The album is not terrible, just not terribly original either.

The see-sawing dynamic runs a bit ragged, ultimately.

For most, this will make superb background music for meditation or musing, a tangled tapestry that’s ideal as a soundtrack for seduction.

As evidenced by the rabid tones of Radium Death, his eighth album and perhaps his most demonstrative, Whitmore is both resolute and resilient.

NMA is the epitome of using focused musical imagination to properly exercise thoughtful narrative and controlled passion. Nearly 40 years on, New Model Army still burns as hotly as ever.

Whether the new album will get them anywhere close to the mainstream remains to be seen. Most likely it won’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t root for them all the same.

It’s exactly the kind of album you’d expect to emerge from a deserted cave full of records--dark, solitary, a little mad but extremely well-versed in musical style.

While not much new ground is broken on A Forest of Arms, and it fails to surpass 2012’s excellent New Wild Everywhere, something can be said for the additional polish the music gets from heavy string embellishment and rather refined production values.

Anchored by the fantastic production of longtime Interpol collaborator Peter Katis, the incorporation of drum loops, sampled dialogue a la Primal Scream's "Loaded" and textural Books-esque embellishments on songs like "Arise Awake" and "Another Chance" offers the sense of sonic adventure Interpol never entertained.

Perhaps the most tangible set of songs he has produced yet.

Not intended for the faint of heart, Is That You in the Blue? chides, challenges and relentlessly rocks.

Listening back on the first couple of releases, its obvious Alkaline Trio has learned to inject more melody into their songs over the years, though My Shame Is True is closer to their punk-ier sound than the last few efforts.

Conspired in their Windy City origins at Andy's grandmother's house, Gauntlet Hair the LP is otherwise a fantastical recording, a complete artistic metamorphosis from the pair's raw-dog early 7-inches for Forest Family and Mexican Summer that finds Andy and Craig refining their edge to reveal the silver lining behind their inherit sonic clutter.

The themes that combine to create this opus are also suitably sprawling, with subjects that touch upon key events and cultural touchstones essential to British history.

A welcomed, warm and quality return for Helio Sequence, Negotiations yet again unveils the superlative sonic possibilities of these talented gents and how their creativity perfectly complements each other.

At times, Pterodactyl wedges in too many layers, so that the parts blur together in a formless murk.

It's about evenly balanced between original material and covers that show Willner's and Faithfull's deep-catalog knowledge of pop music.

Dawson’s agility is remarkable to say the least, and despite the lack of additional embellishment, the music comes across as rich and riveting.

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

Stephens' voice is, as ever, quite compelling, as capable of guts and blues as of delicate trilling flourishes. She sounds stronger and surer than ever here.

What they do is ply their trade with heaping dollops of Muscle Shoals soul, fiercely funky grooves and southern rock swagger, all doled out in substantial doses on This River, that hang heavy with the humidity of Grey’s Florida homeland.

Sisyphus is ultimately as off the wall a release as you’ll likely encounter this year.

["Arkestra" is] a mess and a resolution all at once, a miasma shot through with clarity. The rest of the album is good, but if you need one reason to play it again, this is it.

You can’t help but feel a little let down that they didn’t experiment a bit more on this one.

The band’s latest evolution is bound to shed some fans of the old lineup, but the music here is interesting enough to attract some new listeners as well.

Fortunately, the band that helped establish the early indie ethos remains as odd and unrepentant as ever.

There are a few missteps here and there, most notably on the plodding "Witches Dream," and drum-heavy "Well of Love," neither of which fit well on this otherwise strong release.

For as much effort Keenan puts into the head-scratching, overarching plot of this project, he puts as much gumption into the music that, on its own, could illuminate an applause sign.