Elsewhere, he mistakes AOR-ready sentimentality and banal lyrics for perfect summer-album material, which seems like a misdirected pursuit--Within and Without already was a near-perfect summer album.

Free Reign II improves upon its predecessor and offers a welcome glance into the usually opaque process of assembling an album.

If you’ve been waiting for Bloc Party to branch out, expect The Nextwave Sessions to disappoint. Most reductively and most accurately, The Nextwave Sessions are merely five more Bloc Party songs.

Languid and drone-heavy, The High Frontier is for the star-gazers that don’t get tired of looking up and wondering what’s out there, as opposed to going out and seeing what’s there for themselves.

Superhumanoids have the talent to breach their simple formula, but they often cut their best ideas too short.

With 15 tracks spanning 38 minutes, there aren’t a whole lot of opportunities to connect or build on ideas, but the artists do a fine job of traversing dynamics.

They’re Imps of Perversion, delighting in leading others down the darker path rather than breaking it. That path may sound a little familiar to those who’ve been following similar imps for a couple of decades, but that doesn’t make Pop. 1280 any less enthusiastically bleak.

See You There may turn out to be Glen Campbell’s swansong and, if that is the case, it’s a fair testimony to the man.

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.

While this album shares a lot of qualities with the likes of Mr. Impossible, its straight to the jugular strike at being a groovy good time comes off a little less polished.

Although Bloodlines is a solid effort, it never seems to really take flight; alternately quiet and bold, it can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be a testament to Mathè’s artistic transformation or a kind of tentative experiment, to be abandoned if it doesn’t pan out.

Newsted’s triumphant return has been one of the most surprising heavy metal success stories of 2013. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

An intriguing if uniquely disjointed experiment, and one that likely benefits quite a bit from familiarity with Charles Reznikoff’s work or seeing its theatrical accompaniment.

Unlike Rubble Guts & BB Eye, Yes, It’s True never surprises itself with its own excitement.

The claustrophobia of recording on a farm in western Australia may have contributed to Beard, Wives Denim‘s concision, whereas Hobo Rocket is a more freewheeling response to modern psychedelia.

A pall of unrest certainly permeates the record, but II feels of a single entity, one cloaked in fog but backlit by strobes.

The hits are so strong that you won’t mind trudging through a few missteps along the way.

There might not be a “Poison & Wine” here, but taken as a whole, The Civil Wars is a more consistent collection than Barton Hollow.

PDA is “affectionate pop”--an album with little to no heed about making you feel comfortable.

There is a superhuman force and a willfully ignorant level of intensity involved in this band’s approach that simply places them in a realm almost entirely free of peers.

Despite the personality problems that would soon force the original lineup to split, the mountain of tracks that make up this release show how well the band functioned as a professional unit. If you’re a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins, or a fan of rock history, Aeroplane may not be an essential document, given how inordinately packed it is with extras, but it’s certainly a telling one.

The Savage Heart is a little bit of both, thanks to a band with the smarts, chops, and passion to make something fresh out of the expansive musical fodder that helped lay its rowdy foundation.

Shah always find a way to keep Love Your Dum and Mad simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring throughout.

One of the problems Body Music faces is that it’s an album supporting a string of pre-processed singles.

For all its pleasures, though, Love is the Law feels a bit overstuffed at 17 tracks.

Whatever Parks might work on in the future, Songs Cycled is the perfect reminder of his deserved status for those that had been content to let him sit on the fringe.

Frantic and poetic, Pura Vida Conspiracy is another open window into gypsy culture that, for reasons unbeknownst to us, feels and looks like home.

It’s more of a song-based effort than some of the Gang’s previous work, but it doesn’t have the structural bones or the lyrical meat to stand up on its own.