Sheek and Ghost may lead the army to battle on every track, but the rotating cast and general camaraderie makes Wu-Block feel like the no bullshit Wu-Tang sort of album segments of the fanbase have been clamoring for since 8 Diagrams.

Cowboy's eerie calm reflects the domestic quietness every adolescent party animal fears stumbling into when they get older.

The only thing that prevents Fantastic Playroom from being a wholly perfect creation is the simple fact that, as good as it is, this is still only their first album.

While the demos CD is guaranteed to please longtime devotees, the remakes will polarize many.

The few tracks where Seeland drop the ball reveal that their sound is dangerously amenable to turning into mere wallpaper, though. If they focus on sticking to the extremes of their pleasant palette Seeland might be on to something.

It’s a trip on concept alone, but Haines remains a deft enough producer of ear worms to make a listener feel like the majority of New York in the ‘70s’s dozen tracks are on permanent vacation within the recesses of his or her brain.

The sequencing is what makes this disc such a divine pleasure: we get to hear a band grow from grinning upstarts to tension-battered road warriors.

Mind of Mine leaps right over anything on Justified and carves a path of its own. Next decade’s boybands will doubtless provoke discussion on which of them will break out like this, which one will be a Zayn.

At once iconic, and yet still fiercely non-conformist, the singular appeal of these punk pioneers is as powerful today as it ever was.

All in all, Platinum Tips + Ice Cream is the rare case of a band distilling its various eras coherently and presenting the whole of its parts in a way that makes you thrilled to partake in even a small portion of punk rock alien communion.

Uncovered could be considered a sequel of sorts. Here again, Colvin culls the set list from the efforts of others. In a way, it’s more adventurous than before, due not only to the diversity of her sources (Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder et. al.), but also to the stripped down approach which finds her sharing the spotlight with producer Steuart Smith’s acoustic guitar and little else in the way of additional accoutrement.

Flesh and Machine‘s live performances may belong to the night, but the sensations stirred through listening to the album will linger for far longer.

This is the kind of beautiful album that Reed knows he can make in his sleep yet seldom does.

As improbable as it sounds, imagine if Goldfrapp teamed up with Jamiroquai and you have a sense of what DOS sounds like -- seductive, ebullient, unabashedly retro, infectiously uptempo and wrapped up in the kind of maneater theatrics most pop music has shied away from since Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" heyday.

At heart, this is a back-to-basics album a la "Death Magnetic" or R.E.M.’s "Accelerate;" not essential, but definitely worth a look.

If they more often took the step from cute to sexy, Acrylics would deliver a lusher and brasher brand of pop.

The end result is an album that feels like a group of experienced musicians experimenting and amusing themselves without sacrificing a core thread of melody.

A Certain Ratio's musical expansiveness is felt most strongly on the album's closing track, "Taxi Guy", a percussion/horns/electronics-fueled instrumental.

White Lies for Dark Times is a strong, rocking record that certainly pays homage to a time when rocking mattered more than record sales, and a time when some would say music was at its best.

The happiness of the album is catching like the cheer of a sunrise.

On this, Dj Kicks, Photek maintains the quality that the series has become synonymous with, while providing us with a glimpse of a new, and dare I say it, more mature artist. An artist no longer worried about playing to the crowd, rather, an artist following his own musical path.

The album as a whole is just a big, wonderful surprise. Start to finish.

True is an album that takes one type of music and moulds it into something completely different, allowing Avicii to cement himself as one of the best DJs in the world.

Understated but not weak, solid but never boring, the album proves that you don’t have to speak loudly to make yourself heard. Ambivalence never sounded so good.

Here, the band tosses in elements of new wave and post-punk, making their music an even more encompassing, dizzying, and gratifying blend of influences.

This is certainly a purchase longtime fans will justly want to grab. However, if you are a newer fan who, for some reason, wants to start with one of the group’s more recent releases, Freak Puke or Nude With Boots might be a better choice since they are more consistently rocking.

There’s something cathartic in seeing another’s isolation. Thistled Spring, however, is bracing because it refuses to wallow anymore.

With their reverence for the past and all things twee, C86, and noise pop related, Gold-Bears have their limitations, but luckily, they're already well versed in working their sweet spot.

He shows here that he is much more than the swagger and smut of some of his previous releases. He has made it clear to the world that he has real vision and dexterity.

The Messenger isn’t groundbreaking or iconic in itself, but it’s thoroughly enjoyable music from a groundbreaking and iconic artist.

Misery and heartache added a much more interesting layer to these songs the first time around, but it all still works. Formulaic though they might now seem, the quartet's reverb-drenched songs of lust and longing still beguile, and on Cry, that sultry voice continues to be a ravishingly beautiful thing to behold.

Their best, most mature, and most vital effort to date.

Proof that a return to one's roots does not necessarily have to mean rehashing the past.

On the whole, Etheridge seems to be back circa Yes I Am, which is a good thing for fans and newcomers.

Refusing to settle into one definition, No Doubt is vibrant and full of life here, even if the heights it reaches for aren't always achieved.

The high point of the band's career.

There’s something profoundly unsettling about D-Sides. It’s better than it has any right to be.

There’s a heavy metal fence around much of New Maps of Hell that does sometimes feel new, or at least like revitalization of old habits.

We get some huge heavy hitters who do very good-to-great work. But the record sinks into pink slush during the so-so-filler tracks. Although there are some fantastic high points and some tacky low points, Barbie: The Album still manages to pull through with a cheeky victory, even if it’s qualified.

A small number of bands has continued to carry that torch in an effort to find places for innovation and elbow room for fresh sounds without coming off as cheesy or hollow. Silverstein is one of those bands, and with Rescue, they've crafted another great record.

Harper more than compensates for this shortcoming [his voice], as he always has, with the brilliance of his songwriting, his lyrical content, and his musicianship.

Simply put, working in a genre of one poses all sorts of risks for musicians; for now, at least, Lilacs & Champagne continues to impress in a way few of its peers are able to.

With Interview Music, Idlewild have made another beautifully crafted, memorable rock record while at the same time giving their sound space to evolve. If Everything Ever Written signaled the beginning of Idlewild MK II, then Interview Music finds them discovering just what the new Idlewild is capable of.

If American Doll Posse would have been edited into a shorter, more concise record, it could have been Amos’s best. Instead, it fits nicely alongside her best work, but is a little bit too bogged down with its sometimes preachy, non-descript politics and too many of the usual suspects in the mix.

Not every song on her new album works--just because something is art does not make it good art--but most of them do because she really outs herself out there.

This record seems to outweigh the previous album in terms of quality and depth.

Music for Falling from Trees is somewhat reminiscent of Arcade Fire offshoot the Bell Orchestre’s debut album, yet it succeeds in being more of a set work, and has fewer indie signifiers, even with background noise and fuzzily mic-ed strings.

Simplicity is A Sleep's best value.

Though the magic and the mercury drop a degree in the second half, In Cold Blood remains refreshingly passionate with an appeal and allure which will surely draw you back for more.

Hard Love is overstuffed and perhaps a bit overambitious, but repeated listening will reap ample rewards.

A plenty addictive listen.

In Changing Horses Kweller has slipped seamlessly into another stream of songwriting tradition, and all signs say it suits him.

As accessible and dour as it is on the surface, it’s the subtleties that continually beckon you in for more and leave their mark upon your subconscious.

By darkening the edges of their sound the band look beyond the dance floor to the streets outside, all while maintaining their characteristic flair for a huge, groove-laden tune. The peaks are some of their most pointedly thrilling to date, and even the less immediate tracks gradually reveal subtle new shades. The result is one of the band's most consistently interesting and cohesive albums to date.

Dylanesque is the rare album of Dylan covers that envisions the songs in unfamiliar musical settings, and it does so without sacrificing the soul of the lyrics.

The record is full of tight rock songs, but these ladies really distinguish themselves when they stretch out.

A follow-up that’s every bit as charming and melodious as their first.

As it is, listeners will probably hear Prince Rama with one eyebrow raised, which is a shame. Some art is best appreciated when one isn’t preoccupied with being smarter than the artist.

Wild Light certainly will not be pegged as the most original, best dressed or smartest band in Indie Pop, but the group wears all of Indie Pop on its proverbial sleeve and seems fit to carry the Indie Pop flag--at least for a little while.

It’s music that requires a few listens before all the nuances reveal themselves. If you’re willing to make the effort, you will be handsomely rewarded.

Telephantasm is a potent reminder that heavy music can be brutal yet intelligent, that music that's dissonant and gnarly can achieve mainstream acceptance, and that it's been far, far too long since most alternative/indie rock has rocked this hard so well.

This is a good, even very good, Bob Mould album, but it doesn't measure up to masterworks like Copper Blue and Zen Arcade.

Overall, The Nature of Things is an incredibly enjoyable listen that's very easy to take in, but it's not quite the classic record that the Daredevil Christopher Wright is clearly capable of making.

With each passing song, and each successive listen, there is yet another layer of complexity, influence, and inspiration to uncover.

If there’s any minor quibble, it’s that Carnation stacks its front half with the hits, leaving the second bit a bit anemic.

The sequence of the songs doesn't do it justice as a collection, there are a couple of tracks that are dispensable and it lacks that one special song that makes you want to kick over your chair and make love to the room. But it does a lot of things right.

At first listen, the melodies on Long Distance sound too simplistic to sustain an entire song -- and yet they do. The secret is that the melodies and chords are only half the story. The aura the songs create is as important as the songs themselves. Like Stereolab, Ivy is largely about sound; they just hide it better.

It is a Spiritualized album in every sense of the word: bombastic, beautiful, energized, dynamic, and for some damn reason, just a little emotionless.

The first thing to say about Love & Danger is that it upholds the Kool Keith approach to making an album.

Big Boat could easily be perceived as the natural sequel to Fuego, but it works spectacularly well on its own, with Bob Ezrin guiding the band through a variety of song styles from breezy pop to elaborate prog rock.

Keenan balances the constructive dissemination of contemporary society in his own unique way and, in the process, rather surprisingly, may have just made one of the most prescient albums of the year.

Blue Songs finds Butler and his crew of collaborators laying back to a place where the dance floor can be as much a place for ethereal contemplation as it is for unrepentant debauchery.

The results are beautiful.

Throughout, the music on Arthur Buck is upbeat and eclectic, even playful, offering a contrast to the lyrics. One might say that Arthur and Buck's spirited playing and programming make the medicine go down smoother.

In just under 40 minutes, Hebden and Reid offer one of the most thrilling documents of real-time improvisation you’re likely to hear this year.

More or less, Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City manages to strike a balance between both his personas: the violent, self-indulgent Shaky Dog of early Wu Tang, and the at once more humorous and reflective Ghost of more recent years.

This sort of noise and sludge ain’t for everybody, but fans of the Jesus Lizard, Pissed Jeans, or other such degenerates will take great masochistic pleasure in Kunk’s beatdown.

As a pop album, there's much to love on Magnetic Man and very little filler present, even if some tracks ("Going Nowhere", "Karma Crazy") strike harder than others ("Perfect Stranger", "Ping Pong").

Nostalgia is music perfect for enjoying a cup of coffee and an omelet in the morning hours, while slowly waking to the world. Rarely does it command the full attention of the listener and oftentimes it borders on background music, something that Lennox never intended.

This is a permed, big-hair monster of a record, and even if the band's name makes no sense and other critics seemed to have turned their nose up to it, I like the nostalgic blast that this record brings forth.

Often lighter-than-air, Does You Inspire You? at times threatens to float away.

At the end of the day, you really can't blame the duo for impressing the hell out of a generation of hipsters too young and/or musically ignorant to know their Zapp from their Roger.

Electronic Projects is ideal both for new listeners--as it offers a good representation of the Apples in Stereo sound--and for seasoned Apples fans who desire tracks they may not have heard before.

Unabashedly grand, deliriously enjoyable.

These slightly warped combinations -- resentment and frustration, yearning and insight, naïveté and fascination -- aren't so different from the simple-seeming sentiments on most pop records, even if the instrumentation, vocals, and programming are unusually layered and carefully produced.

His pop smarts are sharp and bright, but never too flashy.... A very impressive debut.

Rodriguez-Lopez’s work is excellent across Que Dios Te Maldiga De Corazon, making exciting and rewarding arrangement choices. It’s not like The Mars Volta needed freshening up only seven months later, but it’s a worthwhile project.

Bleachers takes steps, stuttering though they may be, towards a more cohesive identity as a band. This record feels less bogged down than its predecessors by glaringly forced attempts at stadium-swelling pop hits better suited for collaborators like Swift.

Endless Wonder sounds almost sure of itself. Like Elbogen’s stumbling, bumbling, imperfect characters who learn lessons along the way, he’s getting better at it all the time.

The energy of the instrumental arrangements here are enough to carry the bulk of Come Into My House‘s twelve cuts to satisfactory ends, even if they are lacking in emotional handlebars to grip on to.

Their music is fun and exciting, if not earth-shattering or deep.

So LP4 may seem like a glorified mess but it has all the coherence and sensorial vigor of one of those Ed Hardy ink designs: unabashedly gaudy with a hard-assed physique; its Byzantium details revealing a mid-to-late century decadence that may still only appeal to a select audience.

They might only be re-shaping the wheel with March Forth, but they do it a damn fine job of it.

Though it is steeped in a subgenre that often can seem tapped out, Moaning is a strikingly accomplished debut.

Though it’s got one clunker, The Roadside bodes well for his future.

Gravity The Seducer finds its place as Ladytron's most hypnotic record to date--one that has no resident bangers, yet doesn't seem to care.

Slow Dance is a winning collection of songs, calling to mind Stephin Merritt minus about 20 recording tracks or Sparks in a reflective groove.

Sonic Highways doesn’t break new ground, but for those accustomed to these five guys’ wares, it’ll suffice when they desire a concise reaffirmation of what makes them appealing in the first place.