Transcendent and well-turned, Soft Commands is another exceptional recording from a talented, aware artist.

Maryland Mansions wants to be a great record, but it's simply a good one.

The grooves are righteous and the vibe is right.

If there's one misstep on 100th Window, it's that [Sinead O'Connor's] talent and her range are underused.

For those who had grown used to Boredoms' percussion-orgy period -- from Super Ar through to Vision Creation Newsun, with OOIOO's Feather Float in the middle -- such intermittence will give the album a broken feel, making it feel like its indulgences in improvisation and its ad-hoc demeanor are acts lacking discipline.

The Photo Album is evidence of a band that's maturing, slowing down and trying new things.

Research has led me to conclude that the correct, and possibly only, way to fully appreciate this album is at extremely high volume on a decent hi-fi whilst massively stoned out of your gourd.

It's always pretty, but overall, the allure is almost meretricious, considering four or five songs provoke nothing beyond a pleasant ambivalence.

Their reverb-drenched nostalgia trip is full of enough talent and original thought, though, that the result is respectable and classy, not boorish and (yawn) retro.

Hot Hot Heat's compelling energy, original hooks and rhythms, and quirky, sometimes indiscernible lyrics combine to make Make Up the Breakdown one of the most energetic and enjoyable listens of the year.

This is a rare record that simply responds to the quiet masses who maybe feel just a bit to much too often, and offers them a soothing, downbeat source of comfort without preaching or apology.

In stark contrast to most Nashville and alt.country products, even when the words let it down, Barricades & Brickwalls is carried by its classic sound.

For the first time, Milk Man finds such a sound seeming not like the product of a collective caprice, but a formula that they're following, with the few songs where they get lost in total tonal abstraction seeming like didactic decisions to ditch the rock instruments and remind everyone they were once filed under difficult listening.

One of the best, if not the best, of the Brooklyn-based, Gang of Four-worshipping lot.

Her rock-oriented approach here will please some, but such a genre-hopping exercise is only occasionally provocative.

Trampin' has her sounding revitalized, her contagious energy striking sparks off her longtime musical collaborators.

The music is mysterious and moody, with an unusual blend of instruments and lyrics full of strange imagery, but no real narrative.

Overall, it is clear that Hitchcock is having fun creating music with Welch and Rawlings, and that joy comes through in the listening.

Heroes to Zeros, in spite of a few uneven tracks, makes the cut.

Unlike previous albums, Ovalcommers wheezes and squirms its way inside.

Their record runs through a range of instrumentalist archetypes and quietly surprising turns-for-the-worse, from electrified screech to tape-op minimalism, through pastoralism and soundscapery, to numbers where they knock out all manner of feigned sturm und drang.

The tracks fail to hang together in a convincing way -- often giving the impression that they were more or less strung together on a whim.

His best work since 1997's Built to Spill album, Perfect From Now On.

It is hard to say which side of Mogwai is more moving, the quietly beautiful or the transcendently loud, but the great thing about Mr. Beast is that you don't have to decide.

This is a compelling debut/reunion, with the two men seeming to push each other far more than any of their recent collaborators have.

As if its size alone weren't enough to set the album apart from his preceding Spiritualized outings, Pierce has removed all the sounds he thought were immediately identifiable as Spiritualized -- delay, phase, Telecaster, Farfisa -- and left the songs as largely orchestral numbers.

There's no question Aesop Rock makes essentially no sense half the time. The other half, he's painting abstract art all over fractured soundscapes. The music is smart and progressive; it's also pretentious and challenging.

Their newfound versatility detracts somewhat from their own identity.