The foursome weave a dizzying web of traditions into their own rough-hewn sound, dragging vestiges of alt-rock, punk and blues through the mud to achieve an album rife with brash dissonance.

The meticulous nature of After You’s dreamy and frequently cathartic soundscapes suggests Peñate spent years perfecting these 10 songs, maybe ever since Everything Is New was released. That’s a long time to work on a record, but after finally—finally—hearing the finished product, it’s obvious the wait was worth it.

While their first two collaborative efforts were largely slow, quiet affairs, their new album Hawk is more dynamic, featuring both whispered ballads and dusty, boot-stomping rockers, and not always for the best.

This wild pastiche demonstrates why Madlib is one of the most talented heads in hip-hop. [Apr/May 2006, p.103]

Oxford Collapse is uncommonly muscular for this type of band, rather like Les Savy Fav by way of R.E.M., and they’re most engaging when flexing this muscle

Like Vernon's For Emma, Forever Ago, this is Ices' breakthrough album-the first notable release from an artist who will no doubt record more of them in the coming years.

White is not hurting for fans in any of his musical guises, but he might have many more if he were to lighten things up a bit.

At a brief 36 minutes long, Medicine at Midnight is a solid addition to a discography that raises the bar for what it means to be a rock act that seamlessly evolves with the times. It also exemplifies how the group isn’t afraid to stretch their imaginations whenever the mood strikes them.

This bedroom project shakes with a gentle reverb and the snapping beats and upbeat percussion she programs using a drum machine. What connects Murray to her peers in Look Blue Go Purple are the similarly earnest lyrics, psychedelic dreaminess and low key production quality made modern with synths and other electronic touches.

Aly & AJ are releasing career-defining music (and have been for the past six years), and With Love From might top a touch of the beat as their best album to date.

Master of My Make-Believe is by no means a disappointment, but it falls short of the expectation that has been gestating for the past four years.

Mostly, Imaginary Man sounds like Baxter composing a conscious push to the mainstream. It’s just that his previous, strange, and wanderlusting alter-ego seems to capture more curiosity.

The framework for Odin’s Raven Magic grounds the band and shows that, when they wanted to, they were more than capable of tempering their penchant for extravagant strangeness. Which is not to say that Odin’s Raven Magic’s doesn’t contain many of the band’s signature hallmarks—like the rest of the Sigur Rós discography, the album comes drenched in mood, as well as an incomparable sense of elegance.

Overall, Witch Too mines Ono’s imaginative catalogue in search of hidden gems, buffing them up to sparkle anew. And ideally, the more inquisitive may even be moved to seek out the original versions of these tracks.

Common stands out from the best hip-hop albums of 2011 by doing what he has always done best since the '90s and standing firm in his style.

Covers, of course, are always fraught with peril, and at times singer/guitarist Matthew Caws’ inflection has a way of fermenting the source material’s latent cheese.

Clear Lake Forest is a quick listen at just seven songs, but The Black Angels have the wherewithal to pack in enough volleying moods that you feel like someone has sprinkled DMT into your smokes.

It’s pleasantly concise—a welcome change from Oczy Mlody and Heady Fwends—and doesn’t rely on excessive guests, 24-hour songs, LPs pressed with menstrual blood, or any other gimmickry to impress you. Now we wait for the Broadway adaptation.

Intimate and organic. [Sep 2006, p.74]

There’s nothing for Danilova to hide behind here, and having her so present throughout this album is breathtaking.

Obscurities will please hardcore fans and serves as a nice holdover until Magnetic Fields makes its official Merge return with a new full-length in 2012.

While the recording and performance are at times a little ragged in voice and tone, the band’s earlier semi-punk instincts ring through and its taste remains impeccable.

Teeth Dreams is the first time since Boys & Girls in America that The Hold Steady toes that perfect line between adolescent, backseat make-out sessions and stoned, intellectual discourse on the human condition.

You Know You Like It is so imbued with the history of the genre it's chosen to recreate that it has no sense of individual identity.

Warpaint have crafted an album that is ultimately rewarding and full of promise, with the listener excited to see Warpaint push their vision further, believing that the road is worth the effort.

Occasionally, their ambitions get the better of them. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.135]

Change is good and expected from new, learning artists, but lacking a distinguishable characteristic to cling to makes the trajectory for a band like Childhood hazier than the kaleidoscopic jams they started out with.

Mature Themes is another satisfying step in Ariel Pink's evolution--an album as melodically, hypnotically addictive and surprisingly danceable as it is arcane.

Experiencing The Other Side of the River without knowing the primary work would be like reading the footnotes in a history book and skipping the main text. But check out this well-intentioned, albeit overstuffed, collection after savoring the easy pleasures of River, and enjoy a flavorful chaser.

Pursuit of Momentary Happiness isn’t as consistent as its predecessor, but its moments of punk gusto find Yak at their mightiest peak.

Common to all these songs is the confidence of a band who have leaned on each other through trouble and grown stronger for it, learning to better work together and making the most of their hard-won creative chemistry.

With Only in Dreams, Dum Dum Girls have raised the bar.

Most poignant are the songs that offer something a little different from standard, because these are the instances where you can hear the makings of the band proper.

Individ maintains that energy and precision throughout its 40 minutes--adhering strictly to the band’s core approach, offsetting a lack of surprise with sheer sturdiness.

Beware may be the best country-rock album David Allan Coe never got around to making himself.

Here, he dresses his music in full regalia--with whistles, horns, organs and marching-band drums--and it’s exquisite.

If... Donovan and the guy from Blues Traveler had a baby... it would... sound like this. [Mar 2007, p.63]

Even though the ballads on Swimmin’ Time tend to float downstream, overall, Shovels & Rope’s sophomore LP manages to capture the duo’s raucous spirit and live intensity.

The great thing about Weller at this point is that he'll shuffle the deck every other song and often (if not always) come up with a face card. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.103]

Sees the Light manages to squeeze a boatload of emotions out of simple verse-chorus-verse pop.

While Bridges is certainly far from falling on his face, there’s nothing that really raises him above the droves of artists currently mining the sounds of ‘80s and ‘90s R&B either.

Complex and worth repeated listens? Hell yeah.

The band’s seventh full-length is meat-and-potatoes arena rock polished to a gleaming sheen (thanks to producer Mike Elizondo), wrapped around huge hooks and intercut by Foreman’s incisive, discontented lyrics, which almost always manage to translate sentiments rooted deeply in faith to universally relatable choruses.

It's a nuanced, artfully constructed record that gets better with each listen and crawls its way out of any box you might choose to put it in.

Acher has a light touch, repeating simple phrases and subtle, smeared blue notes. As a lyricist, he’s a master of the soft sell, allowing his enigmas to carry their own weight.

Multi-task hits its high marks when the band is doing as much as it can, or, if you will, multi-tasking.

With Slipstream, the acolyte of Sippie Wallace and John Lee Hooker takes her music to even more introspective places--and her assessments make this even more adult.

Rave On Buddy Holly takes classic tracks and, for the most part, offers instantly memorable covers of them. It's not quite an A, but it's as close as anything I've reviewed in a while.

Where Devotion contained only three or four songs with big, traditional choruses, Tough Love is built on them.

In the end, Feeling shows just how delicate the balances are that Mirah is capable of striking, and how fine-tuned a song’s mechanics must be in order for it to work properly.

Packed with peace, love and jangly guitars, Diane Coffee’s debut LP, My Friend Fish, is an irresistible ode to ’60s psychedelia.

A fully realized collection of 11 songs that are at once polished, precise and visceral. Williamson could not sound more in control, or less concerned about it. The effect is, well, enchanting as she breezes through tunes that pull you into the center of rich musical arrangements so unobtrusively that you’re sometimes not quite sure how you got there.

Concise, focused and even, it’s a great addition to the band’s increasingly rich catalog.

Frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa scales back her Billie Holiday persona but is no less a dominant presence, showing herself to be equally adept at giddy twee (“Wild Young Hearts”) and crackling synth-pop (“Saturday”) as she is girl group sing-alongs .

The Dreamer is also an album that calls for multiple spins-it's not likely to grab listeners by the throat, or even kick them in the shins for that matter. It's just good.

The songs are bolstered by a generally unsettled sound throughout. Yet rather than opt for a tumult, Hatfield maintains a persistent pulse and an air of determination.

It’s no surprise that their return doesn’t feel as triumphant as it should have. Instead, this record feels like more of a means to an end, an excuse to get back out on the road and play their biggest hits once again.

As she walks the walk and talks the talk, she makes it clear that KiCk i is her fullest vision yet for herself, the culmination of eight years of musically and visually rocketing outside the box, bridging seemingly diametrically opposed forces, and pursuing her muse no matter how strange others might find it. When she lets out a soft chuckle at the track’s end, she’s earned it.

Murs for President isn’t the most perfect campaign, but it’s more than worthy of being on the ballot.

Mamalarky is a promising debut, no doubt. In places, though, it feels fussed-over, which saps some of these songs of their warmth and intimacy, and keeps them at an arm’s length. If Mamalarky spend more time writing, playing, performing and just being together, they’ll almost certainly overcome that obstacle.

Ranks with Lunapark and Penthouse as one of its best. [#13, p.119]

Recall's Johnny Cash's recordings with Rick Rubin. [Apr/May 2006, p.111]

He's certainly comfortable with the material, and his worn-leather voice conveys an unexpected tenderness that adds spirited desperation to opener 'Stop the World and Let Me Off,' gritty regret to ''Til I Get It Right,' and aching vulnerability to 'Help Me Make It Through the Night.'...The Sadies know just when to step forward or back, creating a general bootgazer ambience.

Age Against the Machine isn’t a seamless reunion--it’s too messy, too bloated (18 tracks, not a single necessary interlude), too Green-centric to feel like a pure collaboration. But in a way, those Perfect Imperfections come with the territory. Even at its worst, it’s a Machine built with fascinating craftsmanship.

They are what rock ’n’ roll is meant to be and, frankly, what most rock bands have forgotten altogether: These songs are fun.

Though The Clearing works fine as background music, it offers up many more intricacies and delights if you give it your full concentration.

He comes at these songs with an easy familiarity that tells you he didn’t need to spend a lot of time learning them, because he had long since absorbed them into his very bones. Also, the guy can flat-out sing, which is something he doesn’t get enough credit for. ... The one real knock against anything on Only the Strong Survive is that the definitive versions of most of these songs are so solid that even he can’t find much to improve upon.

Most of these artists strike a rare rework/remix balance, preserving what made the original tick while infusing enough of their own identity to justify the new take.

Like most of Malkmus’ releases, Wig Out At Jagbags won’t likely endear him to many newer listeners. But for those who are of the same disposition, this ain’t a bad place to be.

Even with the burden of sloppy crossover tracks, Paper Trail has enough standout moments for T.I.’s throne to remain secure for now.

Like a prayer, The Saint of Lost Causes best listened to alone and deliberately. It’s too close and intimate to put on when there are others present unless they also plan on listening in silence. It’s a lot to ask the modern, harried soul to lay low and meditate on a record, but listen any other way and it’s all, well, a lost cause.

Cold War Kids’ multifaceted style keeps things exciting even at the LP’s weaker points, but how does the story change when taken as a whole? Maybe not by much. Taken on its own, though, New Age Norms 3 shows how much Cold War Kids will push to figure themselves out as they grow and the world around them slowly shifts into something unfamiliar.

Fake Sugar picks up where her book left off. It bridges the gap between love and loss and taps into her Southern roots to create a record that fully encompasses the person she’s become.

On Beal’s first album, he moved between child-like ambience, songs suitable for weird film scores and stomping blues.

Although Vestiges & Claws may wander close to guitar-based, folk-rock homogeny, González’s musings offer a cerebral reminder to enjoy figuring out what it all means.

Electronic music edges ever so slowly toward nausea, a tendency to turn music into math. The best artists fight this with loving restraint. Bayonne is close to the mark, but there might be a few times when you reach for the volume and just say “enough” with the looping. Then there are times when it does work, as on the song “Spectrolite” with a heavier emphasis on analog instruments.

The whole EP feels familiar, either from the carryover from Bird's previous albums (most notably Break It Yourself) or from things you've heard before but can't quite put your finger on-it doesn't shock or change the course of rivers, but it does invite, and welcome, and maybe pour you a cup of tea and ask about your day.

On the whole, Developer proves to be a more than accurate title.

just as the sequel-ness inherently implies, faithfulness to their past work sinks Event II, as just the sound and goals of the album seem out of place in 2013 and overly nostalgic, without adding much to the conversation that seemed long finished.

The album sounds as current as it might have some 40 years ago. As with everything Lauderdale does, the music never gets old.

A Broke Moon Rises is a good record from a great musician, but if nothing else it’s worth hearing just to share in that moment.

This 13 track set sees the band tapping back into that essential ingredients of their core sound.

It’s a listening experience that’s as satisfying and rewarding as those aforementioned records. With a band as assured and stylistically unique as Future Islands, a choice to stay in their lane can only mean more good things.

This time, there are a couple of solid songs surrounded on all sides by wandering experiments which never quite form into a whole.

The seventh Xiu Xiu album may be the most playfully arranged and colorfully textured in the band’s catalog.

The mood of the disc is no less overcast than his usual material; it just makes more use of the celesta setting.

Irreverent, funny, and ruefully sad, High and Inside will not appeal to everyone. But if the intersection of baseball and rock 'n' roll" is meaningful to you, it's a stellar reminder of why the game and the power chords still matter.

Despite its flaws, Vol. 2 is the second-best thing the Olds have done in a decade.

There’s a sense of self-affirmation found both lyrically and musically on this record as well; it’s as much about Grossi overcoming heartache as it is about his musical explorations.

Rae seems to be inspired by nature. Allusions to stars, constellations, skies and galaxies abound, elemental energies propelling her as she confronts new challenges and obstacles, and imagines new futures.

The Parrots supply their best tunes when they are having a good time, exactly why they act best to soundtrack the fun times under the sweltering summer sun. For The Parrots, all of the fun they have is just in a day’s work.

Bentham is very good at what she does. She’s a distinctive songwriter with a penchant for avoiding the obvious, and her songs have a way of lingering, with melodies that scroll through your head like a news ticker.

These are musicians totally in command of their sound, devoted to every specific artist and genre that influenced it, but there remains enough levity that it never gets bogged down by perfectionism—sometimes just caring is enough.

Not to Disappear is everything you could want from a sophomore release. It’s got enough of the debut in it that you’re getting what you came for with a ton of surprises to make sure you keep going on this journey with them from here on out.

By opening up, by giving a glimpse into the heart behind those heart-stopping melodies, Newman's written his best songs in nearly a decade.

Soft Airplane is a little scary (and dark and dank), yet filled with untold creative surprises and delights.

Even with a few missteps, Tanton's put together a collection showing that he's capable of memorable work, and likely to produce more of it.

Mended With Gold works, pleases and doesn’t tire of itself in time. It is also painfully unaware of its faults, which is a shame when greatness stands so close and the songwriter can’t, or won’t, simply grab it.