Not only is Keep it Hid a very good album but it’s an album that contrary to popular belief, should not be ignored.

Layering blankets of synths and keyboards as well as underlays of programmed drums and effects around his evocative guitar lines, makes Innerland an immersive experience, rich with flowing gauzy grooves and elemental ambient balm.

Although as a whole Farmer’s Corner might lack a little of the respective earthiness and girth of more strictly acoustic and more amplified Wooden Wand releases, it achieves the clever feat of traversing a wide range of territory whilst sustaining the feeling of reclining comfortably in one location.

While the design is a bit different, the result is still another awesome album to add to Arctic Monkeys' arsenal.

Malkmus, along with producer Beck, direct the music on Mirror Traffic with playful lyrics and flourishing styles that versatile and extended enough, shine with ease.

Grand Hotel is remarkable not just as a present day artistic piece, but also as homage to what many people consider the greatest music ever made.

Hawley has made an exceptionally perfect album with Truelove’s Gutter: it’s endearing, uplifting and absolutely beautiful, what else could you ask for?

Putting to work every kind of noise you could think of--dub echoes, laser squiggles, slurring sludge, fractured voices, bass rumbles, innocent chirps, and so on--Splazsh is a feast for the ears.

An original and exquisite album full of playful and energetic indie-rock that, while retaining some of the same qualities as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, is also a step in a new direction that suits the band fine.

This album is not a quick or necessarily easy listen, but it is one of the better ones that I have had the pleasure of listening to this year.

Daniel justly brings the band’s best attributes to the foreground and It’s Frightening ends up being a tight and concise album.

There is a hardy amount of sweet material on Let’s Be Still and it is a perfect accompaniment to a morning sunrise or a low-key soirée in the woods.

It was a captivating listen then, and remains so now.

Despite earlier successes, European definitively solidifies Sambassadeur as a paragon of Swedish pop: sweet but not sappy, bold yet beautiful, and emotionally eclectic without becoming melodramatic.

This album shows that these guys have plenty of room to expand stylistically while still absolutely owning blues rock.

The Invisible Way champions everything that is great about Low and realizes it through a neat and clear lens. It’s a formidable outing and at number ten, a remarkable feat met with solid results.

Overall, this is a strong and durable suite of material that holds-up satisfyingly well to repeated and loud airings.

Based on the music alone, No World For Tomorrow, like all their work, is a phenomenal accomplishment and remarkable introduction of Progressive Rock into the mainstream cannon.

If The Citizens' intended destination is a place of their own craft that lies beyond the boring boundaries of traditional pop, they can stop driving.

From track to track, there is a progression that not only befits their name but their musical endeavors.

Ultimately, Silence Yourself is eleven songs of balanced, well-constructed rock music.

For the uninitiated though, this is essential listening for any member of the iTunes set; crafting your next playlist will likely turn into a transcendental experience after you hear how uncannily Drake goes along with Flock of Seagulls.

While far from perfect, The Hold Steady's sloppy take on classic rock is actually quite refreshing and much more fun than most current indie rock and British post-punk revival wankery.

Wyatt At The Coyote Palace shows us a performer whose energies are intact and whose music and lyrics retain their ability to provoke, charm and occasionally disturb us.

With Humbug, they have an album that can be fully enjoyed by anyone willing to give it a fair chance.

Last Light is a compelling expression of compassion, frustration, and love in a variety of forms.

A ten track album sequenced as two sides, with short introductory ambient noise pieces in slots one and six, the tracks drone on long and stand tall together, creating a monolithic listening experience which feels both constantly building and already there.

At times on Song in the Air, I'm reminded of what it might sound like if Sigur Ros, Radiohead, and Jimmy Eat World were all merged together.

They've got enough going for them that they're likely to remain steadfast favorites of true music fans even after the hype has died down and the scenesters have moved on to something else.

Such music deserves strong praise, even when it's simply another great album to hear from one of music's many rising stars.

The band's most eminently danceable record, featuring enough grooves to work your dance party while still retaining enough good ideas to deliver a challenging experimental record that fits well with the rest of the band's catalogue and points to exciting new directions the future could take.

All in all, this is a very impressive record, one that succeeds on just about every little tweak of the pop idiom it attempts.

Poliça may have more to offer, especially if they can branch out from a blueprint that they rightly feel very comfortable with, but for the time being Shulasmith is a finely executed and thematically and emotionally rich record.

The expansively visceral Condition does arguably need to be swallowed whole to make sense of its engrossing immersive scope, although a half-time breather is perhaps advisable for those with more delicate dispositions.

An album that sounds both familiar and fresh and entirely entertaining.

Don’t dismiss The Floodlight Collective for the outstanding introduction to Lotus Plaza it is, because in reality, it is a winning release in more ways than one.

So yeah, this album is pretty freakin’ good... but it’s not going to change your perspective on music.

The Mendoza Line have created an album that has had many talking, received the most recognition of their career, and will spawn repeat play on the CD players of many.

This belongs a lot more to the R&B/Neo-soul side of hip-hop; it's a terrific way for the Queens rapper to showcase his impressive skill as a musical artist.

For something put together with a supposed casualness, Bird Dog Dante is actually a remarkably industrious--albeit satisfyingly low-key--affair that stands-up as Parish’s most consistent and accessible solo album to date.

Whilst long-time fans may still understandably prefer the more complex and organic ilk of 2007’s The Rook or 2010’s The Golden Archipelago, Jet Plane And Oxbow enjoyably expands Shearwater’s widescreen reach without losing what can make the band so special.

In Do You Like Rock Music?, there seems to be a condensed clarity of vision, that vision being rock bigness and youthful enthusiasm and curing inertia and malaise, in the vein of the aforementioned past British masters.

The more I listened to Tanglewood Numbers, the more I liked it.

While Sydney Vermont's shaky, unusual voice might rub some the wrong way, I found it to be awkwardly beautiful - much like the rest of Hello, Blue Roses' debut album.

The group manages to rise above many of their stereotypical, unoriginal contemporaries by featuring plenty of surprises and innovation (although there is still a very recognizable grounding throughout).

It’s a tight, very good album and although it’ll have its unfair share of detractors, like the rest of the band’s albums, it will shine no matter what.

There's a definite new feel to an album by Bibio in 2011; while many of the singular trademarks remain, there are choice additions that make for another triumph of a release for the British producer.

That Caribou is still hitting the bull's-eye on a moving target is no surprise, but that he's done it with an emotional heft beyond what he seemed capable of in the past makes this album feel like a personal victory as well as a step forward.

Beet, Maize & Corn is a pleasant album of calm, beautiful pop with a touch of class that’s rare.

What elevates the music of Love and Distance are the unexpected combinations that make this latest Sub Pop release a cut above the duo's former albums.

Instead of evolving out of the band's unique style, Clinic has decided to enhance it and deepen it.

It's as though they've found the link between tightly driven post punk and loose garage rock. Songs such as "Trouble," "Mystery Zone," and last year's single "Got Nuffin" bridge the gap between Nuggets and the Stiff Records label. This is certainly what indie rock has been based on for the past 30 years and so far only Spoon has done it with any success. As though to balance out the rock or to satisfy their interest in each end of the song writing spectrum, Transference also satisfies.

By eschewing the instrumental grandiosity and working into a clean cut sound of their own, Work moves you to great feelings of warmth and a feeling of great joy.

Bamboo Diner In The Rain won’t necessarily catapult The Wave Pictures much further forwards in terms of commercial appeal, but as a self-proclaimed attempt “to grow inwards” it’s a strangely satisfying go-to collection for those already convinced of the group’s lateral charms.

Ultimately, Sunset / Sunrise is a wonderful follow-up for the duo because of how well they are able to combine the best aspects from their debut with new found options.

Even at just six songs, they’re each powerfully presented and Perkins is better for it, in astonishingly marvelous fashion.

Ringle is easily one of the few that can do it so well and lucky us, Thistled Spring is an exemplary example of what folk music is capable of when done right.

A heart-meltingly wonderful return to form.

Speech Therapy sounds surprisingly intellectual and crisp.

On a purely compositional level, this is dazzling and downright brilliant. But on a purely artistic level, Insides is a startling accomplishment.

Though not sure what to make of it, it is viscerally enjoyable and mentally wondrous nonetheless.

The songs unfold with an understated elegance as soothing voices emerge from the colorful, melancholic backgrounds. Ambient drones and spacey synths blossom with shimmering arrangements while the contemplative stylings form a winning combination of radiant sonics and lilting choruses.

As two musicians who may have gotten slighted, their self-titled album is an accomplished and impressive debut.

He may like his disguises and perhaps enjoys provoking his audiences but underneath the image and the keen ear for wordplay a really quite serious songwriting talent is very determinedly making himself heard.

While nothing on The Forgotten Arm is brand new for her, it's a natural evolution from what her fans have gotten used to, the minor-key laments and regrets of Bachelor No. 2 and Lost in Space.

Though there were hints of branching out before, none were ever as intrepid as the songs presented on Starry Mind, making Gubler's music something to surely take note of.

Grand National takes risks and does it well; these multi-instrumentalists explore different genres, and have made music that is not only accessible but also never repetitive.

The album doesn't make the point that Yorke doesn't need his bandmates to make a great record so much as it helps shed light on what each member of the band contributes to the overall equation.

If you've yet to experience PJ Harvey, The Peel Sessions: 2001-2004 might be the perfect initiation. If you're a long time fan, don't pass this album up simply because you recognize many of the tracks listed.

My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky sounds more like the essence of Michael Gira than the Angels Of Light ever did, and ought to also serve as another broadside to the idea of reformations being inherently grubby and uncreative ventures.

His slick production and meticulous attention to detail show promise of future mastery, and stand as evidence of his uniqueness.

Don’t relegate Inside Your Guitar to personal music players such as your PC or mp3 player. Make sure you give it a couple of attentive spins on the big stereo in order to fully enjoy it’s resonant beauty.

Rounding out his catalog, Jay Stay Paid makes a worthy addition to any hip-hop aficionado’s collection.

Craftiness, when it’s this imaginative, can go a long way and for Jookabox, these bizarre ideas seem to work even when they shouldn’t.

This album is a feast for the uninitiated.

The King is Dead serves as enough solid music to lull us over until the next official album.

The Bravery treads the same well worn path as bands like The Smiths and The Cure but manages to avoid tripping on its roots by adding a unique personality.

Whatever it is that Finn has done in his lifetime to create such a compelling album is wondrous; he has taken the natural gifts from his father and paired them with his own musical capability.

An intoxicating brand of synth-pop that's slicker than a Gordon Gekko coif.

This record is so far beyond anything that she has done in the past that it is absolutely certain to alienate the majority of the listening public and more than a few of her fans.

Although amERICa perhaps lacks a few more songs that could standalone from its conceptual connectivity, as a combined entity it captures Eric Goulden catching an inventive and much-deserved third wind for his charmingly contrary career.

It's always great to see a band showcase all of their strengths but when you can take everyone by surprise it's going to require just that much more skill.

All 12 tracks on Love Is All’s new LP Two Thousand and Ten Injuries provide instant intrigue, and after 20 listens to the album – it’s that addicting--not one of the songs managed to lose its initial charm.

Pop sensibilities are allowed to swell over, into and around each other; each song blends the seams of the core into a fragmented, disjointed, appropriately-meshing of sounds and in the end, Love this Giant is a magnificent triumph because of it all.

Although this is one of the most linear and easy-to-navigate Giant Sand records, some might be put off by the album's lapses in noisier and raucous dynamics.

Whatever the band loses in spastic energy and volatility on Zoo, it gains in melodic constancy.

Phillips and Wareham manage to toe just the right line between diverse arrancements and album-wide cohesion - it's a little like listening to Luna in an alternate universe where they only play weddings and bar mitzvahs.

In the end, most of the songs on MM..Food? are of typical Doom quality (for the uninitiated, that means â??excellentâ?), but the album is severely bogged down both by a few duds and by a trio of interludes in the middle of the album.

Each man delivers touches that are downright unique to their brand of music, but together, they carry a strong penchant for the greatness of indie rock. It's never groundbreaking, but it doesn't have to be either – A Thing Called Divine Fits celebrates music with terrific, yet humble, results.

21st Century Breakdown is far from a bad album, and, like Idiot, will likely be the best release this year from such a popular band.

There is not much on The Real Feel that is daring or new in terms of musical explorations, but the emotionally energetic vocals and intestinal fortitude of the lyrics coupled with the honesty and the understated transcendence of the songs is quite alluring.

The vocal parts are slathered in a hazy, echoing ambience and aren’t smoothly integrated with the songs. That being said, it’s not reason enough to dismiss the album, as there is enough substantive music to overcome this imperfection.

Whilst at times Cool Planet could have benefitted from more of the cohesiveness that marked out Motivational Jumpsuit, its detours and greater collaborative ethos also give Pollard, Sprout and co. greater room for ongoing creativity.

If there were ever an album that fulfilled the requirements for a “summer album,” this is it; Phoenix offers songs that offer little in the way of innovation or substance but a wealth of top-notch musicianship, catchy melodies, and transcendent choruses.

This is a transitional album, it seems: there are a lot of attempts here to do something new, not all of them successful. Still, it will be exciting to see what they transition to.

One of the most accessible, pleasant releases of 2006.

Whilst sonic variety isn’t perhaps the strongest card pulled out on Split Milk, it does play out with some charming Astor songcraft and insistent hooks.

A solid if not completely earth-shattering act of restitution for loyal Bob-watchers