Nothing is Real is an eleven-song effort that showcases Crystal Antlers with a tighter outfit and in turn, a tighter release.

They have indeed created an album that is ultimately rewarding and full of musical promise.

See You in Magic's tracks are so consistently good that determining the album's best poses a challenge.

16 sonorous, brooding alternative-rock tracks that are as open and experimental as they are rocked out and catchy.

RYAT takes her technique a step further on album #2, diversifying her sound to include symphonic strings and other instrumentation. She also delves deeper into a more expressive, sometimes vulnerable, vocal delivery, getting to the root of her emotions and letting them take seed in song.

Whilst Craig Dermody still has some way to go in proving himself as a near-equal to his unconcealed influences, Mid Thirties Single Scene does attest that Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are about far more than a jokey band name, with some increasingly impressive staying-power. Moreover, it’s unquestionably the group’s first keeper collection.

The problem is the songs. Oh, the songs - they're pretty, all right, but there's no substance.

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.

Some of the mid-tempo tracks towards the end of the album may slow the momentum created by the first half, yet Only In Dreams is ultimately a triumphant, self-assured release that proves the Dum Dum Girls are here to stay and will continue to evolve into full-fledged rock stars, a role they seemed destined to fill.

While many electronic acts are trying their hand at folkier compositions and attempting to squeeze warmth from the digital realm, The Knife's Silent Shout opts for ice-cold distance. The record suffers nothing for it, instead coming out monolithic and beautiful.

Ultimately, it’s the combination of thwarted ambition and lack of proper recognition, which is apparent, that prevents Beware from ever fully taking flight as a listening experience.

To themselves and their fans, this is probably just another good Bats record. To newcomers, like myself, this is a great record that really deserves to be checked out.

Frankly, you could pick pretty much any song at random and be guaranteed either a gorgeous slab of jubilation or a bittersweet drop of beatification.

This is a solid, sonically beautiful album.... [Yet] the problem with her quicker stuff is that, while pretty, it tends to sound all the same; you end up desperate for the chorus, so that you can tell one song from another.

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

Stylistically, while it can all fit in to the category of Indie/Alt. Rock if it had to, every song brings something different to the table.

Zoo Psychology is gritty, and crazy, and at times, almost maddening.

A bright, urgent, and charming album from an excellent young band.

Each track is unique, thanks in part to Markus Acher's peculiar voice and The Notwist's ability to seamlessly blend acoustic pop and electronic rock into a genre-bending, intriguing, and sometimes catchy, electro-fuzz pop, resulting in an uncommonly captivating album that gets better with each spin.

The overall effect is some formidable, quirky inde-rock.

Veering through infectious reflexions on self-imposed domestic isolation (“Staying In”), being contentedly single (“It’s So Weird”), confectionary-addiction (“Sugar”), rampant life commodification (“Everything’s For Sale”), the fake news-mired polity (“Paid To Lie”), personal body and space dishevelment (“Broken Doll”), these are some of the most consistently likeable Hatfield cuts of recent times.

What could have been a boring, belligerent, and bellicose introspective slide into the music industry dustbin has in fact turned out to be one of Grandaddy’s most listenable and likeable releases.

Every note on the album feels intricately placed. Every word sung feels thoroughly vetted. Luna has nary a molecule of atmosphere to spare on this record.

It’s so intriguing that I continually find myself tuning and listening to it over and over again.

Milk Man is representative of just about everything the band does best: the melodies soar, bend, and crunch; the verse seems interminably driven by its own internal logic; and the band’s members still play with a near-telepathic singularity of thought.

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

Though true that the album lacks the fervent surge of nearly every other Sigur Rós record, it's far from a snoozer. The conspicuous beauty and flummoxing eccentricity of the past haven't gone anywhere – they've just had their edges softened.

It is both a timid musical experiment and a relatively directionless one at that.

Heron King Blues, for all its successes, is not an album for Califone rookies.

The band merrily rips through song after song with skill and zeal, all the while cheekily brandishing a wit that's equal parts irony and earnestness.

The songs on Thickfreakness are all near masterpieces.

Obits revels in the sort of music that's at the other end of the spectrum from brooding introspection and critical listening; these songs don't ask for a response so much as they demand a reaction.

Superb album in every facet, it is the first time in a while I have been able to emotionally engage in an album right from the get go.

His most complete album to date, Chad Van Gaalen's Soft Airplane carries aisles of contradictions through turbulence and diffused sunlight. Here, the talented artist plays to his strengths.

When not overdone, the playing and singing are excellent, and when they want to, the Dresden Dolls can pen a mighty fine tune as well.

There's enough diversity amongst these 11 songs to showcase the band's unique talents.

As with any Kristin Hersh long-player, Learn To Sing Like A Star will of course take a dozen or so spins to reveal its true merits to listeners.

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

The depth of Sioux's technical skill is palpable and worth the listen.

This album is both immediately gratifying and deceptively interesting.

They have crafted a terrific debut album and are prime to make a dent in the indie community.

The music is bold, intelligent, and quirky--maybe a little too quirky, but that’s up for debate. If Peanut Butter has a fault, it’s too much consistency.

Formerly, you’d envision a samba paced song like “An Insular Life” to grow into a meaty, strong-armed force but here, Meiburg and Co. allow for the strings to bring it to a lifting end, well after they’d taken the drum’s pattern to a heavenly new place.

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.

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.

If it doesn't put you to sleep, WIT'S END provides a rich and empathetic companion to loneliness.

The chemistry between the members of Rahim is quite apparent from the beginning to the end of the album.

The worst thing you can say about On My Way is that it isn't as good as Sha Sha.

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

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.

It’s obvious Adamson possesses some serious musical vision, but Stranger on the Sofa takes so many musical missteps and is so laughable lyrically, I have trouble recommending it.

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

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

For a de facto second bite of the comeback cherry, Snow Bound has plenty to warrant continued active-veteran status for The Chills.

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”.

Given the wider reach and greater ambition at play, Trouble is indeed a vastly improved Hospitality studio set. Admittedly, the album could have done with more a few more truly standouts statements.

Whereas Magnolia was instantly gratifying – a sea change for Molina both sonically and emotionally - What Comes After the Blues is scattered and tangled.

The album never challenges the conventions of a political punk rock record. Because so many political punk rock records have come and gone, Anti-Flag missed another opportunity to at least make The People or the Gun a little more compelling than its army of predecessors.

Together, the imagery and music provide a nostalgic, innocent atmosphere, and an album worthy of a listen.

Wrongly cast as a chicken-fried version The Strokes after 2003’s stellar Youth & Young Manhood, on their latest, Aha Shake Heartbreak, The Kings prove that they’re a band of significant depth and originality.

Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under is, simply, a lot of fun. Some of that fun might most appeal to the countries it's directed at, but those feeling no particular kinship to Australia or New Zealand will still find Amanda's quirkiness endearing.

As reunion records go this is certainly no lazy phoned-in companion to more lucrative live shows, as it captures promising movements forward as opposed to just fumbled nostalgic flashbacks.

While it’s very good hard rock and there are the little differences, the overall sound of the album is largely the same.

Strong and very durable, the somewhat live album is an interesting release, with many free-forming ideas and passing blunders abounding.

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.

A solid – albeit unadventurous - long-player, which refines instead of redefines and consolidates more than it innovates.

At the root of all good music is a dying cause to tell a good story and Future Islands take that kind of attitude to heart with In Evening Air; there is nothing dismissible, or close to it, on here.

A memorable display from a band we need to acknowledge as true greats and it’s a thrill ride from beginning to end.

False Priest generally packs the kind of shock and awe that made 2007's Hissing Fauna such a delight. Throw in some deft work at the boards by one of today's hottest producers and a couple of guest appearances by notable female vocalists, and you've got one of 2010's most colorful releases. It's not for everyone, but that's half the fun of it.

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.

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

There are well-defined marks of maturity in every aspect on this record.

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

The Bird and the Bee is as light as a feather, for sure. It’s not throwaway, though; the darting melodies and twinkling keyboards are like some divine ringtone and the pair’s love of jazz standards is apparent in the harmonic reach and twists of their songs.

These sparse, unfastened and more importantly, exuberant covers are all flash and no substance. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t specially well done and loads of fun, either.

This album sounded exactly as I imagined it would, sounding pumped in straight from a dingy practice space from the early 80’s. It’s just that the music sounds more in service to the post-punk ideal than to the individual songs, affecting a feeling of taking a wild trip through a style instead of offering memorable individual experiences.

It’s somewhat troubling to see Jurado abandoning the genre of folk that served him so well on his last album. More unsettling is the simultaneous presence of the mopey indulgence of some of Jurado’s faux-gothic breakup stories and the honed, spare excellence of tracks like “White Center,” “Lottery,” and “Fuel.”

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.

The truth is, practically everything on Dark Was the Night is exceptionally well done. Even when they aren’t covering but contributing original recordings, everyone brings their A-game.

Unlike other odds and sods collections, Around the Well sounds and feels like an accomplished release.

Although Violens is a bit remarkable for capturing such a specific sound ...its scope is a bit limited. The trio utilizes the same tones and mostly the same approaches throughout, resulting in only the smallest level of uniqueness for each track.

For the most part the music on Infinity is a skilfully crafted mixture of ambient soundscapes that are transformed into cohesive songs as Tiersen layers percussion and other elements across the initially sometimes formless tone generations that will inevitably have some listeners confused and others enraptured.

Although it dodges near-perfection almost deliberately, it confirms that Gelb’s maverick creativity has an astute methodology in its benevolent madness.

This is certainly my favorite British release of the year.

Never before has Bianchi put so much focus on the lyrics and been so open, so vulnerable.

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

Putting analytical angst aside though, in short this is another tranquil and refreshing oasis on the compelling Land Observations journey.

As much as I loved Amore Del Tropico, The Spell comes across even more striking.

Whilst it won’t necessarily win Yo La Tengo many new fans, the aromatic potpourri of Stuff Like That There should happily intoxicate existing ones.

With all of that said and there was plenty said this album is not only highly recommended I would have to say for me at least it is one of the better efforts of 2011 and will more than likely end up on an end of the year round up.

Two years later, the five-piece returns with Simple Math – a concept album which, according to Hull himself, examines perennial hot button topics like marriage, love, religion, and sex. Again, not exactly revelatory material, but Hull has a gift with prose that turns even the most banal observations into striking reflections.

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.

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.

Overall, Bubblegum, is very much a triumph of restyling, that makes it perhaps the most necessary Clinic LP since 2000's Internal Wrangler debut. Perhaps however, it's also time that Clinic developed more as a songwriting vehicle, with singer Ade Blackburn making his vocal/lyrical presence more memorably penetrating.

Get Guilty is unlikely to bust Carl Newman out beyond his inherited fan-base but neither is it likely to disappoint those listening out for more-of-the-same, albeit with obvious but not crippling disadvantages.

While Knuckle Down doesn’t wow with new musical directions, the album undeniably satisfies by being familiar and stunning.

Whether there's enough energy, fraternity and songs left in the GBV tank to warrant more new material on top of this year's LP trilogy remains to be heard but this solidly-built long-player successfully marks the end of an unquestionably enjoyable and productive year in the band's admirably contrarian career.

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.