The whole collection is bound together with such charming confidence and good humour that you’ll easily forget any of the limitations--real or potential--of the unaccompanied unplugged concept that could have been Colin Meloy’s undoing.

This truly is a beautiful collection.

Their soul is in no way hurt by the production but instead, this is one of those many times where Danger Mouse’s production has truly aided in creating a terrific album from start to finish.

With the rocking tunes, energetic vocals and those smart lyrics, Accelerate is a true return to form for a band that really needed it.

As with Mark's other musical incarnations, whether as Red House Painters or under his own name, a fine-tuned and patient ear, and a good turn of the volume knob towards high, is required to fully appreciate the nuances of his music.

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

Everything about Midnight Boom is impeccably executed.

Destroyer has clearly picked up where it left off and the music on this eleven song album is utterly exceptional.

Street Horrrsing is a solid if still flawed album full of enough cool moments to satisfy anyone who might be interested in checking it out.

She & Him is the product of folk troubadour M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel and the results are a beautiful product.

With Crystal Castles’ infectious, eclectic music, this is easily one of the highlights of the year and a great addition to the super-genre that is electronic music.

The Dodos have shaped and formed a superb blend of intricate drumming, remarkable acoustic guitar and touching vocals--this is truly something exceptional.

It's definitely worth checking out if you're into noisy, low-key rock and inventive guitar work.

There is just too much hit and miss on this album.

Saturnalia is easily the best album I have heard this year and will undoubtedly be included in many a year end list.

Quaristice does an excellent job of mixing the two sides of Autechre into one cohesive running narrative.

This album is a feast for the uninitiated.

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.

This tandem of dream pop has crafted a beautiful, spectral and memorable album with Devotion.

It’s seamless in its construction, poetic in its songwriting and moving in its aesthetic impression.

The music married to these wonderful lyrics is touching, gorgeous and stunning and there is no doubt in my mind that Atlas Sound has created, arguably, the best album of the year.

Grand Archives is still an impressively modern take on American indie; taking the best from Southern Indie rock and tossing over some modern effects and innovative musicianship to create a genuinely genre bending project.

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.

This is evidence of a group that has really come into their own and while they were at it, refined their skills. It’s to the point that I feel this album is head and shoulders above any of their erstwhile releases.

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

Art-punk, post-punk, hardcore, alternative, slap whatever label you would like on it; I'll stick to youthful, captivating, raw, and memorable as my descriptors.

Each and every single song on here is sprinkled with a certain something to make it outstanding all on its own.

The menace, exhilaration, and sheer catchiness of the band’s earlier songs, however, have been diminished, leaving pop and rock tunes that rely heavily on Adele’s vocals and a chronically agitated tempo to carry them through to the finish line.

The Bedlam in Goliath is an exhausting listen and it seems like the guys have tried to pack in as many prog-rock clichés as possible.

This is a magnificent debut, filled with endless melodies, memorable hooks and plenty of toe-tapping moments.

With Women as Lovers they have created one of their more accessible and cohesive albums to date.

Ultimately this is an engaging pop album with lush sonics, like a guitar-heavy Death Cab album with a less than brilliant singer, which is not a bad thing at all, and should feed the need of fans of alluring, guitar-based indie-rock and keep DCFC fans contented until the release of their new album in May ‘08.

Keep Your Eyes Ahead is certainly a rewarding venture as it contains enough amiable and alluring dream-pop, with ample atmospheric charm, to overlook it's few weaknesses.

This is a band that is as strong as ever and on the pleasurable Hey Venus! sound downright terrific.

This is definitely a solid album from a band that is surely to get better.

It's her cathartic, invigorating voice on the never-miss Jukebox that aids in delivering one of the best albums of 2008--already.

With their trademark of talented musicianship, beautiful story-telling and unique brand of rock and roll, Drive-By Truckers are unmatched in every sense of the word. This is a remarkable album and one that is downright near perfect.

Evangelicals certainly have the potential to push through and make amazing music--it’s just too much hit and miss here.

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.

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.

This is a terrific album, one fully ready and suited for headphones; an album that should be easily enjoyed by all and that will surely be loved by many.

This is certainly a breath of fresh air in what was a slow year for hip-hop.

The question then arises whether this double album is “necessary” in the overall scheme of Sigur Ros’s work.... When listening to Hvarf, the answer is decidedly “yes” for sustaining their known output, but on the Heim side of things, with its stripped down, string-focused, acoustic sound, the answer leans towards “no”.

Even as someone who knows very little about electronic music, this album is affecting. You will never get the urge to skip a song and you will desire and covet every sound that’s emitted from this album because they make up one tremendous, collective entity in Untrue.

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

A collection that’s muddled but peppered with gems.

Load Blown, superficially, is more of the same; sample some 30 second clips online or in your local record store and it's believable that this is a continuation of what they've been doing the past few albums. The entirety, however, exhibits otherwise, and isn't nearly as fulfilling.

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.

Taken as a whole package though, R.E.M. Live is a flawed but respectable enough addition to the canon of three men who can still conjure up a bit of magic, albeit in spite of themselves.

This album is more a statement of where they're going. It feels big, open, and alone, like you are listening in on something you shouldn't hear.

The album is packed with impressive musicianship, a great attention to detail, melodic lines backed with beautiful harmonies and countless powerful moments.

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.

It’s pretty hard to turn down, just as his collection of self-referencing, string heavy ballads "You‘re So Silent Jens" was.

The commanding Siouxsie continues to be a force to be reckoned with, as she both bears and bares her personal pain on this album, bringing a bittersweet weariness and frank vulnerability to her song lyrics and vocals.

Magic succeeds magnificently because it is the perfect balance of what we’ve come to love about an artist while venturing out to try new things.

A poignant and powerful collection.

This record is vast, playful, and most importantly, an absolute joy to listen to.

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

Whilst Trees Outside The Academy isn't quite as breathtaking as it could/should be, especially given the niggling-feeling that Moore didn't give the album 100% of his attention, even when he had a fresher formula at his disposal, it does contain some consistently strong material that complements as well as outshines his best latter-day Sonic Youth wares.

It's not that so many of these disparate sections sound bad--on the contrary, they're generally quite listenable and often feel like excellent mini-songs--but that they seem to willfully distract from a far more worthwhile mantle that Akron/Family are more than capable of taking up.

Due to its extreme use of repetition and electronics, it forgoes much of the curious, daydream-esque dynamic which had dominated previous Collective releases, but what has been assembled here is an astute, entrancing deconstruction of pop music. Highly and happily recommended to all.

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.

This album is not only the band’s most solid and consummate release to date, not merely one of the most veritable albums 2007 has delivered to us--but also, truly, one of the top albums in the past five years of indie rock history.

Watch The Fireworks is undoubtedly a determined and brave step-outwards for Pollock.

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

Let the bloggers cry about the change all they want but None Shall Pass is the most focused and dare I say accessible album of Aesop’s career

Places Like This is a fun album that’s difficult to describe and impossible to forget.

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.

Ultimately, it ends up being a fine album. Nothing too spectacular or breakthrough but filled with enough great tunes to keep you coming back.

This album is both immediately gratifying and deceptively interesting.

Everything is here: melody, harmony, great lyrics, smart instrumentation and pure emotion. It’s book ended by two of the best songs of the year and everything in between is music gold.

The self-titled album brings the listener into a glorious sound world of first rate noise-pop and never lets go.

The tunes on this EP are raw, sharp, and catchy, and always push with some kind of propulsive rhythm--a dynamic strut of drums, guitar, and vocals, even on the calmer verse sections.

This record is easily on par with Corgan's solo record as one of the worst things he has ever done.

If you're a hardcore Interpol fan, already accustomed to the gloomy, brooding aspects of the band's full-releases, I would strongly recommend Our Love to Admire as a solid release which easily competes with Antics. However, if you've only dabbled, this album isn't explosive enough to edge out many of the other recent releases in this genre.

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is painfully short; a lean, black-tie rock album, and one of the year's best in a year full of great records.

As reunion/comeback albums go, Time on Earth is outstanding.

The Else is lined up with catchy, solid songs that I can’t help but sing along to. So though it’s not the best Giants album - it’s good, and it’s kept me entertained.

Neither too mature (i.e. boring), nor too desperately age-defying (i.e. embarrassing), Three Easy Pieces potently reenergizes older Tom trademarks as well as imprinting a few new ones.

With Icky Thump they have proven, yet again, that being musically sound in both songwriting and craftsmanship, while knowing how to exercise instrumentation is key in making a solid album in today’s day and age.

When the band operates under more traditional songwriting styles they can be quite catchy, but the more wandering, abstract moments can sometimes wander a little too far into non-structured noise.

Arthur & Yu's inconsistently brewed blend of neo-psychedelic indie-folk is definitely an acquired taste and the home-recorded, lo-fi production along with uninspired songwriting renders In Camera incapable of being a worthwhile investment of your listening time.

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.

Wild Mountain Nation keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time and it’s a fine piece of music.

To be succinct and frank, Boxer is superb. Not only did The National create a startling, astonishing work of genius but they also crafted an album that is one beautiful piece of art.

Whilst the nostalgia-soaked Sky Blue Sky will cause consternation amongst those who backed Wilco’s brave efforts to bend the staidness of plaid-shirted alt. rock, it’s still arguably one of the most charmingly-effortless records Jeff Tweedy has ever spearheaded.

The Beatific Visions is not flawless, but even with a few glaring misses, this album is above average and often brilliant.

Volta is her most accessible album in years, even if it is sometimes at the expense of its own best interest.

While there isn’t a song that will stick out immediately such as “When K Got Over Me” or “I Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” there are plenty of songs that will find themselves ingrained in your memory long after a listen.

Whilst there has been a little external redecoration, many core elements remain in the band’s unchangeable centre of gravity.

Whilst this self-titled Mice Parade set may struggle to push Adam Pierce’s envelope much beyond a well-sealed blue-print, it does at least keep the momentum of his low-key career moving along at a respectable and occasionally unpredictable rate.

A good, albeit soft, Brit-pop CD, from a band that continues to mature.

As usual, Mascis' guitar--a stirring strength, charming and expressive, a poignant power, is the star of this show--and as a whole unit, they haven’t sounded this good in about sixteen years.

Ultimately, it ends up being one fantastic follow-up that brims at the sides with vehement energy.

Once the songs on Lion the Girl are over, they are as difficult to remember as those wisps of dream that dissolve upon waking.

Dumb Luck has [its] share of intriguing moments, on a few shining tracks.

[It] would be a shame for you to miss.

Arguably [Cave's] most convincing collection of boisterousness and drama since 1994’s Let Love In.