Young Magic transform their emulation into a transformation of a style that's like nothing else out there.

It's obvious at the outset they create a mighty bold impression all their own.

Sometimes controlled, occasionally chaotic, this new album packs a powerful impact.

The most conspicuous element of Last Summer is the simplicity of the music.

Fourth Corner is one of those rare releases that leaves its listeners wanting more.

These are songs that brush up against you softly, swirl up around you like a sweet smelling breeze and leave you wistful for things you can’t quite put into words.

Wolfroy Goes to Town haunts you quietly, in a private way that is, somehow, all the more devastating.

Not all of the songs are hits ("Met Before" falls way short as a flat, unmemorable filler), but it's much more cohesive and really helps Chairlift establish a more recognizable sound.

Reconvened 17 years later, Cardinal shows their hushed melodies and chamber pop sensibilities gel just as well now as they did originally.

As with so much African music, Né So favors hope over despair, proud defiance over inchoate anger, and stands as the most trenchant portrait of the African musical spirit so far this year.

For a moment or two here, Quilt sounds like a lost Pretty Things track, but as mentioned earlier, this is really their own unique creation. And it needs to be heard right now.

Doldrums have given voice to the psychology of the outsider, fashioning a work of art whose queasy, warped nature is just too hard to shake.

Like its celebrated, quarter-century old predecessor, Array 1 is the culmination of the group’s furious fusion of psychedelic crunch, ambient moan and motorik vroom, and a reminder of just how brilliant Loop is and always was.

It’s a gorgeous, unreal place that Mount Kimbie evokes on Love What Survives, but dissonance leaks in through the crevices.

It’s a wonderful soul inspiring, mournfully imbued compendium of her songs that will hopefully continue to inspire an even younger crop of musicians on into the future.

What they’ve found, is pop perfection, and Fifth is a contemporary gem.

Patterns of Light is a unique collaboration that gives what seems like conventional psych/prog rock a depth no classic band would have ever imagined. You may think you’ve heard something like this before, but trust us--you really haven’t.

Skyline reads as a series of tiny moments--not major life events but instead the beautiful, insignificant ephemera that falls away in the wake of life's progress.

Syd Arthur avoids any whiff of trendiness and just gets down to the business of writing and performing timeless music on its second record Sound Mirror.

The result is a musical summit in which all assembled sound like they’re having a whale of a good time. Indie rock was never so joyous.

Who is the Sender? is a beautiful piece of work from a veteran talent that world has finally woken up to experience.

Golden Sings both celebrates and transcends ordinary existence, finding revelation in small, perfect turns of song.

A defining blend of assurance and intrigue makes Calexico’s music come across as both so sumptuous and so surreal.

The 5 songs in 16 minutes breeze by, barely after you've had a chance to absorb them, leave you hungering for more.

Van Halen have found their dazzle without a hassle.

The change-up [writing exclusively on the keyboard] proved to be the best thing to happen for the duo, especially for Boeckner, a guitarist by trade whose embrace of the analog synth helped open a whole new world of expression for him as a songwriter.

As always, Russell's articulate arrangements embolden the material and give them the grit it deserves.

For a primer in what went right in the ‘70s prior to punk and hip-hop, you won’t find many LPs as successful at recapturing the diversity of those rich sonic playgrounds as Mangy Love.

Indigo Meadow is an assured, exciting piece of work.

Prophet can be, by turns, both snarky and sardonic, qualities the aforementioned forebears know all too well. Happily though, he himself is no slacker, especially when it comes to both sentiment and sarcasm.

Half a century later, Look Again to the Wind serves as a stirring homage to an album that remains as daring and defiant now as it was when it was first offered to an indifferent populace.

Only 8 songs here so they don’t wear out their welcome and know how to keep the fans wanting more.

The album in a nut shell? The Grand Theatre, Volume Two is the soundtrack to a chaotic night at the tavern followed by clarity the morning after--melodiously rowdy, then harmoniously depressed.

Whether they’re tearing through a raucous house burner (“Buffalo Nickle”) or serenading in quieter moments (“St. Anne’s Parade,” “This Ride”), Shovels & Rope manage to deliver a nearly flawless record. Yet again.

The trademark ingredients that turned Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass into seminal classics are retained via Olson's yearning vocals, the sun splashed harmonies and their adept meld of Americana, vintage West Coast rock, strings and psychedelia.

The Next Day is complex, pissed off and crafty.

Unlike Waits of late, she works hard to not let the songs become just moody soundscapes. She doesn’t always completely achieve this, but does so enough to make this a success.

GOB is heavyweight hip-hop from one of urban England's brightest new talents of microphone mastery.

The guitars still crunch as hard as ever, and Dan Peters’ drumming has that distinct set of accents that keep the anticipation high.

More than any previous Timber Timbre record, Hot Dreams simmers sonically with the chaos lurking just below these surfaces. Rarely does such calm feel so utterly foreboding.

Skelethon ranks among Aesop's greatest work yet.

Excellent.

How sharply Holland expresses his rage, how clearly his disappointment reveals betrayed idealism....Strong stuff.

Four albums in and Turnpike Troubadours show no signs of writer’s block.

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.

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.

With a solid collection of songs and some enormously creative and varied approaches to playing them, Stranger Me is the best work yet of an artist likely to continue growing further.

Taking the classic British penchant for hiding burning emotion with sardonic reserve and painting with expertly sculpted craft, Howard turns & the Night Mail into a new classic.

Overall, This is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983 may just be the definitive Lone Justice recorded experience.

Burn Your Fire For No Witness is a mutual journey in every sense of the term, the signpost of a brave new artist right on the cusp of greatness.

Abandoned Cities is gorgeous and disturbing and a bit chilling, like old photos hanging on walls about to be demolished, like memory, like loss, like loneliness experienced in the midst of family life.

If you’ve ever fantasized about Hawkwind going motorik, Rehumanizer is your dream come true.

Given the jam-friendly group’s propensity for live euphoria but recorded disappointment, it’s a relief to hear that the Hiss has finally hit its stride in the studio with Water On Mars.

The music appears deceptively simple and unabashedly blithe at times, but regardless, the emotional undercurrent clearly comes through.

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.

Gallon Drunk’s whiskey goes down rough on The Soul of the Hour, but the lingering after-burn is the best part.

Everything [on Dismania] has weight. And makes just about anything (other than the examples cited above) that's been calling itself Retro/Garage/Psych Rock sound, suddenly, rather tame.

Over The Rhine have made their masterpiece at last.

Seasons on Earth is like a wry, forgiving smile set to music, its pleasures veined with melancholy, its ruefulness buoyed by hope.

Their often-dark songs have a triumphant dimension.

Danzig in the Moonlight represents a bold step forward.

Mostly it's hard to say what puts Veronica Falls over the top in a genre where so many fall flat. Enthusiasm? Personality? Songs? Probably all of that, as well as the indefinable quality that makes old genres come alive again.

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.

Still Living has its share of baroque pop moments, but its strongest songs are the ones that rock the hardest.

The fifteen tracks that make up the record are soul shaking, dark, emotive and moving in a way that would have Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits sipping their whiskeys in agreement.

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

[Swing Lo Magellan] is instantly likeable. It makes perfect sense, but unravels into nonsense and complexity on second glance.

Give Me All You Got is as seductive and enticing as its name implies because clearly, Rodriguez is giving all she has as well.

Chain Letters is a solid album and Big Harp brilliantly adds to the growing plethora of artists crafting stark, raw music that strikes the core.

There's a tip towards tradition that boasts more than a hint of reverence as well

It is great to hear them testing out other feels without losing an ounce of the consistency that has made them to toast of Chicago for all these years.

File Provider with the best of Damien Jurado and Mark Kozelek, fellow travelers in the world of darkly compelling, unassumingly poetic acoustic ballads that are quiet but never soft.

Across eleven cuts Parallel Thought utilize their deep knowledge of Del's Elektra years to weave a beautifully updated pastiche of early '90s throwback grooves.

No surprises, but impeccably predictable.

Recorded in the far reaches of the Australian Outback, it reflects those dusty environs in its stripped-down arrangements and traditional tomes.

This isn't the sound of a once-renowned band trying to cash in on their glory days; it's the sound of a band invigorated.

Unassuming and uncluttered, Television of Saints is intimate yet expressive, as if birthed on a breeze.

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.

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

Komba, the band's third album, ups the techno factor from 2008's Black Diamond, pushing Buraka's infectious kuduro-samba-house-rave hybrid into shinier, more modernistic directions.

These songs show a band in its prime-and cast a much wider net of influences, finally shaking that garage band label, bringing in folk, country and some damn fine bar room rock.

What's been created across this baker's dozen tracks is nothing short of a poignant, powerful referendum on the state of modern England that cements CG's place as one of the finest and most resilient indie acts to emerge from the UK.

This is more adventurous fare but never forgoes its footing in melody land--well, with the exception of the off-putting "Rolling," a short track that unfortunately opens the record and sounds like a symphony warm-up with six instruments headed in different directions.

Yes, it's a fine album.... It's during the songs that shift the focus from chaos to ethereal mirth that the listener can fairly wonder about whether this album should be judged as simply a regular new offering or an (almost) lost treasure.

[Raitt] mostly returns to the quality soft-rock she perfected in her early solo career, but juices it up with hot guitar solos on almost every song.

Their latest full length, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Anger, is another dozen or so satisfyingly original tracks by what could possibly be your next favorite band.

Her Space Holiday brings together all the key elements of Bianchi's decade-and-a-half of coloring outside the lines of the pop infrastructure to deliver a swan song appropriately fitting for his underrated one-man-act.

Fans of his [Drive-By] Truckers tunes will find much to love here.

Wildlife has the feel of both a consolidation and an introduction, as the band runs every permutation of the underground guitar rock it loves through the ringer of singer Joe Cardamone's singular vision.

The music that survived war, immigration and poverty flourishes even among the hipsters, a happy ending for a tale of struggle.

This is a wonderful, subtle album, whose songs seem simple at first, but open up and grow more interesting on repeated listens.

This tribute album isn't strong enough to be awarded its own two-prong crown (the Fleetwood Mac equivalent of 10 stars), but it's got enough surprises and excitement to keep the genre interesting.

The constant shifts in tone and temperament ultimately affirm Orton's unpredictable instincts, and give Sugaring Season a sweeter appeal.

It might not qualify as a lost classic, but Social Climbers' sole output does celebrate a band who played what they felt, even if it meant being ostracized by both the sub-underground and the masses.

The melodies aren't so easily embraced; loping, ephemeral and often sounding blithely disconnected, they defy any attempt at grasping an easy hook or chorus. What's more, the loose grooves sometimes run counter to the tunes' sense of profundity.

Voyageur resonates with the kind of drama and daring that Edwards has been perfecting all along.

Like finding a paisley underground in a rain forest, listening to Noctuary will alter your perceptions and give you a chocolate brain melt in a most satisfying way.

Twenty-five for the Rest of Our Lives, their latest, is by far their best to date.