Layer after layer of preconceived notions and excess noise are stripped away to unveil both soft-spoken charm and intense newfound confidence.

The most exciting and best rock & roll record of 2004.

Our Endless Numbered Days is very subdued, thoughtful, melodic, and downright beautiful album and the new sound is more of a progression than a sudden shift in values, production or otherwise.

The harshest and most consistent album of their career.

The level of punk fury and torrential modernization is high all throughout this record.... Undoubtedly, hardcore jungleists will scoff at such a high-profile, sometimes flashy presentation of drum'n'bass ethics, but this is an album full of such militant energy that it deserves to be seen as one of the strongest saving graces of jungle in years. Reprazent sounds like a band trying to make jungle's sonic equivalent to the mutinous Xtrmntr.

An aesthetic watermark for Cave, a true high point in a long career that is ever looking forward.

The attention to detail in the production, the punchy melodies, and the sympathetic performances by the group -- along with Kasher's writing that is nothing less than gripping and often head-shakingly brilliant -- make this record an indispensable artifact for anyone who likes indie rock with a real emotional punch.

If Showtime isn't the equal artistic success of Boy in da Corner, it's slightly superior, stunning for the facts that it arrives so swiftly after the debut and is far from a retread.

Both records are visionary, imaginative listens, providing some of the best music of 2003, regardless of genre.

The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is not only a vital document of an important, groundbreaking band on their way up, it's one of their best albums, easily surpassing Stop Making Sense.

It is more than the sum of its many parts, as the Warlocks whip up a '60s of the imagination, making you hear the sounds anew while resurrecting the old before your very eyes.

Thirteenth Step is the sound of a musical and lyrical maturity that normally doesn't occur until a band's third or fourth albums.

While it's not perfect -- occasionally the album's heady, indulgent feel tends to make it drag -- Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes is still an impressive expansion of TV on the Radio's fascinating music.

There's so much effort, Holy Wood winds up a stronger and more consistent album than any of his other work. If there's any problem, it's that Manson's shock rock seems a little quaint in 2000.

Though club-phobic listeners may find it difficult placing Skinner as just the latest dot along a line connecting quintessentially British musicians/humorists/social critics Nöel Coward, the Kinks, Ian Dury, the Jam, the Specials, and Happy Mondays, Original Pirate Material is a rare garage album: that is, one with a shelf life beyond six months.

Funny, beautiful, and moving, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots finds the Flaming Lips continuing to grow and challenge themselves in not-so-obvious ways after delivering their obvious masterpiece.

A skillful synthesis of classic rock and modern sensibilities that's pretty irresistible.

M83 is a keyboard band of the best kind: one with nuance, tone, thrash, and color.

The brilliance of Van Lear Rose is not just how the two approaches complement each other, but how the record captures the essence of Loretta Lynn's music even as it has flourishes that are distinctly Jack.

Easily one of 2000's most accomplished albums, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out may not be as immediately appealing as some of the group's more upbeat albums, but it's just as enduring, proving that Yo La Tengo is the perfect band to grow old with.

Startling, tirelessly powerful, and full of unlimited dimensions.

It's an album that kills with catchiness.

Song for song, this is better-written and harder-rocking than Cocky.

Bright Eyes has mixed badness with beauty for a sonic storybook that relates to everyone.

[A] majestic soundscape.

Put Pretty Girls Make Graves on the short list of bands that matter and make sure you get this record.

Tyrannosaurus Hives might be a little more complex and polished than the Hives' earlier work, but it's not overthought at all; even though they've evolved, they know how to keep it simple, stupid.

In its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of a masterpiece, and one of the few -- if not the only -- records of 2004 to convey what it feels like to live in the strange, bewildering America of the early 2000s.