Ontario Gothic is an amazingly precise, contextually aware work that’s very easy to listen to as just beautiful music, but it’s also an album that asks the listener to try for more.

The bass churns, chimes tinkle, and tribal drums patter rhythmically, drawing listeners into wide-eyed sonic journeys only Prince Rama could cook up.

Though easy to peg a purely pop album, with only one track that dares to venture beyond the 3:30 mark, Evening Tapestry's controlled psychedelic overtones help the songs go beyond run-of-the-mill pop tunes.

On its fourth LP, Arctic Monkeys combines its clever, tongue-in-cheek wordplay with a wider variety of sounds than it ever used on its other releases.

Full of memories and unanswered questions, Wyoming asserts a sense of limitless depth, as the duo’s members seem to have developed a greater understanding of one another than on their debut.

After The End is a damn good pop album, and it’s not concerned with where it fits in the world.

It's no-bull, gritty hip-hop for hip-hop's sake, forgoing radio-friendly hooks or overly flashy production in favor of inspired storytelling and colorful slang.

["Be Above It"] sets the tone for an album that follows closely in the sonic footsteps of its predecessor while occupying a more streamlined headspace.

The instrumental packaging (which sounds even more lux and sophisticated than ever) shifts constantly, but there's always a catchy melody to carry Nocturne through.

Simply put, their sound has organically reached a more developed state. Each song brings something new to the table with few tunes just bleeding together.

On her fifth album, she discovers a new direction--and sounds all the better for it.

Bonobo has given us a great collection of interlacing melodic songs that have real depth and distinction.

Although some of the sounds used are radically new to the Miracle Fortress repertoire, Was I The Wave? demonstrates the perfect amount of experimentation and development of the band's sound while remaining true to the music of its past.

[A] sprite, beguiling collection of songs.

An album that uses so much in so little time, Old Friends has everything to offer.

Bradley’s sophomore album, Victim Of Love, burns hard and slow.

Carrion Crawler/The Dream could very well be born from a desire to please crowds as easily as it could be Dwyer wanting to craft jams as musical meditation.

With one album completed under the new lineup, Harris and Seim show that they'll continue guiding Menomena in interesting, unpredictable directions.

You aren't likely to find a single track that you'd want to put on repeat for the drive home from work, but the experience of listening from track to track, beginning to end, is a moving experience worth lending your ears.

The most resonant part of Doi Todd's music is the quiet darkness that she twists into an undercurrent of tenderness. Cosmic Ocean Ship is more openly joyous than other songs on previous albums, like 2008's Gea, and perhaps not as "mysterious" or grabbing.

For all of their individual, conflicting quirks, Miller et al. operate like some strange musical beast, spitting out hooks and devouring them with brute force.

Listening to Quadruple Single is not a passive experience in the least.

Cut 4 Me ends leaving the listener with a dizzying feeling and a cooly slowed pulse. Now we have expectations.

Mathambo is both voracious and omnivorous. This leads to a diverse and exciting listen.

Like a tour guide who occasionally gets lost in his own museum, Haldar's unbridled excitement about his subject matter can be both exhausting and infectious.

The vision of Southern California terrain Barfod molds in Salton Sea seems strangely undead and haunting even at its most jubilant moments, creating a chilling sense of something epic and part-human.

This urgent need to resist easy classifications can make the album difficult and obtuse at times, but the rewards are plentiful.

Nowhere is safe--still beautiful and executed to perfection, but safe.