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.

Don’t look for fireworks here, but rather smaller, quieter revelations that take time to unveil themselves.

Above the Prairie unfolds as a series of shimmering, seductive soundscapes that effectively convey the other-worldly imagery asserted in its title. Within this beguiling set of songs, a dream-like scenario with a nocturnal gaze unfolds.

Wild Chorus stays true to its title as it winds its way through a series of sensuous yet spunky duets.

Iyer really makes an effort here to highlight all sides of his musical skills, letting two decades of experience boil into an exceptionally tasty dish. Iyer has already proven himself a jazz master, but with Far From Over, he takes his talent as composer, player and bandleader to new heights.

Ufabulum easily stands as his strongest and most consistent work since Go Plastic.

Life Is Fine boasts some of Kelly’s best lyrics in years.

The overall sound feels live, where Van's ear-splitting power chords might drop out briefly during a verse, only to return right when it's time to drive things home.

Eleventh Dream Day acknowledges its past and could fit in comfortably with the big dogs.

Not flawless, but damn it’s still a fine effort from beginning to end.

Instead of dramatic tempo shifts or sing-along choruses, the songs rely on subtle texture and tempo changes that, in context, wind up carrying far more weight than they would in another setting.

Like most prolific artists, Willie can be hit or miss with his offerings. This latest one lands the target dead on.

Tha Funk Capital Of The World, is one of his best ever records as a front man and one of the most outrageously funky records released in years.

This is a rare album that is upbeat while also showing an emotional side that we all have felt from time to time.

Citizen Zombie resurrects a band that’s still evolving, rather than a nostalgia act, and is all the better for it.

The Alvins don’t tamper with Broonzy’s basic template, and truth be told, their feisty renditions of “All By Myself,” “Key to the Highway,” “Big Bill Blues” and practically every other song on this set sound as if they’re of a vintage variety.

These two LPs still sound vital two decades later, just as the copious musician tributes and journalist essays in the accompanying pamphlet declare.

Staunch and undeterred to the brink of defiance, Complicated Game finds McMurtry’s rugged resilience again setting the tone.

Contraband pushes Taylor's music forward, if by short, measured steps, and the qualities that make him the 21st century's classic bluesman keep his sound deep and true.

There are 13 terrific cuts out of 15, and the album does it's job of demonstrating that the 5 Royales deserve reconsideration.

The combination of energies is so seamless that it’s hard to say where Oneida leaves off and Rhys Chatham begins, and yet, both artists seem to benefit from a push outside their regular territory.

All this noise stays in service of the songs, which remain as self-reflective and personal as ever.

One imagines certain purist fans recoiling and dropping out while a host of newcomers discover ‘em.

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.

While Memoryhouse might be demographically marketed to the youngsters, there's something in the retro-alternative beauty of The Slideshow Effect that aging Gen-Xers raised on the golden age of college radio might appreciate a little more.

She long ago proved herself worthy of the family legacy, but Carter Girl would be a highlight of her substantial discography regardless of familial stamp.

The music is superb, but it’s Mead’s subtle, witty lyrics that really take center stage on this record (like all his previous solo offerings).

Waiting for Something To Happen is an excellent record.

Club 8 exist in their own bubble and continue to make music for themselves. You can’t fault them for that, on the contrary, they deserve your deeper respect for it.

What you end up with on End Times Undone, is a trance-y, pop-psych, hypno-rhythmic romp that showcases a group of players that have magically meshed into a single hive-mind, behind the very talented Mr. K., at the top of his game.

Freeclouds balances strummy, acoustic campfire sensitivity with sweeping, anthemic rock a la sometime tour mates in the War on Drugs, tipping both styles into wild, mildly psychotropic territories.

The Something Rain is not just the band's best since they reconvened in 2008; measured against their earlier work, these nine songs shadow the younger Tindersticks in all kinds of compelling ways, trading in youthful adventure for expert-like craftsmanship.

Vile’s drawl communicates isolation with a contradictory urgency. Somehow, Pretty’s spiritual resignation sounds like an invitation.

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

Like all of his best work, Fantasizing About Being Black makes an impact on the soul that will be felt until the end of one’s days.

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.

With electronic pop maverick Lawrence English producing, they have, if not exactly tamed their sound, at least neatened it up.

He and his group put everything they could into every track--or at least the every one collected here.

Impossible Truth feels like both an empirical observation and an epiphany, a glimpse of the glow behind the world itself.

The musicianship is so uniformly good that you forget about it and allow yourself to be swept onward by the songs.

Howl is an unequivocal roots recording, an evocative combination of Bluegrass celebration, deep bottom Blues and total allegiance to authentic Americana.

While the intricacies of Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads could be exhausting to a casual listener, those with attentive ears will be enamored by the myriad sonic nuances present in the album.

With her almost stream of consciousness talk-sing, some melodies on Somewhere Else are better formed than others. Like Patti Smith her songs can be as strong ultimately as the care invested in her hooks.

Something More Than Free is like a novel set to music, each of its 11 songs a separate chapter that, when absorbed in full, leave you with the same kind of psychic shift a good book sets into motion.

Votolato’s new album, inexplicably titled Hospital Handshakes, offers yet another example of his considerable skills, a collection of songs that fires up an urgency that extends from first song to last.

The songs, then, range from spare, acoustic folk blues to full-fleshed extravaganzas, yet even the most dizzying tracks have an introspective cast.

Why Make Sense revels in ‘80s dance, R&B, hip hop and pop throughout straddles between sheer musical delight and melancholy as the upbeat music balances earnest lyrics.

Hearing it all together, over four discs, his innovations don’t seem as radical as they might have been considered at the time, but they’re nonetheless fascinating to devour.

False Flag was a raging, hairy monster of an album; Formerly Extinct is its subtler, more intricate, better groomed (but no less wild) cousin.

The production, composing, arrangements, and playing makes A Kind Revolution something uniquely special in the Paul Weller catalogue. Weller is a talent like no other, and you will not be disappointed.

Marrying Beam’s continued interest in keeping the beat moving with some of the strongest folk/pop melodies he’s yet composed, Ghost on Ghost evolves Iron & Wine music even further into the realm of the mystic.

An exciting and distinct new spin on the dreampop revival.

A journey as personal as Lowe’s can only translate into universal messages that people receive in their own way, regardless of which way their winds blow.

Terraplane, though, is the sound of a man utterly rejuvenated.

Dispossession works as a whole, rather than a collection of songs.

Earle has proven that he can embrace the past, look forward to the future and find peace through his music.

Having not lost a single step, Failure is as potent a force now as it was when its style of music was king.

The operative term, then, is explosion, and the JSBX effectively conjure the jittery, edgy, colorful vibe of the city they live in.

Far from sounding like lesser cast-offs, the songs here are just as worthy as anything off those earlier albums.

Superbly performed, the show is recorded with perfect clarity by NPR’s engineers, and packaged with an extensive booklet of essays and photos. Truth, Liberty & Soul is no barrel-scraping collection of effluvia, but a vital addition to the slim catalog of a genius.

Mr. Impossible [is] a record that shows a band evolving, as it embraces full-on melodicism with a cheeky goofball spirit.

They’ve been in the long-form, drone-and-drift mode for a while now. It’s nice to hear them rock out a little, too.

There’s a sense of importance and profundity that emanates from practically every groove. Stirring, striking and flush with tunefulness and tenacity, I’ll Be Your Girl is more than a promising proposition.

As exhibit A in a case made that Shuggie Otis is an overlooked talent, Inspiration Information + Wings of Love present powerful evidence.

With breathy singing and lush production as the connecting skein, Stupid Things That Mean the World puts Bowness firmly on the same level as David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel and other masters of adapting high art to accessible pop.

["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.

The Men almost casually demonstrate a mastery of song-based rock & roll that usually comes from decades of work.

Practically vibrating with the will to realize its ambition, Crime & the City Solution finally produces its masterpiece.

Williamson’s voice is arresting, a haunted amalgam of Karen Dalton and Tanya Donnelly, but don’t it distract you from her very fine guitar work.

Harding's adept at melding a simple slice of life with irresistible refrains, and that's what allows The Sound of His Own Voice to soar ever so sweetly.

Power pop may not be as ubiquitous or even as relevant as it was in the Raspberries’ prime, but it still can be done well... just ask Mikal Cronin.