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

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

Finn's compelling without the usual bluster that provides him momentum--his voice never approaches its old roar but his nice melodic sense comes out here more.

The more I listen to Jonquil, the more I l-u-v these guys.

Shout Out Louds have produced a great, light-hearted and warm album that will lift your spirits, mellow you out and make you dance.

This is a well-crafted album that manages to reach some rare sonic ground save for a few missteps. The band works best when it is allowed to let the songs build and layer over one another.

Follow Me Home sounds like 1966, but like it’s happening all over again, organically and without premeditation, and it rocks.

A good rock record is a good rock record, and The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy is a good rock record.

With Eno at the controls, the Turbo Fruits straighten up, fly right and in the process bash out their most enjoyable work to date.

Strapped is a marked maturation from their San Diego start five years ago.

Yin & Yang is an earth shattering 45 minutes of street urchin dub punk that not only reveals This Is PiL for the anti-climactic milquetoast sham that it was, but re-establishes the true soul of Public Image as it was originally intended by the vast sum of its initial parts.

Yessir Whatever may not be as essential as other titles in the extensive Madlib library, but is definitely worth checking out if you dig the id of his art.

This music is big enough for a hall, but soft and heartfelt enough for the quietest corner.

Sweetheart of the Sun is something special, easily the second best album of their career.

Occupied with the Unspoken is a headphone trip that ultimately proves to be an enjoyable listen in spite of the complexity of its craftsmanship.

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.

A Place to Bury Strangers hadn't yet reached the point where it needed reinvention, but giving its sound a few well-considered tweaks pushes its creative momentum forward even faster.

With their latest offering Carry Me Back, the banjos are ringin', the mandolins are singing at the speed of a hummingbird's wings, the fiddles are sawed upon with vigor, and the fog of the Tennessee hills calls to all of us.

From the first few notes, it's clear that the duo's signature blend of worldbeat rhythms and ancient melodies with rich electronic atmospheres is still potent, if leaning toward the synthesized side of DCD's lush sound.

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.

This is a case wherein open minds--and some patience--are likely to be rewarded.

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

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.

[A] sensational self-titled release. Mixing the album’s overall tone with soul, rock, electronic, and hip hop, the album has a vibe that is something close to Mike Patton’s baby Peeping Tom.

The compelling 46-minute result shape-shifts with graceful ease, never losing touch with its pop song aesthetic.

The band seem as if they're still evolving and putting new ideas into play without a definitive idea of where they're heading. No worries though; Delta Spirit's spirited impulses are clearly capable of determining any new direction.

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.

The textures of this material will transport its listener in ways that few albums of its ilk have achieved in recent memory, implementing the hallowed harmonies embedded in the Sunday mornings of Coldwell's Catholic upbringing to a new level of impassioned cohesion.

Marr has become a more assured singer, which is one of several ways this album improves on Boomslang.

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

Band of Skulls has made a new rock and roll classic.

True to its title, Solid States is, again, a solid workman-like affair, flush with resolute integrity, catchy choruses and songs that sound tailor made for instant gratification.

Blue Songs has impressive diversity and variety.

Their strongest collection by far.

Playin' in Time With the Deadbeat is the right kind of challenge, its knotty twists and cranky attitude adding to the noisy, visceral thrills.

Somewhere along the line, this became an amazing band, and songwriting/arranging this masterful elevates Blur The Line to modern-classic status, fully justifying the 5-star rating applied at the top of this review.

Fortunately, most of the singers feel a kinship to Drake that comes through. They communicate that this is a cause worthy of their most thoughtful interpretive skills.

Admittedly, Taylor’s patented droning mantras can be a bit numbing when stretched out to an hour. But when his artistic vision hits exactly the right balance with his emotional thrust, it’s hard to imagine the music sounding any other way.

If Witching Hour was the finest apple the band ever produced, this is their finest orange. But as a whole, it probably is their best and most well-rounded record.

Sky Full of Holes is the perfect sound of a band staying within their comfort zone while not forgetting the power of the almighty hook.

Indigo Meadow is an assured, exciting piece of work.

There are no boundaries here to be broken, but there's clear indication of new-found confidence that obviously serves her well.

Melbourne is easy to listen to, but hard to make sense of.

An equally engaging sonic concept entitled Drums Between The Bells.

Like 2008's The Living And The Dead, Blood leans on judicious electric guitar solos, most often from Shahzad Ismaily, who co-produced the album, but also from Grey Gersten and, on one track, Marc Ribot.

Rhythm and Repose [is] the superb solo outing from Glen Hansard.

These 14 songs sound as wholly irresistible now as they did when they were such an essential part of a soundtrack for a now-distant decade.

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

Gone are the raucous “Whiskey River”-style jams, but in its place are an albums worth of lazy afternoon porch songs that you can’t help but love.

Ultimately, True Sadness is a confessional set of songs, revealing in many ways and vulnerable in many others. However, honesty has always been an inherent element in their sound, so in that sense this album’s no different.

New Wild Everywhere conveys a new maturity for the GLS, showcasing the assembled talents of the members, and highlights promises of even better things to come in their future.

Something this eerie has rarely sounded so enticing.

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

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.

Thomas' honesty, as much as any performance herein, is the commanding factor overall, making it easy, and in fact, all but unavoidable, to fall in love With Love.

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.

Those who loved the Del-Lords in the 1980s will be delighted, as should anybody who missed them but thinks passion, skill, and commitment are a pretty good combination in music.

The album is a holiday classic in waiting, even if you don’t own a single pair of skinny jeans and couldn’t grow a beard to save your life.

Taken in one extended listening session, Hold/Still proves titularly prophetic because you’re left exhausted from all the foregoing textural and tempo twists. One could liken the experience to ingesting a handful of lysergic tablets and then deciding to run a marathon that lasts all night. Once you’re done, you’re done for good. Hold still, kids.

Guitar player Wymond Miles plumbs deeper, existential questions on this four-song EP.

Hazed Dream is the perfect place for you to tune in and turn on.

Fennesz also instills a similar dichotomy with his score, as beautifully melancholic passages on grand piano and guitar interweave and flutter through the ether of his static-encrusted digital ambiance over 15 compositions of unsettling serenity.

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

The album is not a total departure from previous work, and their admirers will be elated at this crackerjack effort and the opportunity to live music the Strange Boys way once again.

Dreams Come True will certainly appeal to anyone who enjoys their new wave artful and avant-garde, both of which are delivered in spades across this exceptional LP that will surely be lost on many Grizzly Bear fans looking for an extension of their sonic safety net.

These songs may not scan perfectly or make much objective sense, but they feel very real and relevant and uncalculated.

The production may be a little cleaner, but the same knack for great fuzzed-out ditties is still there... a pretty good album.

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.

Happily, The Ghost of the Mountain succeeds in every respect, an album that sounds like the product of a group rather than simply a collaboration between like-minded associates.

With a sympathetic producer in Don Was, who worked with Ryder in the 1990s with his own Motor City band Was (Not Was), Ryder is able to make a late-career statement that stands tall alongside anything he's ever done.

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

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.

Danzig in the Moonlight represents a bold step forward.

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.

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.

He still has plenty to communicate, his music not losing any creative potency over the years.

There's plenty more good and bad.

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

Phillips' agile vocals sweep over these mostly ragtag arrangements and provide the emphasis and impact that each of these songs demand.

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.

On Ready to Die, Iggy & the Stooges sound hungry, ready not to expire but to prove something: that rock & roll is not dead and no one does it better.

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

Once just another also ran in a genre destined for obscurity, Jack's Mannequin have moved out of the emo ghetto and settled in nicely into a nice indie rock neighborhood.

On the second album by Minneapolis four-piece Howler, an energy level worthy of forebears the Replacements, Soul Asylum and even, in places, Husker Du is dialed up, making such tracks as the thrumming/thrashy “Indictment” and the hardcore-tilting “Drip” buzz around the listener’s head like so many hornets.

Easily absorbing subcurrents from Bollywood and bhangra ("Deeper Water") to fear-of-nature horror film soundtracks ("Out of the Woods"), This is PiL never wanders far from that fierce bass and pulsing percussion at its core.

At 21 minutes, these six songs come off like a moderately successful experiment, but an entire album might have been too much of a challenge to sustain.

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.

As far as songcraft is concerned, this may be Benson's most consistent record, and What Kind of World will induce ecstasy in the faithful and shocked delight in newcomers.

HEK’s second album makes him sound more confident, distinct and comfortable in his own skin but thankfully not more fancier than his 2011 debut.

Novak may keep his arrangements raw and his vocals tunefully challenged, but his songcraft improves with every tune.

Accessible to a fault, and exceedingly mellow to boot, it flows with a natural ease usually accomplished by those with far more track time under their belt.

Ostensibly a song-cycle about prep school kids spread over an 11 tracks, the close quarters become the sites of devotion, betrayal, communion (or near-communion), and abject loneliness. But relating to that isn't required to enjoy this rich recording.

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.

These songs are striking in a musical sense. Young, never the most dynamic vocalist, is remarkably expressive here.

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.

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.

A must-have item for collectors and die-hards, this is also good for casual fans that may not have all the classic songs in their collection.

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.