You may categorize An Album By Korallreven as background music. That's by no means a bad thing-if anything, such a distinction solidifies this album as an intense experience: a wintry escape to the wilderness with a slight detour to the dance floor along the way.

Amok ends up sounding enormous through its mingling of analog and digital sounds. It’s intricately assembled, with more pieces to pick apart than on The Eraser, which feels a bit timid in comparison

If the Big Sleep intended a record of 10 tracks designed explicitly to get listeners pumped, then the band can call these experiments a roaring success.

Charli XCX isn’t smashing any glass ceilings in pop; she’s perfectly roughing up the edges of a long-standing mold.

The album's tight production will draw you in and leave you dancing damp from sweat until the early hours of the morning.

Her cold-blooded style meshes well with Hince's clanging guitars and the sleek world they have created inside of Blood Pressures.

Everyday Robots, unfolds as a sleepy, melancholy culmination of all Albarn’s work so far. And if sweat still isn’t showing, a little distress is.

The band demonstrates its growth from angst-driven punks to thematic artists (although still retaining enough angst) by having developed and refined their musical style, as well as further grasped the emotions that are intertwined within the songs’ depths.

Upon first listen, it sounds like all of the rest-cutesy vocals, romantic lyrics, peppy poppy guitars. But on Departing, the guitars are massive, the lyrics are gorgeous and the vocals are astonishingly expressive.

We Come From The Same Place is an album that often opts for the direct over the obscure, but taken as a whole it evokes something difficult to articulate about life and love. Both musically and lyrically, this album serves as definitive proof that this band is on a roll.

The result is the raw and crunchy folk record Total Dust.

Oddly enough, the most striking part of the record may be the transitions.

They make albums that make you squint and stare at the floor and convince yourself you like it, maybe. And somehow, you’ll find yourself listening until you’re sure you do.

A very pleasurable, punk-inspired listen. This is no-nonsense, fast-flying garage rock.

It's everything to be expected: Dinosaur Jr. sounds relaxed, takes a laid-back approach and still manages to make an album that stands up next to everything else that the band has released since its resurrection.

The result is a smoother, more mature sound that varies with each song evoking hints of soul, funk, old-school hip-hop and some dance music for fun.

Mind Bokeh signifies a union between sonic exploration-typically condemned to musical isolation by being defined as experimental -- and the consonances of modern pop music that are readily accepted by mass listeners.

A little more daylight would balance out the vibe. But that’s a minor complaint. In fact, on further listens it becomes the album’s appeal.

Surf City plays with a more confident and reassured sound as the group comes into its own on We Knew It Was Not Going To Be Like This.

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

Like the cosmos itself, Interstellar is a grower.

Sometimes lying on the wood floor or recording an album of pretty retro-pop songs is all you can do, and sometimes it's enough.

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

Wicked Will offers a sprint through Ettes' tumultuous world, and in the end, the whole ride lasts for little more than half an hour. Oddly, the one emotion that the band avoids-joy-is the one that it leaves you with in its wake.

Plan The Escape and No Crimes are largely uplifting, though the descending bass line and drum combo on Crimes sounds like Queens Of The Stone Age doing Go With The Flow Light; and pseudo-ripped Depeche Mode lyrics like, “All you ever wanted, all you ever need” make for the album’s most clichéd moment.

Taken as it is, this is a great summer’s coming album, the most fresh guitar pop record of the year, though it might be a bit too bright at times.

Although the album loses some steam in its second side, it is light-years away from disappointing. Instead, it is proof that this band has aged well.

The production sounds more expensive, but all the passion and intimacy of their previous work remains.