There is no doubt that who think a record is a concept where the overall idea matters first, will love it. For the ones, however, who consider music the first language and are looking for melodies that can crawl underneath their skins, one listening will be enough. In the end, it seems like the message exceeded the medium.

Songs like “National Anthem” might push too hard at political ideas that are much subtler elsewhere on the record, but overall this is a solid and surprising set from a band that confronts us by pulling us into its wandering sound.

The one place where The Sister falters, and where it falls just short of its predecessor, is that it doesn't always take advantage of that layering [of music from her supporting musicians].... With so few songs here, these moments of isolation seem to take up too much time on a short record about building a bridge back to the world of the living.

In Your Honor has some great tunes, but it is by no means perfect.

LeBlanc is clearly too aesthetically skilled to give up on the future. But it doesn't appear he is having fun at present.

Despite some truly exciting and vital moments, The False Foundation struggles to cohere into a cogent statement befitting of a legitimately scary political moment.

In the Kronos Quartet’s 40-year career of melting faces chamber music style, it’s doubtful that Bryce Dessner: Aheym will ever rank as one of the group’s top recordings. It will, however, chronicle the rise the compositional talents of one Bryce Dessner.

It is wild, slightly unfocused, totally committed, and furiously paced. (Also, it is possibly a bit drunk). But, though this lifts some of the tracks up somewhat, few of them have the depth that one would have wished for.

Much of Thought passes by like a lazy Sunday morning, enjoyably floating by, if not so memorable.

An ambitious, sprawling sophomore effort that doesn't quite succeed in setting the group apart from their many influences.

Overall, Elsewhere is that rarity of a companion album that works well on its own.

As an album, Comfort of Strangers comes across as a missed opportunity. For the most part the album sounds fantastic, and you really want the songs to hit the spot more than they do.

The disappointing moments are fleeting, as Travis has figured out that the niche they created for themselves eight years ago is a comfy one, a sound which, inoffensive and safe as it may be, suits the band perfectly.

Communion may be a little too much like a day after all--long and full of moments that are alternately memorable and forgettable.

It is absolutely true that the musical and vocal performances here are Taylor's strongest. But in terms of messaging, she still needs to get in formation.

This is an album Tunstall likely needed to make, a catharsis in song that would inevitably sound far removed from her first three efforts.

On Animal Lovers, the Residents show, as always, a lot of heart and thought in the lyrics and ideas and even in their theatrical vocal performances, but that effort only sporadically shows up in the music itself.

The overall feeling that this album struggles to slip free of new found influences to resonate in its own right, will not fade.

The poignant lyrical message conveyed through most of the album, coupled with the ability of the music to keep you uplifted, is perfectly reminiscent of the spirit of New Orleans. Even though times could be better, there is always a reason to go on.

Earle has come at us with another solid album that further cements his place in modern music as one of the great songwriters still swingin’ his hammer.

Die-hard fans, maybe, but for most, this will be a pleasant, faithful collection of covers. It will sound nice, but for the non die-hards, it will come, leave a good impression, then fade into the background soon after the disc stops spinning.

The best parts of Darlings make you work, as Drew does, to peel back the surface and dig into what’s there but some of it just leaves us with quiet, impenetrably sweet sounds that repetition can’t quite crack through.

Monolith of Phobos is an artistic anomaly that, like this year’s election season, will find listeners ultimately settling for one side or another; it’s not that either necessarily likes their choices, rather it’s more they’ve been left with little option other than to settle with the results.

Beak> can at times be a frustrating listen, but a frustrating listen that is certainly not without its fruits, and these fruits can far outweigh the frustration.

While not all of the songs on Menos el Oso are winners, the album as a whole holds up much better than any of their previous efforts.

It’s not bad, and it’s not great. What it is, however, is Antique Glow Part II. And that is a shame.

Dream Police feels here like its own project, like a stand-alone band just getting started. With that feeling comes excitement and discovery, but also a learning curve.

In the context of the movie almost all of these songs are great. But as a soundtrack album, Scott Pilgrim doesn't reach the same greatness.

Construction Sounds is interesting, emotional stuff, in spite of the fact that it is addressing themes and concepts that have been ruminated over many times before.

McGuire still seems all too comfortable and way too sure of exactly where he stands on Get Lost.

This brevity [30-minute run time] doesn't make the record bad by any stretch, but it does make it feel cut off. The warm, gauzy sounds here invite deeper exploration, and instead Earle gets in and gets out all too quickly.

The album is much more conservative than Yorn's debut, and in many ways more ordinary.

It’s the bookends of Who Me? that shine some light on Wauters’ troubadour potential.

It’s populist KROQ grunge for a new generation, though you get a sense these guys would see that as a compliment.

Washed Away doesn’t present any songwriting innovation, kicks no holes in the current definition of pop music, but it’s a good record and it’s fun.

More than a patchy but occasionally brilliant album, Multiply is the whisper that the greatest soul music, rather than being trapped in our memories of times gone by, may yet play free in days to come.

There’s a few really strong tracks studded throughout, and an equal number of good ones, so the experience is better on the balance than not.

The sounds are attractive, sometimes unique, but a personality gets lost in translation.

As subversive as Russian Circles can be structurally, sonically, Station is less distinct than "Enter."

An Introduction to… may well lead new listeners to Smith's back catalogue, but hopefully they won't stop where the compilation does. Smith's entire recorded works are worth exploring, even those not technically independent releases.

This might not be a classic, but for fans, it’s still filled with its own pleasures.

There’s enough that’s interesting and/or good about Light Up Gold to give it a solid recommendation, with the caveat that Savage’s voice is likely an acquired taste.

He is a man unconcerned with his legacy, with critical response, with pleasing anyone but his fickle muse. So to hear albums as willfully uneven as Elephant Jokes can be frustrating, particularly when you know Pollard can crank out infectious pop bliss in his sleep.

Thank You is an interesting album in that it shows musical growth for Meghan Trainor while simultaneously moving her closer to the more homogenous sound of mainstream pop. It’s not great by any means, but it is definitely catchy and easy to sing along with.

It’s a beautiful, often striking temple, one with some wonderful surprises. In the end, though, you’re outside that temple listening in, the visitor that never quite gets to come inside.

Half of the album is magnificent, and stylistically contradistinct, while the other half exists in some offbeat and off-putting terrain that will either elude its listeners, or alienate them.

I Want that You Are Always Happy is an honest sound, one with as much darkness as it has light, and though it slows too much in spots, the record has more than enough compelling moments to bring you back for future spins.

Together ["You Are My Destiny" and "Pressure Danger"], they round out an album that, even at its least remarkable, ably demonstrates the Juan MacLean's skill with dance beats. It's hard not to feel a little disappointed after the unmitigated triumph of In a Dream. But The Brighter the Light makes for an easy enough sampler of the duo's work outside the aforementioned opus.

As a double-disc, Spitting Fire falls into the “recommended for fans” category.

For a smooth talker like Common, talking through his ruminations could easily lead to talking around them, so on Nobody’s Smiling, he leaves a lot of the talking to others.

For those of you who loved the old Dios for their oddness and all the beauty such oddity can engender, you may be a little disappointed.

What proves to be frustrating is that this isn’t a bad album nor is it a bland one. It mainly lacks any real musical innovation.

Hynes shows his trademark moves, and also demonstrates that he’s not a one-trick pony--he can expand his sound, and push further into new territory. But nothing on Cupid Deluxe reaches the same streamlined, lovelorn, economical heights as his production work for other singers.

Stylistically and harmonically, Free Somehow is a departure from Widespread Panic’s recognizable sanguine Southern rock.

While the production might be just a little too loose, the songs are just the right fit.

As is the case with many big league collaborations, it doesn't feel like either party brought their best game to the project. As an Orb album, Metallic Spheres is satisfactory. For Floyd and Gilmour fans, it's a rainy day curiosity.

Pre Language is frustrating not because it's bad, but because it could be so much better.

Catchy as it may be, Islands remains steadfast in the landscapes it portrays. The constraints of four-minute pop songs are defied with ease, weaving and stretching throughout said landscapes.

After a while, the music becomes repetitive and, well, uninteresting.

Wildheart is the sound of Miguel fully coming into his own identity. Now, we just have to wait for him to do something with it.

Unity Band is rich in great playing, but it is not sure what it wants to be. Carrying too much weight for a single album, this Metheny disc is both too much and too little.

Book of Curses' brevity also works in its favor, at least for me. A 15-track, 40-minute album of music like this would've been a bit much, but at 26 minutes, the band's abrasive punk is quite listenable.

Pond, for all the relative brevity of each track, makes Hobo Rocket sound as long as a double-album of old, and its model rests on gatefolds and Hipgnosis icons.

Even with its missteps--[Sun] is her most patient and generous record to date.

The Fallen Leaf Pages is the group's fourth record, and it sounds a lot like their third record, which was quite similar to the second one, which had a striking resemblance to the first one.

Girlpool’s Forgiveness is ultimately a nimble record where the lesser tracks mostly breeze by while the good stuff stays with you.

Swift’s clever and insightful lyrics immediately grab those who pay attention.

Far from a landmark statement, the album still has a lot of impressive moments and is an enjoyable spin.

Warts and all, 24/7 marks GusGus at a level of maturity that allows them to shun the sonic pyrotechnics that have charmed dance outfits across Europe, while communicating more.

Neither a home run, then, nor the dreaded sophomore slump, The Monitor is, it is probably more fair to say, the album that finds the band maturing beyond the precocious triumph of their debut by first having to pass through their awkward, gangly adolescent phase.

It’s a very solid record that features generally tight, compact performances of good material.

As each of the baker's dozen tracks move at the same pace and are the same relative length (between four and five minutes), the album can fall into a rut. That's a shame because most of the individual cuts have merit. Together, they are less than their parts.

There are times Sweet Baboo tilts too far for me towards a certain type of purposeful cute-ness that ends up feeling inauthentic, more of a purposeful surface-level impression than content to grab ahold of.

Every song is tightly wound and well-produced, even as the overall feel is lighter than previous 311 efforts, save a couple of ill-advised ventures into social consciousness and hard rock.

Lyrically, In a Cave is no less perplexing than other records.

What’s frustrating about Strangers to Ourselves is that Modest Mouse doesn’t need to wander so far afield on it, not when doing what they do best still works well here.

Far from being the band that every other band wants to sound like, this compilation-style EP suggests that Massive Attack are indiscriminately mining for something to make their own in a climate that has shifted in favour of producers like Albarn and just about anyone who can fashion bleeping synthscapes.

For all of its faults, Multi-Love is far more engaging and interesting than anything being created by Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s so-called contemporaries.

Zombie is at his best when he's at his most audacious, and although Hellbilly Deluxe 2 isn't quite a resounding success, it's still enormously fun at times, proof that he's still capable of a few good ideas in this medium.

It's hard to scrape the sensation that there's something a little inadequate about Tryptych, even as immersive headphone sessions reveal new levels of depth within the productions.

Review #1: <A HREF="http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/t/tortoise-itsallaround.shtml" TARGET="_blank">It fails to engage listeners in a way that makes for a satisfactory listening experience all on its own.</A> [score=50]; Review #2: <A HREF="http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/t/tortoise-itsallaround2.shtml" TARGET="_blank">While It's All Around You doesn't break much new ground for the group, it doesn't disappoint. </A> [score=70]

Each artist on Monkey Been to Burntown brings the high-energy movements of Centipede HZ to do their bidding, but the more interesting work is done by those who see their own set of rapidly moving frequencies.

Jessie J’s latest pop-tacular, slightly uneven effort, Alive, sheds the Katy Perry rainbow for a much rougher, more interesting shade of Pink--both the artist and the color.

My Friend Fish has moments that are more about sound than about song, something which take the focus away from Fleming’s commanding presence. But there’s still a lot to like here, especially when the songs become more than just genre exercises and form their own fresh sense of purpose.

Combining a brilliant debut with some never-heard, once-unfinished songs is clearly a move made with diehard Jesu fans in mind. But, for the curious and casual music listeners, it's the record's shorter songs that, oddly enough, are the least listenable.

Yet even if their musical imagination gets away from them sometimes, Braids still come out ahead in the bargain, because all their futzing around tends to strike on unique and engaging combinations more often than not.

Overall, Animal Heart plays as a gentle wisp of an album: a warm summer breeze in early spring; enjoyed in the moment, yet largely forgotten after having passed.

An overall sense of exclusivity permeates their blithe, sassy melodies, not to mention that its “adorableness” can occasionally irritate (cussing with fey charm is just so earnestly dopey). Still, Alpine’s transformation into a breezier, more cosmopolitan ensemble suits them.

It's easy to believe that the duo's dynamic range must not come through on their albums as successfully as on stage, making an album like Sleepless a partway muted affair. It's still an enjoyable collection performed by a highly capable team--it's just not the sound of potential being fully realized.

What a lot of the divergent sonic explorations sum up to is an album that has a lot of ideas; perhaps more than what makes up a coherent pop record.

The Wolf is a primer on self-actualization, but AWK's sharpened focus comes at the expense of creating memorable tunes.

Ledisi uses cliched song ideas as tropes and canned rhythms as instrumental arrangements while she sings about the importance of being true to oneself as a special person. Despite the seeming paradox, it works.

Burton and Corea opted for their most standard-heavy set to date. They approach classic tunes with an appropriate tone of reverence that unfortunately leaves little room for surprise.

Their sound is as alien and devoid of color as a moonscape, yet for all that, intermittently powerful.

As it stands, the barrage of brutality becomes overwhelming and, as noted above, wears the listener down more quickly than it has to.

Neither an audio-verité release or a fully-fledged, star-studded duets album. It's quite interesting, but that's all. Now, with this out of her system, she can move on.

Mixed Emotions achieves what a striking debut should, offering up some strong pieces with a singular identity, while also showing that Tanlines are willing to stretch themselves a bit, even if their experimentation might lead them to some dead ends.