Sea of Cowards, for all its snarkiness and caustic overtones, is ultimately a fun record, but it’s likely the band had way more fun playing it than I did listening to it.

Alas, it feels like In the Absence of Truth finds the band both spinning its wheels and running out of ideas.

Unfortunately one great number can't save the whole act.

If each track is taken on its own merits, it's apparent that these girls have real talent and there is some creative indie rock here.

While tuneful and solid, [In Time To Voices] is not as spectacularly primal as their initial offering Box Of Secrets.

Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid has enough substantive quirks amongst the tiresome new-wave signposts to make this album a reasonable yet flawed artefact that is more than just the sum of its quaint parts.

The North continues to show off their skill and while nothing earth-shattering will be found here, it's something to fully bask in.

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

Based on the simple songwriting and the nauseating lyrical content, This Addiction is sad, and to the die-hard Alkaline Trio fans such as myself, it will greatly disappoint.

Hippies is hardly song focused, the record's 16 tracks tend to mesh together into a blurry, tape-fueled haze--there aren't any obvious highlights here.

“Something Hyper” and “Xian Undertaker” are exceptional and worth hearing. However, the rest of the album provides very little payoff.

The album would be yet another trademark Strokes outing if not for its glaring inconsistency in the later tracks.

Adamson is certainly adept at replicating the sights and sounds of the Bond and Blaxploitation films that inspired him in his youth. But is he celebrating his passion or merely mocking it in a hamfisted fashion? Sadly if feels like too much of the latter, even if it is by accident.

It’s the sheen and almost reflexive attentiveness to commercial accessibility that’s placed on a good handful of the songs that can make them sometimes fail or falter or seem weaker than they truly are.

Overall, what could have been yet another cash-cow milker actually turns out to be a curious and compelling piece of therapy for Frank Black as a writer and performer.

With a few shining moments, the band seems like they've given up. Rather than pine over an album full of memorable hits, Damnesia falls short in many ways.

Folds' wit is less biting, but it's still present. And he's still got style.

It's hard to dislike this album because it is capably performed and the sounds and voices work up a dreamy headspace, but it's also difficult to be really enthusiastic about it.

It’s a multi-layered album constantly shifting in mood and sound offering the listener much to explore.... The band struggle, however, to distinguish themselves from their influences and constantly fall under the shadow of Can, Pink Floyd and The Flaming Lips.

Brokeback And The Black Rock reveals itself as a flawed yet still sporadically rewarding long-player.

Whilst Songs and Other Things may still attract loyal aficionados of Verlaine’s idiosyncratic solo work, it’s certainly unlikely to win over any sceptics.

Through all of the missteps along the way, Face Control is a good album that with some more attention and ingenuity could have been so much better.

Varshons II canters along as a casual grab-bag of songs plucked from largely obscure locations. Whilst the results are mixed, there’s no doubt that Dando hasn’t fully lost the reinterpretative knack that previously served him so well on likes of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” or Mike Nesmith’s “Different Drum”.

Drums Between the Bells is by no means an embarrassment, but don't look for it to be lumped into the upper echelon of Eno's output either, where triumphs like Discreet Music or Another Green World reside.

Roadkillovercoat, though possessing several arresting and infinitely entertaining moments, lacks the overall effect and a certain cohesion to render it an instant classic.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings is, obviously, a mixed bag from Dream Theater. Fans like myself will enjoy it, but again, you can’t deny how familiar it all feels.

Packing both studio polish and meandering melodies makes for a largely safe yet inconvenient marriage.

It's hard not to listen to this album and to think that they've mined this territory already in 69 Love Songs.

Overall, there is sufficient sun-kissed pleasure on Varshons to extend the patience of Evan Dando-devotees a little bit longer but not enough to surpass past makeover masterstrokes.

The way that Howling Bells constructed Radio Wars relies on strong melodies, hooks, songs, songs that aren’t really there, ideas not quite developed.

These songs sound more like parts of songs that have been extracted from something bigger and more fully realized.

Nightcrawler stretches Yorn’s limits as an artist and crosses the line in a few places.

Overall Snowflake Midnight isn’t quite the disaster that the disillusioned might have expected.

Each track is filled with indelible melodies and hooks sure to have you keeping time with your leg or tapping your toes. But with music like this, singing along is the ultimate litmus test, and unfortunately the non-descriptness of the vocals leaves this album lacking a bit of personality and memorability.

There is a solid amount of quirkiness to realize and I Was A King surely have a knack for turning out strong songs but maybe next time a 'less equals more' approach would be more fitting.

Daedelus is a master at what he does, and what he does is different than virtually everything else around him, but he’s playing a little too close to the vest here, trading much of his style for a little more beat.

The indulgences and overreaching take away from the really good songs.

While there's certainly something to be said for BestCoast's paeans to the utopian side of life near the Pacific, the subtle shifts in Cosentino's songwriting are best experienced when the rays of sunshine are muted.

The sad thing about Waves are Universal is that there are many songs that just don't cut it.

Four long players into their career, you can't help but wonder if Interpol is just trying too hard to recapture some of that Turn On the Bright Lights magic. Either that, or the creative juices have been stifled by a rough turn of events.

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.

When Le Tigre ventures out on an extended wire in a familiar direction with tunes like "On the Verge," "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo," and "After Dark," the ensemble proves that this long-awaited follow-up to Feminist Sweepstakes was not in vain.

While Polysics have certainly come into the peak of their sound with Now is the Time, the mindless intensity of the album can be a tad overwhelming.

With repetitive, though bizarrely catchy refrains of failed puppy love and crushes gone awry, Kiss and Tell markets itself to an audience that still borrows money from mom in order to purchase the release.

The guitars and drums machines and electronic selections are a bit unlistenable. There are some redeeming qualities, however, with a solid groove-ridden guitar fashion show with "I'll Sue You" and an eccentric but extremely tasteful European guitar ballad in "Lisbon".

As a live album, Out West is a fair one.

Despite the overall melange approach being a little uneven, there are some genuine delights to be found within.

Violet Cries, one of the more anticipated debut albums of the year, isn't a let down, but it's a difficult album to get a grasp on.

If you're an old, die-hard Kings Of Leon fan Come Around Sundown will upset you. Keep what you love about this band close to your heart and ignore this album, you'll thank yourself in the end.

Aside from its title track, most of Kings and Queens of the Underground sounds a lot like primetime 80s Idol, untouched by the ravages of time, lifestyle, changes in musical fashions or anything else.

Is this a "mature" album? Probably. But I can't help thinking that without Nina Persson's beautiful voice, Gravity just wouldn't have garnered a whole lot of attention.

All in all, this is pretty good album and it is by no means horrible.

Blue Lambency Downward is best played in the background of your day. When it becomes interesting (and it will many times), your ears will perk up and you’ll be impressed. For the slow and boring intervals in between, feel free to focus on something else.

Ultimately, the peaks and troughs of Grinderman 2 RMX come from magnifying both the good and the so-so qualities of the original source material and from finding the most imaginative or laziest ways to refashion them.

Too much of the edge is gone, too much emphasis is placed on guitar solos, and the guitars sound, at times, rather flat and listless.

Incumbent crescendos and contemplative guitar interludes notwithstanding, Mono has chosen to cloak itself in the inescapable fog of its forefathers and influences rather than transcend the sum of its parts.

As a release for anyone else, this would be a well received and respected release. But for Ben Folds, whose first two solo outings were both phenomenal, he simply hasn’t lived up to expectations.

The Thrills still have more musical verve than many other second-album victims, but too much of this album seems as if The Thrills have wearied of their own sunny musical dispositions.

[Its] strongest songs more than compensate for the few lapses in songwriting found elsewhere.

The album feels like a grab-bag of the band’s process, but not a cohesive expression of their craft.

Lament after lament, they start to all blend together, and all of Thomas's considerable skill as a singer, musician, and composer can't seem to create any really arresting moments, just a lot of pretty songs.

For every standout track on the record there is another song where Sparta takes a step back to assess the situation and falters a little bit.

An unquestionable oblique listen by mainstream standards, but compared to Of Montreal's previous offerings, Paralytic Stalks demonstrates an intimacy and immediacy which Barnes would do well to repeat.

Despite the band’s annoying lyrics, their beats can be catchy and they have a kick-ass bass player.

7th Symphony feels like an album that's 60% true artistic vision and 40% simply borrowed from the mainstream to fill out the track listing. If Apocalyptica can craft songwriting that's unique, mature and deep, they should include it on the next album. If not, they should just stick to the instrumentals.

The Dave Grohl production is the best the band has ever had, and the disc absolutely catches fire in a few places, but there’s still a nagging doubt about Rye Coalition.

There are few efforts as noble as Fink’s attempt to express the realities of human suffering. It’s unfortunate that Invisible Ones can’t consistently relate these messages musically.

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

Upon first listen, some of Calamity, though fun, sounds like partial ideas rather than full-fledged songs. Some tracks never recover from this symptom after a dozen spins; some do.

On the whole, Grey Oceans seems to be the same old thing. I wouldn't recommend this to a first time listener of the band.

Barrett combines his best strengths to deliver one of the album’s few shining spots; it’s just a shame there aren’t more of them on here.

Remind Me ... has the feel of two albums compressed into one, and a slightly more minimal approach to instrumentation would have given some of the slower numbers added gravitas.

The songs here seldom rise above the level of being really cute.

This isn’t a horrible album by any means, but it also isn’t very good. Sitek has done an astounding job of creating misty atmospheres and it’s these small touches that aid the album in becoming an interesting listen.

Codename: Rondo showcases a softer sounding group and it's one that sounds neither confident, nor too amusing.

This synth pop rhythm and blues album is nothing out of the ordinary. I do believe, however, that there are some clever twists throughout the album but unfortunately it all becomes a bit repetitive both musically and lyrically.

Even the better tracks fall a little flat.

A solid collection of delicate songs.