If you’ve never experienced Lucinda Williams before, this is a discovery worth making and music that will live in your heart and mind long after the disk stops spinning.

There is nary a pair of finer testaments to the purity of the original SP sound than the group's first two albums, both of which have been beautifully remastered and generously expanded [here].

1970-1975 You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything is as inspiring as its title implies and absolutely essential to boot.

Every bit as riveting as the groundbreaking music is the ever-present studio chatter.

The good folks at Shout Factory didn’t opt to only offer these discs a second time around, but instead provided added enticement via two bonus extras, a stunning live recording from Nashville’s Polk Theater, recorded around the same time as I Feel Alright, and a live DVD from the Cold Creek Correctional Facility where Earle had earlier been incarcerated.

Skeleton Tree is a testament to his art, his flaying honesty and his persistence in the wake of devastating loss.

Copper Blue is essential.

Icky Mettle rocks. Hard.

Taken as a whole, the two-CD incarnation of Life's Rich Pageant makes a case for the album taking its rightful place alongside such obvious classics as Murmur and Out of Time.

The remastered discs sound great.

Since that time in 1991, U2 has had other weighty tracks, sensualist personal soliloquies and dense production - but nothing better than this truly real thing.

Taken in tandem, both CD and DVD provide an intriguing look at an album that ranks as one of the most dramatic accomplishments in modern Rock realms.

A magical must.

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.

Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (Nonesuch/Perro Verde) ranks not only among his very best releases, but among the best socio-political albums ever made.

There’s rarely been an addition to Cohen’s canon that couldn’t be deemed essential, but in truth, none could be called more revelatory or revealing than this.

This collection should be as essential to your listening rotation as your favorite album from any of the bands who continually drank from the unique brand of introspective intensity pioneered by these unsung heroes of indie rock's mean season.

They represent such a cool transitional period in Davis's career, as radical a creative juxtaposition to the jazz community as Bob Dylan blowing the minds of the folkies with the crackle of a guitar amplifier.

The the three original albums -- I Just Can't Stop It, Wha'ppen? and Special Beat Service, from '80, '81 and '82 respectively, still hold together well....The Complete Beat offers completists an ideal opportunity to ditch that well-worn vinyl and get in the groove with a compendium that puts all the music in one place.

Another exquisite solo performance entitled Rio.

Ork Records: New York, New York opens a window to the past that you can’t go through or even really see through, but it is just wide enough to let the music in and that is a very good thing indeed.

Isidore doesn't really feel like a "side" anything. It's a main event.

There are any number of landmark albums that critics are quick to label as essential, but given the fact No Depression jumpstarted an entire genre, none deserve that label more. The kudos earned by this good Uncle are clearly well earned.

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

The label unearthed a stellar collection of songs the band recorded over two night in 1968.... The CD set capturing all four shows is where you should spend your money.

With this supremely supple and joyous display of early innocence and promise, Aztec Camera showed they already come into their own.

Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, they provide the clearest picture of what Gira and Swans are trying to do.

Co-written and produced by his missus Kathleen Brennan, Waits' songs--Bad as Me included--find their center immediately and stick like a record's skip.

Interspersed in between the renditions throughout the course of Accelerando... are five outstanding Iyer-penned performances.

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.

[An] excellent record that anyone who wants to hear the graceful way by which hip-hop should age should add to their collections right away.

While none of the songs are deeply political or poetic like the wartime bands that predated Tame Impala, they are no less poignant and often delve into a reflective sadness of longing to belong.

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

The finished product is a beautifully fluid fusion of dub, jazz and micro-house zone-outs that continues to exemplify Oswald's two-decade strong aptitude as one of the great masters of repetitive groove theory.

He may not be looking to “kill Saturday night” anymore but, with Upland Stories, Fulks has composed songs that are richer and more rewarding.

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.

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.

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.

Listening to this stunning album will provide you with your own moment of clarity. Don’t let it slip away.

As the title suggests, The River & The Thread manages to surge and sway all at the same time. Indeed, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Workbook 25 is his masterpiece.

[The Seer is] everything for which Swans stands, wrapped up in one intense package.

The word “essential” is bandied about quite a bit these days in reference to landmark recordings. Yet, here it applies in every sense. CSNY 74 is one for the ages.

This is a dazzling album, steeped in soul and brimming with an uncommon musicality, all rhythmic urgency and compelling melodies and anthemic choruses.

Ultimately American Ride resounds like a victory cry--urgent, enduring and unfailingly affecting.

No other LP is more evocative of the raw essence of the Smashing Pumpkins' unique fusions of feels than this ten track collection, by far and away the most collaborative album in their canon.... This deluxe edition of Gish is chock-a-block with quality bonus material.

Jamie XX has rearticulated dance music once again. This is an album that surfs from one emotional peak to the next. It’s an album I was actually sad to have end.

These slow-rolling, Southern-bred sentiments serve him well, and indeed Gone Away Backward appears to be a fine step forward.

Though still unquestionably a powerhouse, Royal Thunder proves itself too versatile on WICK to be slipped into an easily labeled box.

All the Bon Iver albums sound like little self-contained islands, and this is the one that sounds the most like a fire ravaging through the greenery and growth of the previous two. Sit back and let the flames burn bright and beautiful.

The result of the collaboration is a gorgeous set of songs set in late-night bars after work, as denizens tell their stories with the appropriate tenor of resignation and hope.

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.

Akin to For Emma, Bon Iver breaks the listener's heart. And to experience an album (an oft-dreaded sophomore album, no less) that evokes such deep emotion is a welcomed pain.

Despite the duplications from previous collections and a heavy emphasis on dubious alternate mixes, true devotees will likely still find Made in California an essential acquisition.

He came out the other side with a hard-won wisdom, emotion and sense of craft that, like soul music, never goes out of style.

The album is a good beginning for Will Toledo and crew one on which they’ll hopefully build upon. Some of the tracks though seem too reek of an “indier” than thou attitude that’s best left at the door.

To fully appreciate the album, it needs close attention. The magic comes when the members of the quartet start bumping each other up to the next musical level, and it helps to discover the steps they take to do that.

Vee Vee is a ballsy record, and hard to love.

What is the Meaning of What is a copious groove intensive monster of a dance-punk record.

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.

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

Somehow It’s Great To Be Alive seems like the essential set, given that it boasts some 35 tracks spanning all phases of their collective career. It shows them in their true element--raucous, raw and unapologetic, a combination certain to appeal to diehard devotees and practically anyone else whose taste in music is generally affirmed by frequenting sweaty beer joints and any local roadhouse bar.

To The Sunset becomes a new plateau in a career that’s grown steadily and assuredly since the start. Indeed, its importance ought to grow over time given its unabashed enthusiasm and its unabashedly seductive set-up.

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

For beautiful execution of a beautiful idea for a tribute/concept album, try The Beautiful Old: Turn-of-the-Century Songs.

Granduciel’s songs envelop you. As soon as you understand the lyrics for one song, another song buries words in hushed reverb.

His ability to arrange is masterful and, on Way Out Weather, he establishes this sort of psychedelic roots sound that exists outside of about any recognizable genre or even sub-genre.

This album is a triumph, and with it, Protomartyr has pulled off the unlikely feat of making the rock record of the year, twice in a row.

While it has been out in their native land since January and only recently been made available in this country through tiny New York-based What's Your Rupture?, this 12-track typhoon is exactly the kick in the ass our sorry punk community needs in the wake of Jay Reatard's untimely death.

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.

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

What we have here is another excellent Chris Smither album, reason enough for celebration.

A treasure chest of riches that provides considerable new perspective on the band's processes and progress through the years.

Kozelek replicates the rhythm of our lives, the tricks of memory, and the portents we later find in seemingly banal moments.

The lack of anything that’s decidedly uptempo may be a detriment to some, but the blend of strings and acoustic instrumentation more than compensates for the subdued stance.

Though there are some slow-burners on this record; songs that might not stick on the first or second go round, they are worth the patience once they finally click with the listener.

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

Pink City is her prettiest, most cohesive work yet. It’s well-constructed enough to showcase the weirdness that crops up in her songs without making her seem like a novelty act.

Good News is an immediately infectious work.

Patty Griffin has clearly been saving the best of her own material for a long time, making this perhaps her finest hour.

Steven Wilson has remixed the entire original album for this “Elevated Edition,” so Tull trainspotters will no doubt thrill to the opportunity to debate, anew, the myriad sonic nuances, nooks, hooks, hobbit-holes and crannies afforded by contemporary studio technology compared to a decade and a half ago. In one sense, the Swedish show is the main draw here--it’s been bootlegged extensively, but never with sound quality this superior.

Leonard Cohen has made the best full album of his career (song for song, sound for sound, lyrical point for point; yes, this is true) and most certainly the best album of 2012.

In the end, Pure Comedy isn’t anything close to the laugh fest the title implies, but it does provoke a deeper reaction regardless.

There were many musical spirits in the room when White and his Spacebomb band went to recording the seven farmhouse-soul spirituals found on Big Inner, but what ultimately renders this record truly special is the band's ability to synthesize all these elements into something that is uniquely their own.

A most welcome return.

It’s an odd little record, a kind of confessional chronicle that gradually gets under your skin. In this era of fractured self-identification, Ten Hymns From My American Gothic nicely serves as a soundtrack for all the searchers and seekers out there.

It is chock-a-block with everything you have ever loved about the Boards over the last 15-some-odd years.

If this all sounds sort of strange or back-handed, that can be attributed to the fact that Strange Mercy takes a few listens to grasp, and it makes the repeat visits enticing. And that's a sign of a strong album.

As always, the pair wrap their strings and larynxes 'round each other like the intimate companions they are, aided by production so warm and inviting it's like sitting in the room with them.

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.

While some tracks prove unradical, it is when Astronautalis fuses heavy bluesy-rock influences with his beats that Science truly shines.

Giddens emulates her forebears with reverence and assurance.

Some long-time fans may object to Lightning Bolts new legibility, missing the communal chaos and staticky buzz that made listening to previous outings like opening a box of bees. But the maelstrom still looms, the intensity remains, it’s just a bigger, more focused sound.

Clearly not one to mess with, this confident, compelling outing suggests she can hold her own even within the top tier of alt-country's rowdier women.

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

Cancer4Cure is very much a window shattering Brooklyn rap record in every sense... [Meline is] busting loose some of the sharpest darts of his life.

It lacks consistency, but it works well often enough to make this a reasonably satisfying exercise in both 19th and 21st Century Americana.

On Lovers, Cline is effective at making re-interpreted songbook selections his own.