This album is just a few hairs (a couple of tracks and/or segues) short of being a transcendent gem, or masterpiece.

The band manages to sound half-inebriated and unbelievably tight at the same time, a loosely strung collaboration that is, nonetheless, completely in sync.

With the ambitious Miracle Temple , Mount Moriah puts its own powerful stamp on a music that's faithkeeping in more than one sense.

It’s quite a gift to fans, too. Live in Memphis—which has a corresponding DVD available separately--finds Chilton, particularly, in good voice, his obvious playfulness all the more engaging given that he’s performing before a hometown crowd.

A vigorous, emphatic outing that offers little let up in terms of its energy and intensity.

Some of the songs here are better than others (even with more than four decades of hanging out with everyone from Willie Nelson to Keith Richards, there is only so much cred you can breathe into a Paul Anka song), but there is hardly any track here that hasn’t earned the right to stay.

The new album's a stunning return to, and expansion from, seminal Ubu form.

Ultimately, this is a record full of brilliant Richard Thompson songs given strong readings.

It finds her expanding her palette while resulting in her most diverse offering yet.

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.

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.

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

Mark Kozelek Sings Christmas Carols is a remarkably faithful, utterly transcendent take on what I will humbly submit is the beatific, unadorned side of Christmas music.... This is the holiday release of the year.

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.

Flumina is an arresting and beautiful work as deep and open as the body of water that graces its cover art.

Perhaps because there’s no bass (Primo! has added Amy Hill on bass since Amici), Primo!’s sound lacks a certain grind and tumult--it’s more Grass Widow than Good Throb--but it’s sharp and fresh and a lot of fun.

Cut for cut, Big Station is as strong a record as he's ever made.

Carlile has that unique ability to convey sentiments that can be both celebratory and circumspect, and on tracks like “Wherever Is You Heart,” “The Things I Regret” and “Blood Muscle Skin & Bone,” her declarations of devotion are sung with both assertion and affirmation.

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

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

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.

Untethered Moon may lack the shiny object-appeal of the band’s debut, or the epic brilliance of their major label debut, Perfect From Now On. But it showcases Martsch’s strengths and suggests an artist who, despite his qualms about universes micro and macro, has reached a comforting détente with who he is.

By focusing more on originality and the aural progression of this album, Neon Indian is clearly honing their craft and proving that the musical trend they helped to create, won't be going out of style anytime soon.

Muffs fans, then, are the ultimate winners here, as it sounds like Shattuck & Co. are having the collective time of their life.

Those unawares of Deer Tick’s five preceding efforts ought to make every effort to catch up. Likewise, those who appreciate the band’s quality and consistency will find Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 to be a perfect pairing, as compatible as their titles imply.

Spend enough time with Lost Time and you’ll find yourself singing snatches of lyrics about the west coast tsunami (“I Love Seattle”) or misogynist trolls (“The Internet”) in the shower. And, weirdly, it’ll be fun.

On the group's third full-length Love Will Prevail, Ragon earns his rightful place alongside the works of the underground icons he flips for profit.

Honky-Tonk is a Country Music album. No Alt required.

Live at Billy Bob's Texas is proof enough that he's still living up to his rep as one of the original Outlaws of Country, sitting firmly beside Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

The tenth Eels studio LP simply presents E's strengths as a songwriter and performer.

One of the best records of the year.

True, The High Country doesn't allow for the giddiest of circumstance, but if it doesn't break your heart, it may just steal it instead.

Backed by his acoustic guitar, a fiddle player, a bass and little else, Millsap’s record has a timelessness that will preserve it well years from now.

Not as prolific as some of his peers, it’s easy to forget what a great musician Wolf is. Thankfully, this new one serves as a fresh reminder.

If you like good tunes cranked up on pogo beats, you can hardly do better than Meltdown

The music on this remarkable record creeps up on you, and subtleties abound; with Burns' vocals mic'd very close and much of the instrumental flourishes occurring deep in the mix, it's an intimate affair.

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.

Albarn has just unveiled quite arguably the best album of his career--solo or otherwise--with Everyday Robots.

There's not an obvious departure from their last few releases, but there doesn't need to be as the band has settled comfortably into their sound.

As always, Mulcahy’s pastoral pop stirs up a delightful brew, both easily accessible and undeniably irrepressible all at the same time.

Modern Creation may not their best collections of songs--that honor is still held by 2012’s Enjoy the Company--but there’s still some damn fine tunes to be found here.

[Williams] remains agile, mobile and hostile as the Sadies choogle, twang and vamp behind him.

Royal Headache's debut begins in a pounding, pummeling riff-based rampage, all double-timed guitar strumming and frantic one-two drumming. "Never Again," the lead off track, runs as fast and hard and ragged as any punk anthem, taking the corners with two wheels off the ground.

Fondness for Jackleg only grows the more time you spend with it.

With its relaxing, wordless waves of pastoral hums and harmonies, LUX rightfully earns its place amongst such classic works by one of the great masters of sonic exploration.

The group's strongest, most challenging and most cohesive offering in years.

Costello, James, Mumford, Goldsmith and Giddens put their disparate origins aside and pull together as a team. They clearly own these songs, and ply them accordingly. Both credence and comradery play crucial roles here, elevating this effort to that of an essential acquisition.

Despite all odds, Into the Wide is Delta Spirit’s most driven effort yet, a rousing, riveting attempt to create an indelible impression.

Points in a direction that he'd almost certainly be wise to follow on future projects.

In sum, The Best Day is the Sonic Youth album that Sonic Youth fans feared would never happen in the wake of the band’s split in 2011.

If this is his starting point, his future seems limitless.

A progressive dance-pop album that, maybe because of her background, feels a heck of a lot hipper than what her new genre counterparts can offer.

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.

In crafting an album that’s filled with largess, they give their fans a work that genuinely seems destined for the ages.

If you’re looking for that next hooky, guitar-pop record you could do a lot worse than this.

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

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.

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

Museum of Love is a nonformulaic, hard to pin down, quirky and danceable album.

Willie Nile, at 67, can still paint a picture with words and burn the house down from the stage. Savor it.

Along The Way sounds remarkably fresh and vital, in fact, the mark of a gifted musician trying to incorporate his philosophical yearnings into a concrete manifestation that can be shared at will.

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.

The album teems with strong songs and performances.

Establishing her forceful new identity from the start, Goodman makes music with an infectious enthusiasm.

These salad days have been solid days for the Salad Boys, no matter how you toss it, making them a sterling addition to their musically rich NZ heritage. Pleasurable neural sensations are guaranteed.

Lovesick Blues is simply a beauty.

The words are as smart as they come, full of sudden puzzle-twists and casual apercus, the showy part of this musical enterprise. Yet the music is just as polished and fine, even if it takes a supporting role.

Some listeners might run screaming but the band's tenacity is admirable, which keeps it exciting.

All of Mess has an enjoyably menacing feel that will prove inviting to Liars fans and new listeners alike.

Returns to Valley of Rain, then, is a start-to-finish delight. It’s technically a re-do of the original UK cassette version of Valley of Rain, which had 11 tunes compared to the 10-song US LP.

Hospitality's debut is a sugar-rush of an album, albeit one given acerbic snap by Papini's delivery.

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.

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.

Aside from the nine-minute rambling of “Everything Has to Be Just-so,” (coming at the end of the first disc, making it easy to skip), McCombs pulls off the rare feat of a double-disc that never runs short on inspiration or steam.

A Wasteland Companion belies its foreboding title, largely eschewing the hushed introspection that's cast a pall over previous efforts in favor of, well, a sound that's at least marginally more hopeful.

Meat and Bone stands as quite possibly the band's best album to date. The Explosion breaks everything down to its root and reconstructs it all in a perfect way; it should show a generation of cool kids that may have missed him the first time around that Jon Spencer is among garage rock's main guitar slingers.

He's a modern master.

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.

You won’t be able to resist this delightful album’s charms, either. Don’t even try. Gabba gabba hey.

He’s brought the whole Destroyer vibe to an entirely non-Destroyer set of material, and you can feel the waves of cool detachment, of stylish artifice wafting off these tunes just the same as always.

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.

This is not a return to form, or a wild new approach, just another Steve Forbert album, which means a very good thing to have in the world.

Like a reincarnated Big Star, complete with sweet melodies that last for days and hooks sharp enough to piece flesh, the band's latest Foolish Blood (their seventh if you loop in EPs), is one of their strongest efforts to date.

The result is an album that’s unfailingly engaging, and, unsurprisingly, wholly exceptional at that.

Carolina is a gorgeous record, enticing and attractive, giving you its heart to hold and trusting you to treasure the experience.

Their self-titled debut was a good record, the follow up is a great one.

If you like drawling guitars and the springy thud of basslines, if you prefer sunny melodies dredged in fog and dissonance, Cool Ghouls is as good a bet as any.

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.

I Wake Up Screaming is an absolute delight, a rhythmically exhilarating, lyrically humorous, melodically intoxicating collection of thirteen terrific songs.

Ivan & Alyosha offer an emphatic combination of allure and affirmation that all but assures instant appreciation.

King Khan is, so far, pursuing a sound that is more huge than slick, and it sounds great.

There’s a lot here, all of it sounding exquisite.

Old Yellow Moon will be well worth remembering.

A tripped-out masterpiece of transcendental space fuzz that pays tribute to the ruins of Italy that goes beyond the headiest moments of Pink Floyd's legendary performance inside of that coliseum in Pompeii.

The band, seemingly surfacing out of nowhere has turned in an impressive dozen tracks with their first offering.

Needing to prove nothing, Goat have created one of the most definitive musical statements of 2016.

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

Heads Up could easily pick things up right where the band left off, as it elaborates upon the Warpaint dreampop while bringing in purposeful elements of dance-pop and post-rock.