The Cost is hardly a poor album - in fact it's a quite good album - but after the release of so many gems, I find it difficult for it to completely measure up to the stiff competition.

Under the Boards, still doesn’t quite live up, it is their best since that timeless classic, "Stay What You Are."

This album makes the case they deserve our attention and our own hospitality.

Ultimately Bitte Orca is definitely a pleasing follow-up; it just isn't necessarily the supreme breakthrough many had hoped for.

The music is bold, intelligent, and quirky--maybe a little too quirky, but that’s up for debate. If Peanut Butter has a fault, it’s too much consistency.

He has composed devastatingly clever lyrics to go with music that completely rocks out, tugs at your heartstrings, or both.

Neck of the Woods may not be album of the year material, but it's the best album in this band's catalog by a long shot.

This is the most engrossing American Analog Set album in six or seven years.

This album has something for everyone and will appeal to the kids who like ambient drone pieces and folks who love songs with great pop hooks - and everyone in between.

He covers an impressive amount of ground on Lucky Shiner, and the variety works in his favor. Perhaps he's missing a degree of originality, but what these tracks might be lacking in idiosyncratic branding will likely be made up for with a longevity of listenability.

Post-Nothing is an album that deserves listens and that will definitely gather support with this re-issue.

While it may lack the dense orchestrations and insular connotations of previous efforts, Animal Joy packs a powerful punch all of its own, typified by an artfully sequenced set of songs that capture the human condition with panache.

It is the product of a septuagenarian survivor ceaselessly exploring a self-made world without conceding to compromise; which is sometimes frustrating yet frequently still compelling in execution.

An above-average nouveau-garage punk record that blends the elements of disjointed noise, R&B-inflected punk and a post-modern pop sensibility into something interesting and enjoyable, but not quite groundbreaking.

There were some hits and some misses on this band's follow-up to a somewhat commercial success.

With one foot rooted in tradition, and the other free to roam where it likes, Asleep on the Floodplain is a quietly great effort.

A testing album like Boo Human is in due course enjoyable because of Kinsella’s impressive musicianship and work ethic.

Dekker has always seemed to me more metaphysical than mystical, but on this outing some of the lyrics are starting to edge closer to the easy contentedness of finding salvation through natural beauty instead of finding existential insignificance in the similarities of all matter. That said, there’s a good mix of elements here, and the increased focus on the diversity of the musical side of things takes the spotlight off the lyrics to a certain extent.

Having been away from being a working band for a half decade, the Strokes have returned with a more polished take on their classic sound. Different: yes. Disaster: absolutely not!

While Era Vulgaris is not cohesive in tone (Could it be a reflection of today’s fragmented, compartmentalized world that pulls in all directions?) and doesn’t fire consistently on all cylinders, the album is still chock-a-block with complex instrumental arrangements, stop-and- start rhythms, gracefully refined harmonies, cranked-up choruses, and pointed commentary on the modern world.

It’s an album unlikely to reign in anyone who’s on the fence about adding a folk album to their catalogue, but sure to delight those who like their melancholy sentiments sung by a voice that is as dexterous as it is vulnerable

Although their own thickness seems to get a bit cloudy at times, it's never unassuming or presumptuous. Instead, the noise that creeps in and out of Constant Future is always consistent and never over-abundant; in turn, it's very simply a solid release.