Giving seems to go on and on towards some distant, perhaps unreachable horizon.

The most noticeable thing about the new Xiu Xiu album is ... how disarmingly vibrant it sounds.

The time apart from one another has given the band a more expansive sound and Dirty Three have pushed themselves to create one of the most dynamic releases in the catalog.

The heart- wrenching emotion is credible and convincing, even though the uneasy undercurrents find Green's brand of the blues seem somewhat tenuous at times. Nevertheless, at this point in the trajectory, City & Colour manages to provide a pleasing musical melange.

A two-disc set documenting archival demos and an early live recording, The Singing Postman Delivers demonstrates that for the most part, John Prine's musical persona emerged fully formed.

The disc’s first half is most engrossing, especially the slinky, smouldery swagger of “Lady and Man,” which whips up funk intensity with explosive starts and stops. ... Late album tracks drift and drone, pillow-padded with angelic “oohs” and paced for motionless contemplation.

Chills on Glass may be rock viewed sideways, through a cracked mirror, after 48 hours without sleep, but it is till the recognizable thing. As such, it fits uncomfortably into the places you’ve made for rock, jarring you even as it feeds you.

If anything, Atlas sounds like a fully formed album from another era, complete with woozy harmonies, an assured shimmer and a constant jangle.

Sunbathing Animal offers up lucky-13 tracks and nary a stale song.

May seems destined for stardom, and given these compelling performances, she'll likely attain that stature soon.

Where The Action Is may not be the absolute rave-up the album title implies, but it is a remarkably incisive effort that ought to remind one and all what a singularly important ensemble the Waterboys were… and still remain.

With that, this Wrecking Ball is more about a carnival of living souls moving in solidarity than a giant iron orb meant to destroy.

Repetition and simplicity balance the sadly beautiful sounds on Wabi-Sabi; an eccentric album that will find its home with those who seek something creatively different in their music on a mellow, rainy day.

It all combines to create an album of magical (realist) splendor, a journey into a past which will always have more to offer each time you listen to it.

On Sun, Chan Marshall is so sure of herself that she's prepared to confront not just romance's injustice, but also the world's.

If, after four decades, Terms of My Surrender appears to take a change of tune, in Hiatt’s hands it’s a winning formula regardless.

Yes, this type of record has been done before, and arguably better, but there are still some powerful tracks on The Things.

Bid and his crew are real pros, totally confident.

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.

You almost can’t grudge Bishop for his globe-hopping, 9-5 shirking, guitar-buying existence when it produces music as wonderful as this.

Some of their ‘80s-style material also works in a pretty way (“Re-invent Your Second Wheel,” “BW Silence,” “Time Lock Fog”), but not so that you’re convinced that their collective hearts are in it.

Year of No Returning may not be the definitive post-Harpoons Furman record – he’s got another one coming this fall--but it is an album to build on.

The best of these songs, by a long ways, is "Counting." [...] Yet elsewhere, Ashin sounds like he's treading water, emoting floridly but to no real purpose over shiny, surface-y arrangements.

The result is a deeply humane album, it makes poetry out of the disappointments of daily existence and narrative out of the mistakes that people make.

That McCombs is seeking a specialized niche seems all too obvious, even though his sound flirts with being elusive.

The Universe and Me offers more evidence that, as time goes by, Guided By Voices’ other songwriter may be aging more gracefully.

Local Business represents a new chapter in the band's saga, but it's one you're better off skimming.

[A] gorgeous outing from one of rock's best pop-smiths.