Pop elements ensure that Musostics works pleasantly enough as background music, but it is also complicated enough to reward more concentrated listening.

Falling Off the Sky is a fresh start for the band that many of us thought should have dominated the 1980s. Clearly, they still have the chops to dominate the 2010's.

Easily absorbing subcurrents from Bollywood and bhangra ("Deeper Water") to fear-of-nature horror film soundtracks ("Out of the Woods"), This is PiL never wanders far from that fierce bass and pulsing percussion at its core.

Jackson's love for Ellington but unwillingness to play it safe puts The Duke much closer in spirit to its inspiration than rote copies of originals would ever have done.

There's a sadness, a backwards-looking air to Tarnished Gold that's new. Once the Sparks' hallucinatory trippery signaled youth's endless possibilities. Now their songs, even the new ones, are filtered through a golden, dust-moted, late afternoon light.

An exciting and distinct new spin on the dreampop revival.

Surprisingly sedate for a final blow-out, Throw It to the Universe sends The Soundtrack of Our Lives down the road to retirement with beauty, class and grace.

An 18-track adventure into the joyous heart of classic African funk as colorful as the jacket it is dressed in.

A more subdued release, Happy To You is nonetheless quite mesmerizing in its methodical and complex layers of music.

Sure, Kool Keith lets some profoundly dumb lyrics loose on Love and Danger, but they all seem in service of some improvisational rope-a-dope that ultimately finds him landing a knockout punch.

Interspersed in between the renditions throughout the course of Accelerando... are five outstanding Iyer-penned performances.

No One Knows is a subtle album, one that requires time and patience to allow its hooks to sink in.

It's an A-list of contributors for sure, but what's most impressive is how Hogan makes each offering her own.

[The Cherry Thing] serves as a reminder that Neneh Cherry is a certifiable musical treasure.

It has the breadth, intelligence, mystery and ambitious arrangements of a major work. With 19 songs, it's maybe a touch too long, but almost every song is vivid in its poetry and instrumental coloration.

No, that's why God made the CD player's "skip" and "program" buttons.

Once again breathing new life into an old form, The Sugarman Three are back to show us all How It's Supposed To Be Done.

Generals has some gems of its own, but take a bit more digging to find.

More studio sympathy and less technical trickery might've made The Bravest Man in the Universe a minor classic.

Tucker has a remarkable grasp of melodic, psychedelic pop; his album - 35 minutes of pure psych power - will stimulate the senses and take one's mind elsewhere.

At its most affecting What We Saw from the Cheap Seats is a sad and touching record, filled with love and the memory of .... Parts of [the album] feel either disposable or a revisiting of old ground.

Shows him clearly confident on his own.

Japandroids sophomore effort is loaded end to end with great songwriting and the joy they've found in their influences.

Few albums dare to even come close to this stunning degree of grandeur, but with Here the Magnetic Zeros not only raise the bar, but easily scale it as well.

If you dig big choruses, the sound of a heart breaking and just the right amount of sweat on your brow, then Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It is for you.

Cut for cut, Big Station is as strong a record as he's ever made.

A breezy, but challenging mix of pop and folk rock songs.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse just never disappoint.