As much as one would assume that times have changed, Vile is able to supplement his strengths with newfound diversity and very simply, delivers a formidable sophomore album.

If you've only heard of their work on The Ugly Organ or Domsetica, then I suggest picking this up. It's a great archive of the band's early unheralded accomplishments.

Ultimately, this is a winner and though it may not offer the new, revelatory sounds and styles that some were hoping, in the end it wins out because of its heart.

Even if You’re Nothing lacks the raw immediacy of their debut, it sees Iceage defining the parameters of their sound.

Supergroup or not, Wild Flag hits all the right notes, and not much else matters.

Whilst the front-end and middle of the collection may take some repeat spins to fully earn affection, the two six minute epics that conclude proceedings are unquestionable gems from the first airing.

The Bravest Man in the Universe doesn't need much of a buffer as it quietly approaches its essence with backing tracks, loops, bouts of acoustic guitar and piano all holistically orbiting around the central component of the album, Womack's unblemished vocals.

While it drifts away from the listener somewhat during its middle section, Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light is, for the most part, a captivating listen.

Forget the Night Ahead is a resoundingly superb follow-up to that same 2007 album.

In the end, all of this makes Say Anything the most mature – as well as the catchiest--record in Say Anything’s already impressive oeuvre.

A poignant and powerful collection.

Scott-Heron's voice sounds just as prime as it did last year, except this time around Smith has adorned the versions with added beats, synths and keyboards for a fuller, richer sound.

Whether it's a fast-paced and crisply played rocker or a slower, aching ballad, Broken Records are adept at drawing us in with either style as Sutherland bellows with a coarse voice that can be both passionately rousing and intimately reflective.

It’s refreshing and still, a fine listen; Impersonator is in the end, its own refined identity.

In the end, it’s exactly what you would want and expect from the two skillful musicians. Run the Jewels is an album that was perfectly executed for the summer.

With a musical voice that is always travelling down a linear path, Foreign Landscapes is a spellbinding new journey into the wave of sonic explorations.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack is an excellent album of cool songs featuring some of today’s celebrated indie artists.

No matter the speed at which it moves, Go glows brightly with a formidable sense of ambition and hope.

As a stand-alone, six-set album, it compares just fine to last year's eight-set Pigeons and in many ways, is a detached piece on its own. With songs that are as refined and delicately composed as this, Here We Go Magic have already presented a strong catalog to take notice of.

It’s a coherent, engaging experience.

The songs on this album work together (sometimes roughly, sometimes smoothly) as sketches and vignettes to form an overall artistically thematic picture of the world in which we live. The brothers paint this picture so starkly with gritty hyper-realism that the songs will not and do not appeal to the greater audience of folk music that is still deriving its voice from the love songs of Simon and Garfunkel and Jackson Browne.

Although this record reeks of Matador Records looking to score capital off Fucked Up, it’s not a bad way to go. Couple Tracks would be great for someone who wants the Fucked Up experience.

Hard to describe but easy to recommend.

Both Lights goes a step further in cementing their reputation as one of the Pacific Northwest's best kept secrets.

All told, this is undoubtedly one of 2012′s most unexpected pleasures.

Conatus continues her roll with more astounding music that sounds better with each listen and during this day and age, what more could you ask for in an album?

These seven pieces invite the listener into an engrossing experience, one that requires attention but in the end, Centralia is a moving album.

While it doesn't have as many flat-out terrific songs as its predecessor, I'd venture to say that The Remote Part is the record that Idlewild has wanted to write all along.

Crafted with a strong presence in realizing the sequencing and tracking through it all, it unquestionably rewards with repeated listens.

There is cohesiveness here, there is a strong theme throughout, there is terrific musicianship and a gorgeous melting of voices all in between.

What strikes me is that past Clem Snide albums had their stronger moments, but also their weaker ones, while Hungry Bird, for all its time in development, is more solid throughout, delivering its 10 pop songs with a consistency that shows the band continuing to develop its sound.

Wavering Radiant is a testament to ISIS’ ability to stare into the face of adversity, unflinching, and deliver one of the finest albums of its career.

The Go! Team makes sure to reach for the stars and they're certainly poised to simply get more well-known from here.

While Is Dead may be the bands most accessible album, their latest release contains a much more developed and mature set of tracks that showcase a very talented group that with can easily aspire to new heights in the coming years in the hardcore genre.

If you don’t like noise records then you [should] steer clear of this, but if you happen to like listening to the sound of vacuum cleaners, video games, dishwashers, and other major appliances, I suggest that you buy this immediately.

What they do best is produce exceptional electronica for people that don't have the patience for extended instrumental passages and require things like vocals on regular intervals. With that precursor, The Understanding is probably one of the better electronica records to come out this year that thankfully doesn't involve MCs from Def Jux or was composed on a laptop.

You don’t need to be fanatical or any other synonym to realize that this is utterly spectacular music.

Worlds Apart is easily the most accessible album for the band.

As a whole this album evokes plenty of 80’s punk/hardcore styles, sex, drugs and rock and roll anthems and the always-welcomed unexpectedness that Moore seems to always supply us with.

The group's strength and distinguishing characteristics rest in its superior sense of melody.

After the vibe he seemed to be going for, it seemed awkward to end the album on an upswing. That being said, this is a startlingly mature and accomplished album.

Fans of The Rhumb Line are unlikely to go head over heels for The Orchard, but Ra Ra Riot's latest is still among the most clever and thoughtful indie pop heard this year.

Nothing much changes from here on out, but it’s this form, absorbance and consistency that always prevails in Willner’s music.

The best Swell album since 1997’s Too Many Days Without Thinking.

Via Audio are audacious in their attempt to create a wide array of organic sounds, and their efforts pay off; it’s not often that a band can instill so many approaches into an album and get away with it but Animalore delivers the goods.

Field Songs, in its utter simplicity, is perhaps Whitmore's finest effort to date.

It’s great music and it clearly showcases the fact that Grampall Jookabox should have a steady and successful career ahead of him.

It goes to show, scuzzy hooks will always be a way to make engaging music, even if the genre is well-worn. So, do yourselves a favor and check out We Are the Champions, an endlessly rewarding firecracker of an album.

Hood’s particular brand of indie rock is easily recognizable and refreshingly unique, and despite a few faults along the way, Outside Closer is an excellent album, if not totally fulfilling of its promise.

It's apparent that great care was taken in the making of this record as the meticulous production radiates through the music on every song.

It requires headphones, or at least some form of solidarity, to enjoy the carefully composed post-rock that only a band like Apse can deliver. It can be a bleak listen at time but this is a beautiful album that should be experienced at least once.

As Perfume Genius, he's [Mike Hadreas] developed a strong second album with Put Your Back N 2 It, a modestly personal release.

Xenophanes might be the most concise statement Rodriguez Lopez has ever made (11 tracks in 45 minutes), and its tidiness is evident from the (mostly) taut song structures, urgent pacing, shortened solos, and singable melodies.

A winner from start to finish.

New Album is the culmination of the band's ongoing experimentation that catapults its ferocious sound headlong into new territory.

Destroyer of the Void is a fitting reminder of what’s possible when you already have such a strong catalog of music under your belt: exceptional music that always seems to beautifully connect, no matter how varying the sounds may be.

Whilst Volume 8 isn’t necessarily for Bardo Pond neophytes, long-term loyalists should happily squeeze it into their swollen shelves.

In lyrics and music, The Long Blondes have managed to put out a sophomore album just as addictive and catchy as their debut "Someone To Drive You Home."

Mark the musical prowess of individual band members as key to fragile moments, nuances and nods to a variety of other styles: country twangs and slides, soul, classical, punk, funk, and even, blue-grass.

Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1 contains some of the finest work Earth has produced to date.

As the Stars is an album that can be appreciated on a purely musical level and a meditative level.

Surely the best album (so far) of 2012.

Intentional or not, The Inevitable Past is the Future Forgotten conjures up nostalgic moments with its overall demeanor. It's truly enabled Three Mile Pilot to possess an inquisitively solid sound and in the end, achieve the goal of fusing such memorable music together.

With such tight and unashamedly sparse and intimate product along with an emphasis on nicely layered and blended vocals, it’s hard to find a complaint with Magnolia.

Band Of Horses have hit upon an endearing sound by taking their experiences and whipping them up with a variety of styles and influences that are creatively transformed into a unique and cohesive album filled with energetic, emotional and enjoyable indie-rock.

Lithium Burns is a far too well crafted and assuredly performed record for a debut album.

He’s able to craft songs that are touching without becoming seriously over-sensitive.

A lush, captivating, and dynamically vocalized album on the mellower end of Butler’s usual stylistic spectrum.

The remarkably focused and eclectic The Possum In The Driveway.

For a debut album, this is extremely strong.

My only complaint about this brilliant album is that the first half is so strong, the second half is weak in comparison.

May be his most mature, fully realized offering to date, though not necessarily his most thrilling.

Destroyer’s Rubies is one of those rare albums whose literary value is so compelling as to make any imperfections simply blend in as an essential part of the storyline.

Infra holds its ground amongst Richter's finest pieces of music, movie accompaniment or not.

While it’s still the arrangements that will continue to impress, the words and overall sonic ability speaks paramount to what Yeasayer is capable of.

If there’s any fault with this album, it’s the predictability in the songs: there are no hidden surprises, lacking any real breathtaking shifts or unexpected twists waiting to throw the unwary listener off-guard.

The members of Blitzen Trapper have a lot left in them and they’ve just hit their stride with their last two albums. Black River Killer EP is only further testament to their amazing talents as a band and of the kind of determined soul that prevails against all odds.

Minor Love is the rare record that has something for everyone, your dad, your discontent pop-isolationist, that mix you’ve been meaning to make, and a long drive across desert highway – and ends up being an impressive testament to Adam Green’s lasting relevance.

This summer, don't just think about going surfing, listen to Strange Heaven instead.

Throughout the two albums, Lambchop effortlessly and repeatedly cross country, rock, soul, jazz, and cinematic borders. [combined review of both discs]

Emoh is one of the first surprisingly great albums of 2005.

While Okemah is clearly driven by Farrar's vision, it suitably develops Son Volt's sound, bringing it clearly into the mid-2000s while giving a nod toward the influences of bygone days that have always been a factor in Son Volt's alt-country tendencies.

North Star Deserter is serious music, and commands a certain amount of attention.

Alter is intense, brooding, and taut, perfectly utilizing piano, chaotic dissident guitar, and complex percussion.

Skin of Evil, out on Soft Abuse Jan. 20, is a breathtaking, mesmerizing record, a lyrical song cycle about love and loss, affection and anger and alienation.

All in all, this album has everything any hard rock fan would enjoy.

With The Brutalist Bricks, they’ve silenced doubters with another skillful dose of catchy rock and it’s quite the remedy for any sour disbelievers.

Get Awkward is mostly more of the same but with more hooks, more wit, and a hell of a lot more emotion.

A fine addition to the canons of both Callahan and American music.

If you aren't at least a little cozy to the sound commonly produced by Whitney and company, you certainly won't be any more into Jaguar Love. Well, that may not be totally accurate, as I can see this being some of most accessible stuff spawned by any Blood Brothers alumni.

Ultimately, Tarot Classics is a fun and welcome addition to any existing Surfer Blood fan's catalogue, even if it is unlikely to win over any new fans.

I know the whole ‘retro-rock’ thing is en vogue in about a bazillion different ways, but Stellastarr*’s take just seems a bit more energetic and vibrant than most. Considering the genre, this disc is a frighteningly solid listen.

It isn’t leaps and bounds better than its predecessor but within that time frame, they’ve all fine-tuned their act.

Furies might not be as diverse as Birds Make Good Neighbors but it’s the strongest set of songs they’ve produced so far.

It's this sort of wide-eyed optimism [heard on "Near Death Experience Experience"] that lends Break It Yourself immediate appeal.

Welcome Joy is the perfect, earthy balance of the grittiest and the sweetest splendors that the Pacific has to offer.

Once again, the Pale Young Gentlemen has crafted a singularly noteworthy record unlike anything else.

It’s a compliment to Stevens when one notices that listening to the music alone is rewarding and yet, the shots from the documentary are what run vivid in your head.