The Believer is a strong and enormous album about sex.

A mostly brilliant, though occasionally lackluster, album.

The prevailing lack of substance declares itself by the time "Still Take You Home" kicks in, and it becomes evident that Alex Turner’s somewhat chirpy vocals are the album’s lone cohesive influence.

Triumphant, bitter, despondent, but never false or insincere, The Last Romance is one of the early great listens of 2006.

Other People’s Lives is a record to get lost in, especially for those who can close their eyes and trust a sly old cuss to bring them back.

Destroyer’s Rubies is every bit as marvelous as his landmark Streethawk: A Seduction.

Song by song, all of it melts into your head, relentless, narcotic and detached, yet ultimately positive.

Not an album for a sunny day, What the Toll Tells can seem gloomy and filled with shadows.

Timeless is a step up for will.i.am and a step down for Sergio Mendes, somewhere between decency and exceptionality.

Their songs aren’t radio friendly nor are they mind-blowing in scope or execution, but give them time and they’ll creep into the rotating playlist in your head.

Be forewarned: Donuts can be a frustrating tease when the average instrumental clocks in around the one-minute mark. But for those who hold a true appreciation for Dilla and his avoidance of predictable sounds and mainstream beats, Donuts will sound right on track.

A wonderful pop record.

Her ability to draw out more and more truth with each album is indisputable, and on The Greatest, she reaches a golden landmark of self-assurance.

Blake Sennett’s second album with The Elected is more magical and limitless than his first and reminds us why we love his projects in the first place.

For what it is, namely a strong, if somewhat benign, collection of songs from a weather beaten soul who plays a mean guitar, Makers is a therapeutic listen with a gentle, if somewhat morose, melodic sensibility.

There’ll be some splainin’ to do at the pearly gates.

It’s Interpol drinking with the Stratford 4 while doing their best Catherine Wheel impression.

Present are the hints of early Guided by Voices, spotty Who outtakes and country-tinged acoustics that make East River Pipe so beloved, but here these influences tread, weighted, underwater.

Spellbinding and eclectic with the ability to be both eerie and gentle, Detrola is the best of the best of what His Name Is Alive has to offer.

Omnibus offers a lot of quality songs from a quality songwriter.

For 80s nostalgia freaks, you might find that We Are Scientists have a few things in common with The Cure, and you might find that charming. But that’ll tide you over only so long before you realize this is nothing more than a major label trying to play catch-up by signing somebody who sounds like the flavor-of-the-month.

The third time is not the charm, at least in the case of this album, which is polished to the point of being ultimately less appealing and without any angles from which to approach.

Despite the variety of acts on the disc, the songs are surprisingly uniform in structure: stripped down to Beck's vocals (which are left intact) and rebuilt with a drum machine set to either "monotonous" or "uninspired."

As a primer on The Greenhornes, Sewed Soles works best.

A Colores’s most glaring failure is its reluctance to shift from the narcotic tone it so quickly assumes.

As well as being their most accessible, The Campfire Headphase emerges as the most solid Boards of Canada album to date.

Where Cale flaps up is in not allowing himself enough space for nuance atop his overdriven guitars, forcing the deployment of gaudy keyboard settings to match the guitars’ "intensity" and even fumbling into a bona fide mall-punk chorus in "Perfect."

Like The Replacements in the early days, The Beautiful New Born Children are a glorious mess, gleefully bashing out songs in 4/4 time without much regard for melody or variety.