While its recent recordings have reflected a more subdued approach in the studio, band members Norman Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley never lose their knack for composing concise pop gems.

It's not so much that Merle Haggard has established himself as an American gem on his ambitious releases in the past decade; it's that we finally took notice.

Globetrotting frontman Damon Albarn then returned to Hong Kong to write lyrics, hoping to recapture the spirit. He has largely succeeded, as The Magic Whip is a fascinating snapshot of a group coming to personal and professional crossroads in a strange city where modern living leads to bewilderment and alienation.

11:11 is another winning showcase of exotic instrumental brilliance.

Ariana Grande's debut LP is a surprisingly varied affair for a 20-year-old Nickelodeon star with a devastatingly strong voice.

The act should be credited for not hewing to the tried-and-true formula it pretty much invented with previous releases but many of the double-disc's 18 tracks feel like they are embryonic rather than fully formed.

Give Up the Ghost is another rich offering from this distinctive female talent.

At 71, Staples still knows how to hang tough and shows no signs of slowing down.

After 15 years of recording together, the members of Guster deliver their poppiest, most cohesive effort with Easy Wonderful.

What Sound & Color does best is hard to describe any other way: The music chugs, boogies, churns and rolls. Among rock music of its kind, it's one of the most ­muscular collections in some time, yet it accomplishes this by hardly even flexing.

The vibe on the new album may be rootsier and more acoustic than Walker's usual fare, but it still emphasizes his knack for memorable wordplay and melodic know-how, which have earned him writing and producing gigs.

Evolution will silence all but the omnivores, and Shamir has the right taste buds. But he also has a great voice, a stunning countertenor that some have mistaken for female.

Plant has steadfastly resisted a return to the Zep fold; Band of Joy makes us glad for that.

The group spit-shines its soundtrack for working-class America.

On Souls, Maiden mostly hits its target.

There are some moments when the mood lightens, usually for romantic fare like the funky Estelle-assisted song "Midnight Hour." But these tracks display neither Kweli's lyrical precision nor Hi-Tek's adventurous sounds. The set also falls short of its opening promise to engineer a "shift in the paradigm of hip-hop."

On Praise & Blame, that gusty Northern soul voice sounds as righteous and true as it does when he's operating in the more carnal regions of his catalog.

Spoon's seventh studio album, Transference, strikes a balance between its early angsty indie-rock and the soulful deconstructed pop of its 2007 release, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga."

Clocking in at an hour and twenty-five minutes, Reflektor drags in parts, though it contains plenty of moments (most often in its uptempo, dynamic first half) that sound ready to breathe life into the middling state of commercial rock in 2013.

It's an intense, focused exploration of all, or nearly all, the relationships the singer is involved in, both romantic and familial.

The Besnard Lakes amp up the energy with a more guitar-driven approach on third album The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night. But this added vigor doesn't distract from the rock band's more familiar fare of gentle vocal deliveries and downplayed drums.

It’s evocative and vivid, recalling early Red House Painters, or even The Blue Nile.

Produced by a handful of trusted Atlanta trap producers, DS2 is gothic, narcotic and full of overcast skies.

In New Orleans vernacular, Ya-Ka-May is a stew comprising various meats, green onions, noodles and a hard-boiled egg. This album may well be the musical counterpart of the dish for which it's named.

The younger act strikes a posture of ­winsome self-assurance across these 11 tracks.

Blue Neighbourhood features soft-touch synths and booming drum machines worthy of the next Lorde or Taylor Swift record.

The result is a lustful listen that often centers on either coming together or breaking apart.

At times, it's difficult to differentiate who is singing, thanks to masterful producing by Bright Eyes' Mogis. When viewed less as a hipster supergroup and more as an old-fashioned song swap, Monsters of Folk live up to their hype and then some.

Girls are poised to take their rightful place as one of the blog-crossover bands of 2009.

Last time around, on 2007's In Rainbows, the music was just as interesting as all of the hoopla surrounding the album's impromptu, pay-what-you-will release. The King of Limbs cannot boast the same.

The nine tracks Ronson produced on Arabia Mountain (Deerhunter's Lockett Pundt helmed two; Black Lips produced five) show he's equally adept at plundering the garage, psych and punk treasure troves.

An old-fashioned countrypolitan album-and a really good one at that.

On Lazaretto, White rummages through his cart and emerges with fiddles, organs, slide guitars, and fuzz boxes powered by hand-cranked generators. And is that a leftover plate of Ennio Morricone's Western spaghetti? Indeed, it is, and if it all adds up to a better album than his debut, "Blunderbuss."

The result is an album that doesn't quite reach the heights of Vessel, but nevertheless serves as evidence that one of pop's most daring duos isn't about to slow down--even if that means running into a few walls.

While's new band Punch Brothers is building a case for bigger fame with the release of its second album, Antifogmatic.

The surprise on the set is how well the new music holds up against the vintage material.

Johnston delivers another album of nuanced and evocative tunes laced with vivid imagery and emotional depth.

You can question its originality, but the music hits hard.

Her lyrics feel like they're whispered directly into the ear; her guitar playing (the only accompaniment aside from the occasional flute) is even more meticulous. But the true leap is in the set's many quietly arresting moments.

Motion City Soundtrack's smart-aleck tendencies combine nicely with a harder sound on My Dinosaur Life, pushing the band back to its roots with enough twist to propel it in a new direction.

As an ode to nuptial bliss, the album is both ­convincing and surprisingly coquettish.

This album is one that begs to be lived with for a long period of time, its quiet details given ample room to germinate.

Overall, another solid effort from one of country's finest.

With Father, Son, Holy Ghost, the band has vaulted the equivalent of three albums ahead, taking the conciseness of the EP and confounding expectations.

The whole album has a pleasurable mix of lean, mean rock'n'roll and pensive ballads that reflect both the state of the world and the band's place in it.

In addition to Rubin's typically austere moods, the set features an all-star core of musicians (including members of the Avett Brothers) and Cash's tasteful renditions of the title track, Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times," Sheryl Crow's "Redemption Day," Tom Paxton's "Where I'm Bound" and Bob Nolan's "Cool Water."

On the new collection Williams is sharp-tongued, wide-eyed and warm-hearted as she blends domestic bliss with her usual propensity toward the dark and mournful.

He makes up for the lack of addictive anthems and playfulness with his impressionable stream of sentiments--our kryptonite, his superpower.

It's a lot to take in, but his aim is true as always.

Strict Joy maintains the relatability and sincerity that made the soundtrack to "Once" so compellin

Ross raps unhurriedly, encouraging listeners to mull over his every word. Teflon Don is one of this summer's blockbusters.

Recorded with polish and pluck at Nashville's Blackbird Studio, the 11 tracks on their self-titled debut set sound like they could've been captured at any of the family picnics or church services where the Secret Sisters honed their harmonies singing Doc Watson, Everly Brothers and spirituals.

The release is Sade's first new material in 10 years, but the act hasn't lost a beat.

"Crows" opts for a mostly stripped-down acoustic sound that provides the perfect setting for Moorer's marvelous, R&B-inflected voice.

Richly uplifting arrangements, dynamic percussion and an attention to vocals (some shared) that's intimately communal mostly make up for some excessive sentimentality and steel drums. But what's missing on the album is an obvious classic.

Cash not only infuses love into her delivery on the collection but also proves herself a supreme song stylist.

Battles still sound determined here to inject their precision-geared prog-pop with the kind of humor and adventure one rarely encounters among bands that possess chops like these.

Yo La Tengo has little to prove at this point in its 20-year career, but its dedication to expanding its sound without obscuring its songwriting formula remains impressive.

Underneath the Pine is at its best on songs like Got Blinded, Still Sound and Divina, with solid grooves and discernable melodies that leap out from the kaleidoscopic bramble.

A minor release for Curren$y still bests most major hip-hop releases, and this Pilot Talk sequel relishes in the rapper's expanding set of skills.

September has been a profoundly great month for new female vocalists in popular music, but Lorde is easily the most vocally striking and lyrically thought-provoking. Pure Heroine is honest and addictive.

A collection of unconnected-though certainly related-songs that traverse all sorts of Southern terrain and situations. The group's songwriting trio (mainly Patterson Hood) offers the usual array of potent guitar riffs, stomping hard rock and vivid lyricism.

Recorded in the garage of frontman Dave Grohl's home in Encino, Calif., the 11-song set is an explosive, high-octane burst of rock energy from a 16-year-old band that is tightly honed and righteously raw.

Helmed by producer T Bone Burnett, this is front-porch, rural and rustic country music. Nelson is perfect in this setting, however, as he brings his weathered but expressive pipes to percussion-less arrangements of such gems as Ernest Tubb's "Seaman's Blues," Merle Travis' miner's lament "Dark As a Dungeon" and the smooth stride of Bob Wills' "Gotta Walk Alone."

While Lamar dazzles with precise storytelling, Q conjures attention with brusque physicality. Both MCs are aiming for different marks, and although Q's style is too unkempt to produce an album full of clean shots, his misses on Oxymoron are often just as compelling.

With a career clearly on the ascent, Neon lights the way for Young's next move up.

The set is full of the Deftones' usual energy and showcases singer Chino Moreno's knack for alternating between screams and sweet vocal delivery over heavy, complex guitar work.

Though not as sprawlingly ambitious or experimental as the 2007 "The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams," Meshell Ndegeocello's eighth release, "Devil's Halo," neatly straddles a line between challenging and accessible, with some of the tightest and catchiest compositions she's yet brought forth.

More than anything, Wrecking Ball is a record with heart.

The 82-year-old singer/pianist's mordant wit retains its vintage charm. In fact, Allison probably could have sung any of these new tunes about aging just as credibly 50 years ago.

"Sun" isn't as cuddly as "The Greatest," but it finds Marshall continuing to evolve as an artist in intriguing and unexpected ways.

The oddball trio's new set is edgy and experimental, containing lurid imagery and bold use of dissonance.

The 14-track set's distinguishing characteristic is a soul flavor of the Muscle Shoals variety, a smooth fit given the role of frontman Patterson Hood's father, David Hood, in that community as well as DBT's own work with Bettye LaVette and Booker T. Jones.

The shimmery guitars and thundering rhythms of album closer "What Remains" show that the group does best when sticking to its own math rock genre

Reference points include Liars and The Fall, but Girl Band is very much its own beast.

The extent of K.R.I.T.'s achievement on his proper debut can be lost in the consistency of his output, but it is a stirring triumph nonetheless.

Reflection represents a promising first step for a girl group that has long been awaiting stardom and has quickly established itself as a wrecking crew of positive role models.

Reflective but never bitter, I'm New Here contains the musings of a poet wizened by hard luck.

Other guests include Linda Ronstadt ("A la Orilla de un Palmar"), Van Dyke Parks and Los Tigres del Norte (who both appear on "Canción Mixteca"). The result is as thrilling as it is enlightening.

Any listener who has experienced the emotions associated with a romantic split should appreciate the album.

This is an even better album than her last, with more consistency and variety.

Although Raekwon, Bun B and Birdman all turn in solid guest spots, Freeway remains in control and drops his most memorable lines since his 2003 debut, "Philadelphia Freeway."

Between the folds of intricate sound on Odd Blood float Yeasayer members Anand Wilder's and Chris Keating's expressive vocal harmonies, giving this seemingly disparate, indefinable music a clear identity.

Under the cover of midnight, Del Rey has been exploring big ideas about eroticism, drugs, myth, the empty promise of YOLO, what it means to be a woman, and the American soul.

Its fifth album is another successful step toward the mainstream.

In grappling with the sudden death of her husband in 2008, the U.K. singer/songwriter has crafted a remarkable set that includes influences from rock and jazz, rich instrumentation and lyrics that linger well beyond the first listen.

Two years and an overabundance of hype later, producer Ethan Kath and singer Alice Glass return with another self-titled set that corrects all of their debut's miscues and remains eye-popping from beginning to end.

The Weird One delivers the reprocessed goods, though it's his original tunes — done in the idiosyncratic styles of his favorite artists--that truly warrant repeat listening.

More than happy to engage the pop mainstream (once heard, the irresistible, day-glo chorus of "Superfast Jellyfish" is never forgotten), yet experimental enough to satisfy the hipsters, these cartoon characters just made the first 3-D album of the new decade.

Buoyed by a favorable divorce settlement, a baby boy and a newly released high-energy dance album, Flesh Tone, the recently single Kelis is ready to bring the boys back to the yard.

His Bob Dylan-esque voice combined with the hauntingly beautiful arrangement of the classical guitar throughout Admiral Fell Promises is hypnotic, trapping listeners in a melancholy spell of wonder.

Restrained, moody and subtle. It has its big footprint moments, of course, and there's an audible ambition that gives the album a crackling if slow-burning energy.

The missteps are few, but grave: on "Gimme a Chance," she transitions from bouncy rap to full-blown salsa, complete with Spanish singing, while the retro surf-pop of the Ariel Pink-produced "Nude Beach a Go-Go" confounds. And yet, both merely amplify how creatively combative Banks can be--especially when she focuses that energy into her music.

Neither a departure nor a return to Segall’s usual fuzzy form, Emotional Mugger asks a lot from the listener, and it doesn’t always ask nicely.

Luckily, Wale never spreads himself too thin on Attention Deficit and maintains the urgency of his mixtapes to ensure that the set contains little filler.

Given Kelly's absurdly effortless melodic flair, the result certainly satisfies. But Love Letter could use more of his effortless absurdity.

Willowy Los Angeles art-rock group Warpaint summons a remarkably heady atmosphere on its debut album, The Fool, which follows a buzzed-about EP released last year on Los Angeles-based indie Manimal Vinyl.

Deerhoof vs. Evil is more tentative than the group's best work, but its consistently dazzling musicianship carries the band as it explores different themes on a new label.