The Audience’s Listening is artistic, witty, comprehensive, technical, but most important of all it isn’t pretentious.

On Get Color, though, the frenetic impulses from two years back have been carefully tempered, the percussive backbone more sharply honed and the ear-bleeding textures more cleverly implemented.

Strange Geometry is something special to listen to; it feels like an album to treat yourself to as a reward for lovely deeds.

Autumn Of The Seraphs is more of the same I have come to expect from Pinback--lovely harmonies and catchy hooks, all with an underlying emotional depth.

The good far outweighs the bad on this lack-of-thread-concept-album, and if you are dying to hear a modern day take on the 70’s soft rock band, check out Midlake.

This is, by no means, Mogwai’s finest hour, but Government Commissions deserves praise for its proof positive of the consistent quality of the band.

As accomplished as Black Cherry was, Supernature completes the suspected evolution from the quasi-avant-garde stylings of old to intelligent, sophisticated pop music.

The Eternal is absorbing and raw, from the slower, affable 'Antenna' to the pounding 'Poison Arrow.'

In Defense of the Genre does defeat the emo stigma and the double CD stigma easily, and does improve slightly on the pretty-good "…Is a Real Boy." But these are minor inventions; any "genius" is pretty much limited to the bites and nuggets reported here.

It's really hard not to get excited about this. Perhaps the bar just gets raised as I get less and less surprised by your typical garden-variety rock, but this sounds like a band hitting their stride and bashing out a great record.

Every song is steeped in melancholy, but the underlying beauty that ties it all together is in the courage of Ashworth's characters to face the unforgiving reality they occupy.

The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter finds namesake and frontman Ritter boldly claiming musical territory with a reinvented sound, turning from the meticulous arrangements and somber ruminations of his previous album to a more daring, moxie-charged approach that yields some of the freshest, most captivating songs of his career.

Wincing The Night Away covers all the bases and proves what loyal followers have known all along, that The Shins are, for better or worse, rock stars.

Weighed and measured, Graduation is easily the best rap album this year.

The Collective's aspirations come off as bland and blurry, as if aspiration alone was the sole goal for this jam, spread out over three quarters of an hour.

Those listeners who recognized Black Mountain as one in a long line of inward looking, backward thinking bands will find that In The Future ups the ante. That's not automatically a great thing, and it means that Black Mountain will yet again be greeted with abundant I know what you're doing and I don't like it reactions.

A wonderful pop record.

You'll find yourself wondering if Nouns is really all that good or if you're just shocked to hear such songs on a No Age record.

Even at its best this whole record sounds like a band who wants to make an impact by trying to be everything to everyone. And because they're not too good at everything they do yet, this lack of a definitive identity that makes it difficult to take them seriously (or if this is their definitive identity, they're just boring).

While it starts a bit slowly, Aloha’s fourth proper album is filled with signature pieces that are stunningly relentless.

At Mount Zoomer is interesting and focused, but safe.

This is proof that Campbell made the right decision in leaving Belle And Sebastian.

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

As with songs like "The Orchids" and "Spider's House," the continued confidence in slow, sleepy numbers, hinting more towards the ambient side of experimental folk, like the devastating "Krill" or the aforementioned "Evidence" suggests that as Rutili ages, his music will only grow in accessibility, relying less and less on the clatter of his youth. Songs like "Gauze" used to be austere nuggets buried in the noise, but these days, the noisy abstractions are, for the most part, the odd-man out.

The natural maturation of Ben Bridwell's vocals and songwriting, bolstered by an increase in creative control, has yeilded what is easily one of 2007's best albums in Cease to Begin.

Supreme Balloon's vintage synthesizers and basic drumbeats make for the least sonically varied of Matmos' recent albums.

Texture and detail separte M. Ward from other solo singer-guitarists, but his general songwriting formula is what gets him to the peak of exceptional list in the first place.

Taiga is a surprisingly approachable album.