When it’s all over, you listen again, with equal amazement. No, albums like this one don’t come along very often.

Ultimately, the best complement one can pay the band at this point is simply to say that the new album is in fact the perfect primer for newcomers as well as further affirmation for those that have followed them all along. Getting Into Knives makes the point that The Mountain Goats are successfully finding their way to higher heights.

As diverse as ever, this is the kind of comeback every once-defunct act strives for but few deliver with the consistency and sheer enthusiasm exhibited here.

His keen insights into human nature and today’s America are revealed in melodic, deeply-felt tunes on Still Fighting The War, which ranks as one of the year’s best singer-songwriter albums.

The heartbreak is palatable and one can’t help but be moved by both the confession and the candor. Indeed, the poignancy is not without purpose.

To say it sounds like another great Sparks set might be damning it with faint praise.

While this album encompasses only a fraction of the total trajectory, it’s a fascinating glimpse at his his seminal sound. In that regard, The Width of a Circle is expansive indeed.

It’s a sumptuous array to be sure, and one that further expands upon Petty’s lingering legacy.

Both knowing and nuanced, its 13 songs share Kelly’s determination to maintain his sobriety following his earlier struggles with alcoholism and drug dependency. It is, in the truest sense, both a vindication that his vulnerability was sorely needed, and that he’s wholly committed to his craft. It is, in fact, one of the best albums released so far this year.

There are standouts everywhere.

If Wilco (The Album) was the band tempering their experimental nature into something more accessible, The Whole Love refines that approach and showcases the full range of Wilco's considerable abilities.

The only thing that the Immersion Edition is really missing is any extensive liner notes.

For how uncharacteristic it might seem for a band whose greatest gift, all along, was nuance, this louder take suits the band brilliantly.

Doja Cat is just what the world needs today. A sharp knife to cut through the blizzard of sounds and styles out there. But at the same time a fiery party, something you can witness from the solar system. With the blazing soundtrack to accompany it.

It’s apparent that this fine fusion succeeds, perhaps beyond the parties’ initial expectations.

The 74-year-old King looks and sounds great. ... This is a lively celebratory concert, enhanced with historic photos flashed on a backing screen, by a legendary artist who takes, and clearly deserves, her victory lap.

By the time the Beatles’ “Blackbird” closes the set in a slowed down blues arrangement with a string quartet, most listeners will be wrung out emotionally from these expressive takes on generally seldom heard gems. Bettye LaVette may not have penned any, but she owns them just the same.

The Nashville Sound is another triumph in his incredible hot streak.

What truly makes the album memorable--and what makes it arguably Bondy's best--is the atmosphere that pervades every song.

The album captures a shared sense of both isolation and optimism with melodies and harmonies that soar assuredly, building on an ornate orchestration that allows songs such as “Deep Water Swim,” “Laughing Gas,” “No False Gods” and the title track resonate with such haunting yet harrowing designs.

Each piece is exquisitely crafted to bring out the best in them and you get the sense that Casal would have approved.

[Frontman Kurt Wagner] doesn’t write these songs so much as he unwrites them, and the effect is vividly disorienting, sometimes--as on “NIV” and “Directions To The Can”--even perversely beautiful.

The accompanying live DVD, recorded at Shoreline Amphitheatre in 1992, is a good-enough bonus, rather than a must-have live document. These are minor quibbles of course; a whole stack of tacky badges couldn’t stand in the way of Your Arsenal being absolutely essential.

The rugged Delta Kream captures the essence of what made this North Mississippi music so distinctive. While even this stellar lineup can’t truly replicate the dangerous backwoods stomp that injected a shot of adrenaline into the bloodstream of Carney and Auerbach all those years ago, it comes awfully close.

Her major label debut, which moves from country waltz to roadhouse blues, from rootsy singer-songwriter narratives to irresistible country pop, follows its own relentless arrow throughout, and the result is one of the most fully-formed, arresting debuts Nashville’s seen in years.

The combination of Buddy’s husky rumble and Julie’s lighter but still incisive approach makes for an explosive vocal blend. There is no filler in these dozen tunes (over 50 were written, from which they chose the best) that remind us what we’ve missed in the decade since the couple last recorded together. It’s a continuation of a musical and personal partnership that’s entrancing, honest and one that makes for a mesmerizing listen.

Womack is in terrific voice throughout, the songs--including her co-writes--are top notch and with Lidell’s sympathetic backing and production, it’s hard to imagine how anything could be improved. It’s a late-breaking short list nominee for 2017’s album of the year.

You'd be mistaken to pass up the greatest album of Loudon Wainwright III's four-decade career, and an easy frontrunner for this year's best album, period, as 2012 enters its second half.