Promised Land Sound are clearly onto something special, and it’s going to be a fun ride to watch ‘em develop.

Urick is a remarkable electronic musician who pushes mainstream music to its outer limits, and as the listener explores those outer limits, expect goose bumps to appear on the skin.

Vee Vee is a ballsy record, and hard to love.

The Take Off and Landing of Everything is another fine release from a band that has yet to steer wrong.

America, is the most fully formed and thought-out of his albums, perfectly joining his concept of a free-form punk mentality with classically influenced structure and arrangement.

Tales of Us unveils yet again how talented Goldfrapp truly is as together Alison and Gregory continue to craft music that does not pigeonhole them into a set genre; they simply make exceptional music.

Hum-worthy ditties that suggest Artificial Heart is definitely the real deal.

As an official live document of what this guy and his compatriots are all about, I'd rank Live From Alabama among the great concert albums.

The fact this lost treasure is once again widely available in any capacity is reason to celebrate.

Though still unquestionably a powerhouse, Royal Thunder proves itself too versatile on WICK to be slipped into an easily labeled box.

It all sounds like the best kind of disco, but warmer and funkier and rougher around the edges.

High Bias is the best Purling Hiss album yet, channeling a tidal wave of noise into songs that you can remember almost immediately and even hum to yourself later when the album’s out of ear shot.

This is a very enjoyable round-up of shoegaze, shoegaze influenced and vaguely-similar-to-shoegaze bands, including some material you’ll know well and some that will likely be less familiar.

Kids in The Streets is just as charming and powerful as its predecessors.

Chock full of affirmation and illumination, Bright Side of Down is just the perfect pick-me-up for these frequently turbulent times.

Old Yellow Moon will be well worth remembering.

If this album doesn’t bowl you over, it doesn’t disappoint either and rest assured that their next record will be something different that you didn’t expect either.

Temple Beautiful is the product you expect from this highly original and creative artist.

Signs of Light fulfils the aim the band’s handle appears to indicate. This is after all, music that connects with the head and the heart, and imparts a dual sense of resilience and delight in its wake.

The easiest way to say it is that there’s no barrier between despair and euphoria in these songs--which contain both, equally, simultaneously and without contradiction.

Hexadic is a dramatic shift for Six Organs of Admittance, lurching into noise and abstraction with hardly a nod to guitar folk or psychedelic rock.

What a remarkable record--weird, yet compelling, in equal parts dissonance and luminosity; a seductive tease that nevertheless exudes the kind of warm familiarity that marks the best indie rock.

The operatics of her voice make it the most intriguing instrument on the album but the new exploration of violins and cellos that feminize the massive drum fills make Conatus even more astounding.

The Avett Brothers have established a singular style. And with it, a well-deserved reputation that assures their place among the best of the breed.

While Davenport and his crew aren’t doing anything here completely out of the ordinary (for them, anyway) with a batch of songs this strong it might stand as his best.

With its near-perfect balance of power and tunefulness, Carved Into Stone rumbles with tracks that practically define heavy metal.

These 12 songs can work individually or as a whole, depending on your mood and in the end they’ve done it again, one of 2014′s best.

Coming in at 11 songs, there is hardly a weak one on Go Fly a Kite and no real need to call out one track over the next, as all are pretty much worth the price of the album.