarest of things in modern country: a singer who can't help but be compelling no matter what she sings.

Field Songs is Whitmore's masterpiece thus far: unflinching, stubborn, demonstrative, and inspiring.

Where previous records kept the rhythm section in the background, Pageant emphasizes the beat, and the band turns in its hardest rockers to date, including the anthemic "Begin the Begin" and the punky "Just a Touch."

If many of Pollard's post-GBV albums have suggested a man tossing out whatever tunes he came up with this week, Let It Beard is an ambitious, clearly focused attempt to create something out of the ordinary, and it succeeds well enough to feel like a game changer for Pollard and his partners.

The swirl of sonic suggestions throughout the album ranges from Laurie Anderson to These New Puritans to Active Child to Planningtorock to Brian Eno and David Byrne's collaborations and much more besides, all tied up and presented as an immediate and incredibly enjoyable art pop album without apology, an increasingly distinct and unique prospect.

Stranger Me is not only a logical title but a demanding and surprisingly successful experiment that challenges both LaVere and the listener, pushing her into edgy, clearly non-commercial areas.

Arguably Megadeth's strongest effort and a classic of early thrash, Peace Sells combines punkish political awareness with a dark, threatening, typically heavy metal world-view, preoccupied with evil, the occult, and the like.

For as relaxed as Mirror Traffic is, there is real structure to the songs and clarity to the production, two things that turn it into Malkmus' most satisfying solo album to date.

2011 is a year for strong albums in general, and You Are All I See deserves to be ranked among the best.

Here, he reverses that dynamic, playing the studio like the virtuoso that he is, and he's come up with his best record in years, a shamelessly enjoyable piece of aural candy.

Purists may, of course, have their qualms, but it would be hard to deny the combination of reverence, proficiency, and sheer exuberance in evidence here -- indeed, it's difficult to imagine any serious limits of this band's appeal.

Quite simply, this is the work of a great band at the peak of their powers, and The Whole Love is a joy to hear, revealing more with each listen and confirming once again that Wilco is as good a band as American can claim in the 21st century.

The album sounds effortless and truly organic in the best sense of the word, like four people blending together to make one perfectly formed sound.

Wolves in the Throne Room continue to do the genre proud with contributions such as this.

Hunt has outdone himself, and it's possible he's just getting started.

All Things Will Unwind finds this musical auteur at the top of her game, maturing, pushing her already broad boundaries, and brimming with imagination.

As alluring and dreamlike as anything from Willner's first two full-lengths.

The Kronos Quartet, So Percussion, and the six players in Dance Patterns deliver topnotch performances, and Nonesuch's sound is immaculate.

He makes connections between disciplines--musical, literary, visual--that serve to further define Americana not as a musical genre, but as an expansive cultural enigma.

You'd have to go a long way to hear a better synth pop album, no matter what decade you examine.

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1: Live in Europe 1967 box is an essential addition to the catalog.

The whole sternly focused thing is laced with enough emphasis on sound design to function as an immersive headphone listen, while at least two-thirds of it can drain one's energy on a dancefloor.

He's settled into this well-weathered skin on Clancy's Tavern, winding up with his best album in many a moon.

As an album, Empros shows Russian Circles bringing together everything they've done before into one complete package, compiling the lessons of albums past into one singular vision, and bringing it all together for a new vision of their future.

[A] rare sophomore outing that not only manages to avoid the slump, but bests its predecessor in the process.

Quibbles aside, everything about this package is richly detailed, immensely pleasing, and overall a wonderful experience.

With Four the Record, she's digging deeper than ever before and finding considerable riches.

Ndegeocello is making some of the finest music of her life.

A gift for fans who want to dig deep into the Smashing Pumpkins archive.

Southern Rock Opera should be required listening not only for fans of the genre, but anyone interested in the history of '70s rock, or even the history of the South in that decade.

More than any other Black Keys album, El Camino is an outright party, playing like a collection of 11 lost 45 singles, each one having a bigger beat or dirtier hook than the previous side.

Rio is therefore the new standard by which the pianist's future solo recordings will be judged, and perhaps also sets the bar for any other player who attempts the same.

While the double-disc edition is quite a handsome thing in its own right--the Super Deluxe Edition is something special thanks to the alternate version of Quadrophenia, which contains six songs cut from the final album.

Musically, Undun flows easier and slower than any other Roots album.

Through these two discs, the band's highs, tragedies, slumps, and comebacks are all evident.

A tremendously heartfelt celebration of music as a force for transformation, togetherness, love, and personal expression.

Surprising as it may be, coming from masters of the quick-cut DJ collage, The Search Engine is a journey worth taking from beginning to end, uninterrupted.

Singles shows that their craftsmanship and good taste may have been their most defining quality.

The whole is a portrait of a collective creative spirit that sounds as unsettled and fascinating as when the original recordings were made.

The charm of this edition is that the unreleased material is considerably looser than the finished album.

This is a record that buzzes with ideas, it's giddy with the noise it makes, and once its initial rush fades away, it still has plenty to offer in substantive songs and sheer sonic pleasure.

Black Radio creates an entirely new context for popular music in its near erasure of boundaries. It is the sound of the future--even if no one knows it yet.

Hearing this evolution in microcosm is fascinating: few albums are ever as lavishly and carefully produced as The Wall, and by going through this "Work in Progress," it becomes clear just how much labor Floyd and producer Bob Ezrin exerted on the finished album.

Haunting as it may be, A Church That Fits Our Needs succeeds on nearly every level.

While this would be a step backward for anyone else, the band has a talent for effortlessly making the unpolished seem charming as it bashes its way through tracks like "Nostalgia" and "The Worst Has Yet to Come."

Had it not been for the underground releases, this disc would be one of 2012's best debuts.

The combination of precisely crafted pop and fiercely imaginative arrangements results in a thrilling listen.

Sure, it's messy, but Alex Chilton always was--it's also some of his richest and best music, and it's never sounded better than it does on Free Again: The 1970 Sessions.

Quakers is the kind of album where favorite tracks change from listen to listen, and a testament to hip-hop's enduring power.

Individually and together, these records are as potent, squalling, and beautiful as when they were issued.

What comes across most effectively is the ease that both Roberts and Morrison have with one another. Their vocals settle in together comfortably. That feeling adds even more bubbling warmth to this already toasty disc.

The majority of the album places Actress closer to the superbly creative, evocative, and mind-altering terrain inhabited by Oneohtrix Point Never, with detectable traces of early-'80s Roedelius and Moebius, as well as Autechre.

There is a bounty of rare material, none of which should ever be inaccessible again.

Harmonicraft finds Torche taking off at full speed with an album packed full of driving riffs and soaring melody that's going to have an easy time convincing fans that the band hasn't lost a step after losing a member.

Like a lot of career overviews, this is somewhere between an introduction and a collector's item, but it initially retailed for the price of a single disc and holds an edge over the marginally less expensive A Collection.

Weather Systems stands with Anathema's finest work.

Definitely an album that's worth listening to on repeat, not only out of necessity, but because it's a refreshingly simple, straightforward album in an increasingly processed and affected era.

Hardcore Joplin fans and historians have an excellent retrospective package which, while illuminating the process of the creation of Pearl, doesn't replace it in the canon.

Quarantine is the addictive soundtrack to some kind of science fiction nightmare.

Hazlewood manages to sound resigned, lightly disgusted, heartbroken, and deathbed wise as he sings his way through these songs, none of which ever hit anywhere near an AM radio station. It's easy to be excited for more volumes in this series after hearing this one.

Hogan's style is refreshingly simple, honest, and strikes its target on every track; whether she's tackling country, pop, supper-club blues, or uptempo R&B, she can sing it right and make you a believer, and I Like to Keep Myself in Pain is the triumphant showcase her talent has deserved for far too long.

For all its ambition and poetry, Big Station is consistently great fun. The songwriting and recording employed here take Escovedo's populist and sophisticated art to a whole new level.

In Our Heads is some of their finest and most accessible music.

For as haunting as parts of the album are, there is no fetishization of death on the parts of Albarn and Russell; even with a tinge of melancholy coloring the fringes of the album, this is an album that affirms the power of life, in all of its mess and glory.

Stripped of all her carnivalesque accouterments, Fiona Apple remains as rich and compelling as she ever was, perhaps even more so.

A more aggressive, contemporary guitar attack aside, stunning power punk masterpieces like "The Act We Act," "The Slim," and "Fortune Teller" bear all of the vintage Mould musical traits.

Mission of Burma follow no rules other than following their collective vision wherever it leads, and their musical wanderlust has resulted in one of the most exciting and eye-opening albums they've made to date.

This borders on sorcery.

The album doesn't have as many slyly powerful hooks as Nostalgia, Ultra, but Ocean's descriptive and subtle storytelling is taken to a higher level.