These 7 songs are powered by strong emotions and a dynamic melodicism and polished to a burnished glow.

Each track contains elements that sound similar in combinations of tone, texture and melody from previous records, so this album is not necessarily a knockout. However, the band’s artistic hybrid is delivered with a fervent honesty and steeped in an emotional intensity that may make it sound a lot like other Eels material.

Mountains had found a way to work in an area which was unexplored and undefined, successfully fashioning their own esthetic. This new direction is taking Mountains away from that specialness and closer to the average.

The music is easily attended to and the mutual expression of feelings--as they're expressed through stunning instrumentation--is a terrific aspect that Little Me Will Start a Storm definitely possesses.

The freshness of these subversions reveal spaces you didn't know were there, and achieve a rare expansion of the vocabulary of music.

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.

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.

A refreshingly new take on classic indie guitar rock.

A phenomenal noise record.

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

Everything has been stripped to the core, with the focus on creating a tight album from beginning to end.

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

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 are a few moments of weakness on Keep on Your Mean Side - most notably where V.V. and Hotel get a little too repetitive or too simplistic for their own good – but it's easy to move past these minor instances without it detracting from the album too much.

It's often a bit silly, always fun, and surprisingly inspired.

The music on Something for All of Us… is focused, melodic and utterly impressive. Not only does it sound terrific but it sounds like it was a complete pleasure to make.

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.

This small grievance aside, Getting Paid is sure to delight not only the Mars Volta fans out there, but also anyone with a passing fancy for artists ranging from Geddy Lee to Jack White.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Despite including a few hallmarks of a groundbreaking record (experimentalism, eclecticism, ambitious), Wrath of Circuits is still not an easy listen for those people who don't wet their pants at every new Dischord or Touch and Go release.

A consistently heady and visceral shot of classic Mudhoney: angry, fuzzy guitars, propulsive rhythms, and sarcastically-jaded lyrics.

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

Blood Red Shoes still rocks out on most tracks, all riled up and restless, keeping the rhythms chunky and choppy on standouts like the defiantly-played and shouted "Light It Up," the revved-up guitar and drums of "Don't Ask," and the guitar jags and slamming drums on "Keeping It Close."

What Franz Ferdinand have proven is that not only do they make impressive albums but that they are capable of trying out new sounds with great skill. It’s still the same band we fell in love with, only they have incorporated more sounds into their arsenal and with songs as good as these, it’s a welcome addition.

All the Saints pound out lumbering hard rock. And it sounds good.