That sense of hostile irony may be one of the most underrated qualities on Nevermind, whose sly dismissals and cagey lyrics sound like an extension of Cobain's scabrous guitars and Dave Grohl's thundering drums.

Where Del Rey’s music feels icier to the touch and more pop-oriented, Olsen sings from the heart, reflected in the melancholic, often soaring, even experimental backing that hits home more than it misses. It may take some time and uninterrupted concentration, but the expansive All Mirrors grows on you with repeated plays.

In its original, and here remastered, 10 track format (a somewhat superfluous if clean 5.1 remix, audio only DVD is also included), it’s every bit as memorable, timeless and nearly as entertaining if not quite as challenging as Astral Weeks.... But hearing so many working versions of these songs can be a trying, time consuming yet occasionally enjoyable experience.

The sound on these remasters crackles, revealing musical and lyrical nuances along with spotlighting how critical Mark Ortmann’s in-the-pocket drumming is to the vibe.

Somewhere between the clear narrative of Boy's Night Out's Trainwreck and the Dear Hunter's ongoing musical saga, it's one of the most compelling realized moments Trophy Scars' madness has produced. [May 2014, p.94]

For Zappa obsessives, and you know who you are, it’s impossible to imagine a more thorough and exhaustive (maybe exhausting is a better word) examination of the artist and how his music was created—before the advent of digital technology– than this. Sit back, dig in and enjoy.

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

Another rollicking, rolling set of the 69-year-old Finley’s Louisiana-based soul, blues, and gospel-laced intensity.

Like her chosen alias, The Weather Station’s music is fluid and variable. This latest twist is an unexpected, yet welcome change of climate in her ongoing career.

More ornate and richly produced than any of her previous recordings, The Order Of Time fully establishes June as a proper auteur who has long transcended any limitations as a quaint revivalist.

Like an open wound, The Idler Wheel isn't always pretty, but it pulses with life, brutal and true.

12 Stories, a record full of humor and pain, remorse and reckoning, is one of the very best country debuts of 2013.

With newly remastered sound and a second disc of worthwhile rarities including live tracks, remixes, B-sides and the like, even fans would do well to take the plunge on this refurbished, expanded reissue of an album that Frame, despite multiple later attempts both under the Aztec Camera moniker and later his own name, never could build a career on.

It remains a great, perhaps the greatest, example of The Replacements’ studio output. Whether you need all the extras, most of which are solid and worth hearing, depends on how attached you are to the contents and band.

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.

Perhaps a better balance of rockers and reflective selections might have made this stronger and more diverse. But those who shied away from Wynonna’s slicker commercial heyday will find this direct, collective style a refreshing transformation for the better. For the rest of us, it’s yet additional proof of her tough/tender, sassy/sensitive vocal prowess and arguably the finest release of her extensive career.

It not only boasts a familiarity factor but the advantage of an official release that ought to make it truly mandatory as far as more rabid Young fans are concerned. Indeed, there are several early stabs at certain songs that only true Neil nerds will be able to differentiate from those versions released later on.

The melodies take flight, soaring as guitars strum, and drums pound, and Nash unleashes ten widescreen tales resounding with melancholy intensity and an idiosyncratic style best described as uncompromising.

An epic effort in its entirety, The Complete Dirty South now offers an excellent opportunity to revisit this decidedly descriptive album. It continues to loom large in the band’s legacy, encapsulating the Southern culture in ways only true sons of the South were capable of conceiving.

Taken as a whole, American Band is the group’s most thematically coherent work since their pinnacle of Jason Isbell-assisted records in the early 2000s.

Ultimately, Long Lost could be considered an opus of sorts, a fully realized work that’s epic, intriguing, expansive, and yet introspective. It’s an emotional encounter that delivers on all it promises far more often than not.

By any standards, this is an expansive, terrific and lovingly curated set that displays the impressive life’s work of a classy, talented, journeyman rocker yet to find the commercial or critical acclaim he deserves.

Even as he enters his 60s, Waits still sounds as lively and as cagey as ever, indulging both his most brazen and his most sentimental urges to upend all of our expectations.

For a long time now, Radiohead has been achieving mesmerizing results by blazing the trail for synthetic sounds in rock and roll. But it’s the humanity, oh, the humanity, that makes A Moon Shaped Pool so moving.

The album is far more interesting when Clark is more introspective, pleading “please don’t hang up yet” on the gorgeous “Hang On Me,” or simply showcasing her noisiest guitar riffs on “Young Lover.”

This more elusive, rootsy style suits Crutchfield well. It allows space to capture a clearer eyed vision of a life she’s still trying to balance, sort out and work through …just like the rest of us.

What Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit reflects is that Courtney Barnett is a burgeoning talent whose future likely holds great improvement from this already-impressive starting point.

For the most part, Run the Jewels 3 is not intent on breaking new ground but rather on cementing the fruitful dynamic between El-P and Killer Mike. It’s another victory lap from a pair of rappers who are mastering the form, one glorious album at a time.