Although Fay's fan base is likely to remain meager, those who Life is People touches are unlikely to hear a more inspiring album this year.

On a very basic level, this CD is a fun, weird, nifty album of Brazilian pop music, and can easily be enjoyed as such. Unpeel the layers, and you will reap even greeter rewards, revealing a creative treatise on the rights of women in society.

Really, the most impressive thing about Robyn is just how timeless it is proving to be.

Separation Sunday won't win over the masses, but that's not what its intentions should be. The Hold Steady's record is a testament to what good times are really like, if you're paying close attention. That, and it will make you air-guitar. For certain.

Blues Dream is one of those rare instrumental records that neither bores or infuriates.

British Sea Power have the talent and vision to be a truly inspirational new guitar band.

Rings Around the World might be stylistically all over the place, and some people may think it sounds like Super Furry Animals are desperately trying to show the world how clever they are, but it's so much fun to listen to, that it hardly matters. It's a near-perfect album, and we all should be thankful there are bands out there willing to throw everything they've got into a record just to see what happens.

Even though it starts to coast a bit near the end, You Forgot It in People is still a highly enjoyable, effervescent, endlessly inventive album that crosses genres with astonishing ease.

So what's the problem? It's too, uh, perfect.

Even with a weaker Side B collection of songs, Kaleidoscope Dream is a thrilling listen that draws comparisons to D'Angelo's Voodoo or Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part One on first listen.

Ridiculously innovative.

Remastered by Weston as fuzzy or sharp, this generous re-release (the second in a series by Merge Records, founded by Superchunk) should win Vee Vee another devoted following.

Halcyon Digest is, to my mind, the best we've seen from Deerhunter, and a hint that their best is still to come. It's a fascinating document to study, but I'm not sure that makes it all great music.

Welcome Interstate Managers is the welcome aural equivalent of a great collection of short stories, each song offering a little snippet from a life, and presenting a range of characters to fill this musical spectrum.

Jaar's emotional honesty is not without lenses though, and, just when you think he's going to address the listener directly, he draws on electronic music's endless sound possibilities to clutter and even drown voice, rhythm and melody with spontaneity and a young dreamer's aimless drift.

At 59 and 48 minutes each, with space left to fill on both CDs, the label’s lack of curiosity about these more obscure sections of the Blur discography seems negligent.

[It] could be annoying if it turned into a game of "spot the references", but somehow it never does.

For ardent followers of the '90s American underground, it is a near-essential purchase.

This level of quality is ridiculously hard to challenge, which may be part of the reason jj n° 2 has remained on the hipster tip despite that it isn’t very hip.

Despite the album title, none of Mangia and McGuire’s work here feels rudimentary or limited; instead, it’s consistently lush, inviting and rewarding.

A sustained masterpiece is unlikely. Instead, this is a record with only flashes of brilliance, but what flashes they are.

The two make beautiful music together, country style. While it may seem strange that acoustic American styles have rooted in such a distant place, the flower is as sweet as any ever produced in the USA.

Consistently excellent, Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy is a record that stuns on first listen, then manages the elusive -- it sinks deep into your soul.

Flying Lotus, much like Yorke, Greenwood & Co., has made a definitive summary of a decade's worth of advances in electronic music, a release that transcends genre and deserves to become a glorified phenomena by those who experience it.

This fit and lean version of Deftones have turned negativity into vibrant positivity and channelled it into their cohesive and textured seventh full-length, Koi No Yokan--a record that will forever sit high upon Deftones' burgeoning list of impressive achievements.

[Shields is] an album that unveils deeper levels of emotional impact and aesthetic dimension for a band that continues to challenge and captivate in ways that are entirely their own.