The thirteen-song cycle does a lot to support the minor hype that's built around the band, yet simultaneously flattens some of the bubbling hyperbole.

In this case I've been compelled to return a lot. Weird accomplishment for a pop singer. It's a five-or-six-listens album.

Timeless and universal, everyone can identify with Willie Nelson's songs, as sung by Houck, as Phosphorescent's tales of heartbreak, wasted youth, and harsh introspection.

For a band noted for their precious aesthetics, their secretly aggressive riffs and jabbing zings are the most essential facets to their authenticity.

Throughout Merriweather Post Pavilion the band mixes instrumentation and samples and voices in a way that seems to be an advanced or accelerated development of past triumphs.

Although it teases at the contrary for its first half, the idea that we really have no idea quite what to expect from the future of Bon Iver is the greatest gift this four-song breath gives us.

Their singles have always been enjoyable, and the increasing diversity and confidence exhibited on Day & Age could hint that it might not be so far fetched to expect great albums from the Killers in the future.

The BBC Sessions comes on the heels of "Push Barman to Open Old Wounds," which succeeded simply because it made neat work of the "Lazy Line Painter Jane EP Box," but BBC Sessions seems to somehow simultaneously offer more and less than that compilation.

Although the material could certainly stand on its own without all of its dressings, Canopy Glow is a more complete, dynamic experiment because of them.

The Bronx III is muscular and solid and is, more often than not, good clean fun.

While the similarities to Morretti's other group are what make Little Joy so easy to digest, they are also what make it seem somewhat unremarkable.

Smalldone's solemn and controlled croon, though subtly emotive, amounts to dismal verbosity. The Red River is a serious, introspective project that, like the narrating wanderer, shows no signs of its roots.

There is experimentation for the sake of experimentation and experimentation for sake of enjoyment. Money, unfortunately, is mostly the former.

Deerhunter have indeed created a masterpiece. While it's not perfect, it has the charm and scope and full realization that was lacking in the band's earlier work.

Spacey, ambient, and vaguely tribal, Alpinisms creates a landscape to get lost in. Despite their differing musical backgrounds, the band has a cohesive sound.

The sound on Alight of Night is a swinging, noisy, glammy and overall dark evolution of garage rock.

Intricate and ever-changing in style, The Sea and Cake give further proof why they've had such staying power.

It sounds more like half an album than an EP. It also sounds more like half-an-album than half-assed.

With OH (ohio), Wagner has crafted a soundtrack of specific detail for that lazy mid-morning melancholy that comes to anyone who feels like the world is turning without them. Enjoy it.

Tastefully fashionable, Saunier's truly grandiose drumming bits serve to keep the listener well entertained while never flagging as the band's backbone; Dieterich, now bolstered by Rodriguez, sharpens the material with catchy guitar riffs; and Matsuzaki's well-timed and particularly soft voice provides plenty of flavor. Never conventional, bordering on the impractical, the formula nevertheless works.

The good news is that the album is downright delightful. The bad news is that if you've followed Holland since her first release, you're probably not looking for an album that's merely consistent singer/songwriter fare: no, you want the highs and the lows.

Far removed from the desolation I feel surrounded by, Land of Talk's first full-length album's sense of hope, grounded in realism, is at once reassuring and encouraging.

Without a heavy-handed disposition, Department of Eagles manages to convey the sentiment of another time while reaching a modern audience.

The whole of the album is stunning and unique, and if the thematic gender-bending core of the album makes a few people ideologically shy away, then it's truly a shame.

While indie purists might resent Bianchi's one-eighty, it shouldn't be regarded as a betrayal, but rather as escapist fun.

It's fun and light, and even though for all I know he could be singing about the destruction of mankind, it is bursting with joy and happiness.

With his soundbombing past set aside for the moment, DJ/Rupture proves he's just as capable of providing a different kind of head trip, one that sufficiently aids the comedown from whatever your nocturnal activity.

Overall, Black Forest (tra la la) is one of those albums which grows in likeability the more you listen to it, as the charming sounds of many subtle instruments appear with more spins.