Sewed Soles makes out decently for a greatest hits disc.

The compositions on Connector are firmer, more contained than they've been since 1997's Audoditacker.

!!! has put together an end-to-end burner here, full of songs that will move your ass and stick in your ear for weeks.

It might not be the underground hip-hop record of the year, but it is easily on the short list.

Fennesz does an excellent job of balancing the IDM portions of his sound with more challenging layers of material, making music that is both individual in approach and eminently pleasing to hear.

Guthrie successfully matches his idiosyncratic lyrics with subtle, layered arrangements lush with strings, crisp guitars, and shifting song structures as likely to burst into anthem or lilt towards confession.

They are a lot more inspired-sounding than many of their more contemporary-sounding colleagues.

A shot of raw psych rock that's as adventurous as it is accessible.

What's most impressive is that he manages the delicate balance of being emotive without overwrought, something that many of the seventies pop icons never quite got right.

Newcomers may want to start investigating with something less daunting, but even the casual fan of Cave's work will find this collection indispensable.

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.

Even the most hardened, poker-faced purists will crack a smile at AIH's ridiculously catchy, hook-riddled dance-pop.

While the sound here is undeniably on the lo-fi side of the spectrum, the arrangements and production on the album seem more carefully crafted. The result is Sprout's best album in years.

Suckfish is pure audio porn.

So the news is good. They didn't sell out, they didn't run out of ideas, and they were able to find still more places to yell "Whooo!" Go buy this now.

The compilation will not alter your opinions of Lali Puna. But between the new material and older cuts previously scattered across numerous singles and compilations,I Thought I Was Over That is something fans old and new will want to have around.

This is a great band's most fully realized and mature album in a career already dotted with highpoints.

A gorgeous, shimmering 40 minutes of music - a sonic road trip through parts unknown.

The Black Heart Procession is a truly original band, and Amore Del Tropico is a large stride forward for them, a reminder and a promise of their potential.

Possessing a richly elastic set of vocal chords, Bird is in league with such silver-throated singers as Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright, but he rarely if ever over-emotes, a common criticism leveled at Buckley and Wainwright.

Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells is a near perfect collection of four-minute songs that recall a more ragged XTC, the skewed pop/rock style of The Kinks, and The White Album-era Beatles.

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.

Zedek somehow twists her troubled characters and haunting tunes into things of beauty.

In a time when consistency is rare, and integrity even rarer, the Sea and Cake have made an album that highlights where they've been.

Cave's songwriting chops and incisive lyrics have, if anything, grown stronger.

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

Where previous releases have been occasionally bogged down in somnambulistic reverie, the majority of The Earth Is Blue feels light as air.

Filled with zesty pop confections, sing along choruses, and plenty of attitude.