Second disc Chirpin' Hard is the crowd-pleasing Speakerboxxx to Hill's less-accessible Church Gone Wild.

The concept is difficult to follow and the music occasionally unpleasant. But the band’s willingness to stretch in new directions is refreshing.

What strikes most is a sense of uncomfortable suspension, and what keeps the album afloat remains a true mystery listen after listen.

The album has a sonic cohesiveness that makes for a consistently pleasant listening experience.

The one thing that holds the whole record together stylistically, though, is that Shipping News play Very Serious Rock Music.

People tend to like Joan of Arc when they play songs, but get all worked up and annoyed when the band stretches out with the experimental stuff. This record is a bunch of the stuff that would have pissed off that latter group of people had the music been bunched in with So Much Staying Alive...

Bumblebeez brings loose, frenetic energy to a mash-up of likely and unlikely sources.

Forget Tomorrow is a record of two exceptional ideas that would sound better as separate records.

Battery is an album of diminishing returns that sputters out of steam halfway through.

The group has obviously lost whatever touch they once had for making unique, interesting music.

Despite the relatively spartan proceedings, there is a substantial amount to latch onto here.

The lack of distinctiveness is what ultimately makes All Years Leaving utterly forgettable.

Often dreamy, sometimes rockin', but rarely more than pedestrian.

As long as they continue to compose such memorable material, there is more than enough room for Mono in the post-rock pantheon.

It's not that Kannberg has somehow "sold out" with Preston School of Industry, but for the time being, he's clearly lost the urge to take good risks.

The songs are likable, but lack a core.

The punk-informed material on Blitzkrieg Pop sounds like the missing link between Ministry's earlier, sensitive electro material and its later and more well-known incarnation as the nihilistic buzz-sawing and bile-spewing industrial unit.

There is some irony in following up a record called We Fight Til Death with one titled (and as vital as) Giving Up The Ghost. However, Windsor For The Derby doesn't sound as if it has succumbed to anything save for its singular atmospheric pop tendencies.

Songs is heavy on romantic longing, but the music is so coy and smart that it rarely feels mushy.

Sparta earn points for thinking big and penning deeply-felt songs that break the five-minute mark, but ambition alone isn't enough.

Marrying a knack for hummable melodies to a much-needed dose of sincerity, The Hiss hammers their tunes home with a sense of urgency on par with their classic rock and Brit-pop idols.

If the fifties rocked this hard, we'd be dead now.

Surprisingly, the time frame covered by the collection does not detract from the listening experience, rewarding Cursive-completists with moments of power punk and the angular guitar work the band has come to be known for.

The album's production, particularly the insistence on pinning Brown's hazy croon way on top of the mix, too often dulls any punch the music would otherwise have.

The Catheters do little to distinguish themselves, instead offering formulaic rock rebelliousness in a nicely packaged, repetitive form.

As a hip-hop record, Headset's Space Settings fails to hit the mark of its influences, but it is successful in its own right.

The '80s idolatry is far too forced and distracting, and VHS or Beta comes off as trying too hard to imitate admittedly great, but definitely dated, pop music.

Behold 2004, your kings of yawn-rock, Son, Ambulance.