Frustratingly, the album’s lowest point comes directly after one of its high points.... That’s not to say that Surfing Strange isn’t impressive as a whole.

It’s stickily saccharine with spiky edges.

Though Le Bon composes in the dark, she shows us a lighter, quirkier side in CYRK.

The rest of Holy Fire is a counter-punch to “Inhaler,” a swerve that then hits all the more powerfully for setting us up with this false start.

Heidecker And Wood's music may not be meant for Tim And Eric, but it's certain that any fan of the show's comedy would enjoy chuckling to the sweet sensual sounds of Starting From Nowhere.

Without giving up its commitment to obfuscation or its sense of mystery, the band has crafted a fun, playful and eclectic collection of songs that reveal a more focused, melody-driven approach to writing and a surprising level of thematic coherence.

Despite the loftier academic allusions, the band’s music is most affective when dancing on the peppier side.

His delivery is raw, at times off-key, almost too rugged. Despite those lapses, the song retains the album’s overarching concept, which favors music in its most natural form.

This impatience turns into a tension, and this tension is what allows for ten tracks of what are essentially love ballads to remain interesting after repeated listens.

A solid road map of new found diversity and eclecticism is laid out throughout a large chunk of They Want My Soul, and despite the inevitable growing pains, Spoon really does seem poised to continue rising from the ashes of their near disappearance.

Although the dark, pulsing beauty of “Katla” feels like an appropriate close, somehow No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers feels too brief in relation to the depth of its emotions.

Conversations is an album that will sink you into some kind of woozy hypnotic stupor, not pull you out of one.

While it may not be a distinct step forward creatively, the blue-collared Allentown, PA, quartet has managed another solid effort that maintains its edge.

Crystal Stilts hasn't broken from what made it good in the first place -- but In Love With Oblivion proves that the group is coming into its own.

For now, this band’s M.O.--Graves’ machine gun mouth racing the bands’s nerve-strung music to the finishing line of each 113 plus/minus-second blast--is welcome in the currently, often drowsy world of indie guitar music.

The girls have made strides in bookending the album with tracks that are longer than six minutes-quite different from its usual two to three minutes-but the next step is to use the extended time to explore what else they could do with it.

There's a lot to enjoy in the Gringos' second effort, but mostly if your musical tastes never got past 1969.

Aesthethica is jugular-grabbing black metal-startling, complex... and also quite long.

The only mild complaint would be that some tracks feel a little too long (even for the genre) and sometimes a tad repetitive.

This record isn't as energetic and peppy as previous efforts, but don't confuse moodiness with lifelessness.

Last Summer sees Friedberger stretching her limbs as a three-dimensional indie darling.

Bobby is sleepy and hypnotic; elements that guarantee a hauntingly enjoyable listen.

While not all of the rough edges have been smoothed out, there's a sense of soaring ambition, and there's no reason why there shouldn't be.

Soft hits on some deeply buried emotions (“I left scraps inside of you” on Soft Opening; “If you feel a rusted heart/don’t let them know” on Rusty), but does it with such grace that it’s easy to convince yourself this is an album of all-forgiving love.

A World Out Of Time was recorded as a whole, a distinction that has some subtle effects on the album's sequencing and pacing without diminishing the elements of collage.

Its stargazed, overly ambitious arrangements sometimes become so intricate that they deplete some of the fun. That said, multiple spins produce a mind-numbing experience that echoes the duo’s desired midnight, candlelight aura.

Grimes has come into a cleaner, more distinct version of her IDM self, albeit one still influenced by Aphex Twin, TLC and Enya.

These varied sounds signal a growth in the band, one that will ultimately save the Soft Pack from forever being stuck playing angsty teen music.