Throughout Virgins, Hecker organizes things just a little bit off, pokes at it just enough to be unsettling, and then pushes things away just when they start to make sense. Music has so clearly affected him, and now he’s making sure it’s doing the same for you.

This is in many ways what you'd expect from a new Wire album. It has so many pieces of their signature sound; it has the reinvention, the added textures, and ideas.

The Marble Downs is an unexpectedly gorgeous concoction of uncanny musical stylings.

The band's latest album, Unsound, demonstrates an awareness of this dichotomy, presenting 11 tracks focused on devil-may-care exploration by a band as cohesive and musically established as any act working today.

While little of the album bears the immediate impact of Zomby's best work ("Tears in the Rain," "Spliff Dub"), this latest offering from the spectral producer proves much more enduring a record than he seemed capable of a couple of years back and one that makes as solid a case as is imaginable for integrating dubstep into the mainstream as one of the genre's first great releases on a label not named Hyperdub or NinjaTune.

Songbook is more than a worthy addition to any Cornell fan's collection; it's a beautiful showcase of his career that any music lover should have.

Friedberger has a way of nearly speaking her vocals. With Last Summer, this works to her advantage.

FlyLo's Until The Quiet Comes is an exercise in dense rhythmic layers and melodic dissonance.

There is an air of melancholy that cloaks her work, from The Saga of Mayflower May (2005) to Songs III: Bird on the Water (2007) to Little Hells (2009), and her self-titled record is no exception.

There's a certain magic in being able to shake your booty to music with heavy themes, and YACHT nails that duality perfectly here, whether they're discussing God, love, or the space-time continuum.

Moore could have easily shifted gears and made a clean break from his storied noise rock past, but rather he digs in deeper, and at almost 55 years of age, he’s rarely sounded as in touch with his youthful pluck.

It's a striking snapshot of a band on top of their ever-evolving game, with a fair amount of surprises thrown in for good measure.

Her debut album has been a long time coming, but the two-year wait has yielded an end product that's been caringly crafted well beyond what you'll hear on most first albums.

[Producer Jeff Tweedy's] his raw production lending itself to the Staples powerful presence.

Impossible Truth is flecked with everything from jazz to psychedelic and Spaghetti Western. Maybe this kind of depth is more common with instrumental music, but regardless, this is an uncommonly good album.

While Magnetic Man demonstrates their work candidly, you haven't heard the works of Skream, Benga, or Artwork until you've seen them live.

He’s growing within himself and outward, emerging with work that’s as mystical and memorable as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Saadiq's genius spin on this sound is almost too fresh for its own good, occasionally finding itself in an over-indulgent state, but what's good about Stone Rollin' is great, as Saadiq succeeds in creating an album that almost any music listener can get into.

Even though this is the band's most accessible album yet, casual listeners should still beware. Like most Gang Gang albums, it first comes off as overwrought jumble. But with repeat spins, it gradually morphs into its true nature of earworm irresistibility.

Ashes & Fires remains compelling throughout thanks to its peaks and valleys.

On Tiger Talk, Yukon Blonde goes beyond paying homage to yesteryear, interpreting the past as less of a sound and more of a feeling, all with an enthusiasm that cannot be ignored.

Top of the Pops wonderfully captures the essence of a band that’s produce plenty a “Direct Hit”, Art Brut’s anthemic denial of anxiety and passion for fun documented in full.

We just get to experience the full potential and realization of her creativity, which fortunately encountered technology apt enough to record it.

This beautiful mess of splatter-painted hi hats, creaking kick drums, and swooning synth patterns, as confusing as it may be, is something to behold.

Jamie Lidell is rich and inventive because the producer has the technical chops to bring a far-fetched idea into fruition.

These songs are rarely exciting in their movement and few listeners will hear the album as more than just a good debut, but like The Velvet Underground and The Smiths, some styles never go out of style.

That's what Beams is truly all about: that chance for Dear to break himself down, to boil everything he is emotionally, musically, and creatively to its most essential. With that achieved, regardless of the name its created under, you've got yourself a truly unified, coherent record.

Random Access Memories proves that Daft Punk remain masters of their domain, who defend their array of superlatives because of, rather than in spite of, unconventional sound choices.

There's nothing innovative here, per se, but what exactly did you want from the Dropkick Murphys? Oh, that's right: a party.

John Talabot has created an intersection of sound that leaves enough for the listener to discover and decode on their own.

The Haunted Man may not reveal a drastic stylistic shift, but the subtle difference is a nonetheless compelling documentation of the process of metamorphosis.

Headcage begins where last year's Slowdance EP left off, sharing an inventiveness; creating driving, hazy, and atmospheric dance music.

An album that captures one of indie rock's longstanding heroes still at the top of his game.

Comparing the two albums side-by-side, you can hear a nice tonality in the re-release, a sharper, crisper quality that just wasn't holding up in the 1998 version. However, part of QOTSA's vital sound is the thickness of Josh Homme's guitar, the fuzz and grain that permeates from each riff and solo. That is still present, it's just a more precise distortion.

Beyond all the heartbreak, Lortz has penned a beautiful record of someone taking those first few difficult steps.

Each and every moment of Lousy With Sylvianbriar celebrates the breaking down of genre barriers that Dylan jumpstarted in 1965. It’s an album that looks to the past while illuminating perfectly the many talents of its contemporary creator.

Dispossession exists on its own plane of acid-washed semi-wakefulness.

These 32 minutes over nine songs total--a total that could easily qualify the collection a long-ish EP--leave you thirsty for further reverse-engineered fun.

It's about as Death Metal as folk can get, without even touching the genre remotely, if that makes any sense.

Pratt has provided for herself a successful introduction to the world, where her unpredictable melodies and vocal tics proudly display strengths and weaknesses with unwavering confidence, reminding of the potential contained in minimal production and instrumentation, and that music does not need to be shattering windows in order be affecting.

It may not be quite the meeting of musical minds that fans and critics had anticipated, but that just makes it better.

Combining French house production techniques with narcotic Flocka beats are what pop dreams are made of, and they own it with style and confidence.

One Breath is a dynamic statement from a young woman who could very well be the next David Bowie or Nick Cave.

There are gems here.

This fulfilling 10 track album has very few holes, and if this is just a taste of what he has in the vaults for either himself or for other artists, he should be racking up some Grammy's shortly.

The result is one of the most ambitious albums of the year so far.

Living With Yourself is a wistful affair brimming with fondness and solemnity for the characters and stories that dot McGuire's life to now.

All the way down to the expansive 21-minute album closer, "A Line From Ol' Man River", the distorted soundscapes are powerful, evocative, and a must listen.

The success owes a good deal to the production, sparse and specific, and always in tune with Miguel's tenor.

Run the Jewels is the very synthesis of El-P and Mike’s shared admiration and cohesive worldviews, an effort of the purest collaboration and mutual understanding.

The sloppiness comes with purpose, the production choices are specific, and off-kilter and off-key performances err closer to engaging erraticism than formless madness.

So many layers unfold to their sound that even upon repeated listens their whispered secrets still have fresh moments to uncover.

He's carved out an agreeable adventure with Oceania, and one that any casual or die-hard fan can embrace with true vigor.

The flowing, multivalent music helps to keep things out of the monotonous emotional doldrums, but Lambert's slow, building, prying questions truly force the listener to examine every bit of the album and the self.

Woods hit upon some of their clearest depictions of dark emotions on Bend Beyond, while simultaneously offering an escape in the emotive beauty of their music.

Light Up Gold may sound like a string of slacker anthems, but it's so much deeper than that.

Megafaun shines the brightest on thematic tracks like "Scorned," in which you can practically feel the dust clouds after each harmonica blast and the heat shimmering in the vibrating background guitars.

Burial’s still dealing in shadow and echo here, but for the first time he’s harnessing them for what sounds a lot like joy.

If listeners return the love even half as much as the band has dished it out, both parties will be highly satisfied.

LP number four adds the Kasabian touch to other genres in an electrifying scattershot that still feels coherent and whole.

It's perennially refreshing to hear the work of someone who so obviously does not care what critics think of him; Darnielle's music reliably gives you the world from his eyes.

Lucifer demonstrates Peaking Lights' maturation in more ways than one, and the album is a welcomed contribution to the lo-fi genre they know and love.

As a whole, the album has a wonderful density that reveals a new secret with every listen, melodies buried in caverns of reverb and tricky guitar bits that hide in reversed delay.

The band have created an effort that digs its way into the listener's ears through an honest approach.

Songs teeming with juvenile energy, songs fueled by raunchy hedonism, songs so depraved that Chuck Bukowski would shake his head in disgust. These characteristics are why FIDLAR's self-titled debut is one of the sleaziest (and catchiest) punk rock records in recent memory.

This album hits a very modern note, one that justifies its separation from being just another Frog Eyes record in its insular worldview and altered sound.

He's not relying on anybody else out there to make something unique for him to sample; he's making them all himself. Joel Zimmerman only has to rely on deadmau5, and the party won't ever stop. And the mouse is far from dead.

What we get is truly stellar introspection from a young adult on the verge of something big.

While it may not have the varied atmospheres of their best records, sheer strength has always been one of the most effective tools in The Thing’s arsenal.

With its share of both musical indulgence and serious self-reflection, it's an album as big and sturdy as the man behind it.

Titus have given us an album that no one should want to miss when it does come to town.

Drawn from all five studio albums, the performances on Inni are raw, they are powerful, and they show this band donning a darker, noisier sonic presence.

Expectations are high, sure, but the group has reassured their true believers with a solid cornerstone of an EP.

Wounded Rhymes offers a less atmospheric soundscape with more percussion alongside organs and frequent layered harmonies.

Last track aside, Light Science ends up being purely genius. The instrumental rock is fresh and unique, a brilliant light amidst all of the other dull groups who are generating "the same old thing."

Overall, Cursive has put a tremendous amount of work into the idea and music for Kasher's somewhat twisted story, and it shows.

The leaner songwriting on Ascension could very well best Conqueror if it weren't for the scratchy production (why do the drums sound ratty, the synths sound tinny and everything else really seamless?), but it's still Broadrick's best Jesu record since then.

The trio's fifth album, In the Belly of the Brazen Bull, fuses the opposing dichotomies, offering heavy noise and bravado alongside emotional vulnerability to satisfy anyone on the rock and roll spectrum.

Giving the Just Once EP a listen should quell any doubts regarding his versatility, because it's almost like hearing How to Dress Well again for the first time.

Both of those songs ["I Feel Love" and "Smooth Operator"] inform the experimental ambience of Tracer, Teengirl Fantasy's sultry second album comprising of all original material.

It's so obviously rendered from the hearts of its band members, four sensitive guys who wanted to make some music about love, and there's something beautifully honest, vulnerable, and likable about that.

On An On creates intriguing, ethereal swatches of sounds, mixing retro-sounding harmonies, shimmering synth, and buzzy guitar.

With music from the nerdy recesses of his mind, to a triumphant release that happily displays some of his more off-center offerings, Adams continues to be a presence in music, this year and beyond.

Angles, The Strokes' long awaited fourth LP, stands as the group's most eclectic album to date.

All told, the story undun tells is sometimes chilling, often thrilling, and always illuminating.

That framework [on 2008′s Lost in the Sound of Separation] is largely in tact on the new effort, except it's decidedly richer and more vibrant, showcasing each member's strengths in ways not realized before in Underoath's decade-old career.

His latest LP, Time Off, is his most tuneful yet.

The beauty is not lost, Hopkins just places a real-word façade on his delicate textures. Nothing in reality is without flaws and neither are Hopkins’ productions.

It just plain feels good to hear the elder statesman of reggae stay this playful and open to inspiration.

It's different. It's well-written. It's emotive. Those three things are hard enough to find in music these days, let alone in one place.

Okay, so how do they still fare? With The King of Limbs, reasonably well.

It is a killer rock record with a great story.

...Like Clockwork is one of the year’s finer rock albums--an exercise in songwriting, production, and musicianship.

Ultimately, Regions wins by turning broad, universal questions into James’ own personal conquests. Over the course of nine songs, James crafts an album that’s equal parts weighed down by loneliness and lifted up with hope, sometimes distant and other times fully engaged.

Although the most audible change between Beauregard and Red Velvet is the newfound immediacy of the instrumentation and the explosive collaborative spirit, Singh's refreshingly strong vocal performance is equally as important.

All in all, The Party Ain't Over proves to be a bold success.

It’s fascinating to hear just how these sounds have dated.

It’s a work as notable for its technical achievements as its nuanced themes, and that’s almost as impressive considering that so many artists lack in one or both of those fields.