The music on this remarkable record creeps up on you, and subtleties abound; with Burns' vocals mic'd very close and much of the instrumental flourishes occurring deep in the mix, it's an intimate affair.

Perhaps for the first time ever on a Chili Peppers record, it is Flea who takes the reigns as the lead instrument here, going Jaco all over this mofo so to speak, which ultimately proves to be this album's saving grace.

This collection should be as essential to your listening rotation as your favorite album from any of the bands who continually drank from the unique brand of introspective intensity pioneered by these unsung heroes of indie rock's mean season.

Flumina is an arresting and beautiful work as deep and open as the body of water that graces its cover art.

The album is a holiday classic in waiting, even if you don’t own a single pair of skinny jeans and couldn’t grow a beard to save your life.

For their third album together, John Elliott, Steve Hauschlidt and Mark McGuire bring the same sense of fearless adventure to them modular synths, creating a seven-song cycle unlike anything in the Emeralds canon yet.

Wussy reaches for transcendence and finds it. You wish it would go on forever.

Simply said, this Little Bird soars.

It is a flavorful fusion as unique as the Yugoslavian Spomenik that graces the cover of his eponymous full-length debut on Fat Possum - and one that stands apart from the seemingly endless barrage of home-recorded acts who have posted their wares on Blogger, Bandcamp and Tumblr these days.

Segall pushes things towards 11.

Jamal continues to spin gold from the bench of his baby grand with Blue Moon.

Given this combination of tangled travails and expressive voices, it's hard to imagine any way these songs might be better served.

What we have here is another excellent Chris Smither album, reason enough for celebration.

That's the modesty and humility typically missing in all those acclaimed geniuses. But it's precisely what allows Henry access to the truths that make his songs unforgettable.

Slippery, shimmery, beautiful songs.

If Witching Hour was the finest apple the band ever produced, this is their finest orange. But as a whole, it probably is their best and most well-rounded record.

Silver Age is another peak in a career full of them, and it's due to the quality of the material Mould uses to construct the suit, rather than the classic cut of the design.

The record is a stellar collection of power pop rock songs.

Akin to For Emma, Bon Iver breaks the listener's heart. And to experience an album (an oft-dreaded sophomore album, no less) that evokes such deep emotion is a welcomed pain.

As always, the pair wrap their strings and larynxes 'round each other like the intimate companions they are, aided by production so warm and inviting it's like sitting in the room with them.

Never before has there been a band that has brought all those elements [Crazy Horse, Television, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Dream Syndicate] together in a manner so crafted and explosive as these kids do with their fevered compound of ragged rock and summertime roll.

Taken as a whole, the two-CD incarnation of Life's Rich Pageant makes a case for the album taking its rightful place alongside such obvious classics as Murmur and Out of Time.

Live at Billy Bob's Texas is proof enough that he's still living up to his rep as one of the original Outlaws of Country, sitting firmly beside Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

Biophilia is a delicate and highly tactile treat, a unique gem of innovation (pipe organs driven by computers, the mallet-tickled gameleste) and gentle real soul whose breathy endearing heights Bjork hasn't touched in a minute.

These fourteen songs bob and weave, rise and fall and generally make a first class racket in the best way possible.

All nine of these slow-moving cuts are built on actual melodies, simple enough to stick right away, radiant enough to hang like this album's overtones, well after they are finished.

Far from nailing down who he is or what he’s attempting in this second self-titled album, Ty Segall seems to be trying all different things. Good for him.

If this is his starting point, his future seems limitless.