Nevertheless, Vacation is an all-around solid effort, undeniably fun and would serve nicely as a soundtrack for the rest of summer.

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.

This is a complex, fascinating record that punches the shoulder for attention.

Any listener that's ever heard a twinkly-guitar emo/screamo band and found its vocals a bit melodramatic and its arrangements boring should give The Appleseed Cast an honest shot.

If anything, the extras better inform the choices eventually made on the band's debut, highlighting just how great a record it turned out to be (since, basically, they'd been doing it from song one). Put simply, Icky Mettle is a gem of early '90s rock worthy of a place in the indie Smithsonian.

Essentially, Tripper is not a drastic change for Fruit Bats but an homage to expansion and trying new things–while still knowing where home is.

After 41 minutes, Leave Home doesn't linger like a flashback, it sticks like a demented structure that's mysteriously magnetic and, in the end, really fun. No wonder this stuff is addictive.

It's a strange album, for sure, but the merging of the two musical styles creates something that's rather unique, and should be sampled by any electronic music fan.

Old Blood offers a glimpse into the world of Richard Buckner that serves as an ideal starting point for new listeners.

And while logically such vast variation should produce a choppy outcome, the album proves to be quite fluid on the whole.

Every number attempts something at least a little differently, and succeeds for the most part.

Nothing, be it labels or names or even time itself, can hold Theophilus London back from making great music.

The sheer quality that Red Hot + Rio 2 maintains over the course of its two discs and 33 tracks makes this a very noteworthy effort.

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.

This hybrid, mixing tracks that would be at home on a Sufjan Stevens or Dirty Projectors album with strong hip hop beats, creates a unique sound, showing that Serengeti is carving himself a niche in this overcrowded hip hop market. But it's his brilliant lyrical stylings that will pull you in and make you want more.

Thee Physical is music ready for a dance floor (just as much as past Pictureplane releases have been), but it's also a disc that shows growth towards a better ability to blend the synthetic and the organic.

Universal Pulse is the band's best release since 2001′s From Chaos.

It has a sense of Englishness that people might associate with Pulp, The Kinks, early Pink Floyd and Blur, and maybe even The Beatles.

The energy and quality of this record are nothing short of addicting–indicative of a promising future for a young band.

Though Big Talk doesn't deviate from the trusted rock-pop path with a few bluesy stepping stones, it's a satisfying listen in which this drummer-turned-front man holds his own incredibly well.

On this album, the tracks that are lacking in length often sound as if they–well–are lacking in something else as well. Not to say In the Mountain is a poor effort; it merely seems like it would benefit from a bit more development.

Join Us is a throwback to the style of music They Might Be Giants built the first two decades of their career around. At long last, the duo has returned to making geeky adult music for geeky adults.

Even without the bonus disc full of rare goodies, this remastered version of Lifes Rich Pageant is required listening.

He has incorporated some New Wave signposts, with a little melancholy disco, constantly refining what might be the right kind of landscape for his deeply yearning, compelling vocal.

Yeah, he hinted at this sort of consciousness on a couple of recordings in the past, but this is full-fledged social commentary.

Some could argue that the Cool Kids abandoned their original minimalism on When Fish Ride Bicycles. However, they've contemporized their old-school influences for a wider audience. By incorporating both well-known names and lesser-known artists, the Cool Kids are finally in a position to get major exposure.

While all of that emotional corruption may still tear their home planet apart, this trip-hop intergalactic train has reached its slice of space jazz heaven.

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.