Though All the Time indulges and dissects neuroses, it's not the sound of someone falling off the wagon. Rather, this lush and spacious collection of songwriting shows a hard-fought mental clarity, a deliberate effort to resist the instincts on display on "VV Violence" in pursuit of digging deeper into oneself. Intrusive thoughts flare-up, but they're allowed to wash over, eventually fading away. The payoff is immeasurable.

As impressive and imposing The Deal and What One Becomes are, Love in Shadow stands in a league of its own. The change of perspective, the stylistic deviations and the smooth transitions between different modes make Love in Shadow appear as a pivotal record for the band.

Part Lies, is absolutely the definitive collection to come from R.E.M. – the one to own and cherish and keep – and this one goes out to the ones who love what they've heard on the radio, but are unsure where to begin the begin.

Romano builds that most welcome of atmospheres: a straight-ahead, honest collaboration between like-minded artists committed to the songs.There is simply no note out of place.

Already the standard-bearer for today’s brood that includes Abney, Caleb Caudle and M. Lockwood Porter, Moreland proves there’s nothing sanctimonious about singing the truth on High on Tulsa Heat.

Since We Last Spoke continually subverts expectations of what an Rjd2 album is about, yet the songs all stick together in a cohesive way, and the album still somehow bears the distinct personality stamp of the RJ we already knew, even as some of it diverges wildly from the path he's been on so far.

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

It is innovative but still rooted in a firm roots tradition. It is socially committed but not predictably or boringly so.

It may never occupy the place in the indie rock canon that "Slanted and Enchanted" has, and it may not be regarded as the band’s high point like "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," but 11 years later, this album still sounds great, maybe even better in its old age.

For all its gonzo, crackpot gestures, Source Tags & Codes is a remarkably coherent work. It stands as the most melodically-inclined album in their catalogue and boasts their strongest songwriting to date.

Norman Fucking Rockwell is Lana Del Rey unfiltered, full of beauty, emotion, heartbreak, and devastation.

Their sophisticated arrangements don’t waste a note or make a false step.

What makes The Life of the World to Come one of 2009's best albums, and the Mountain Goats' studio albums maybe the single greatest second act in modern American rock/indie/whatever music, is that he never assumes those groups are, at the heart of it all, different from each other or less deserving of our attention and compassion.

By the time she comes up with "Old Tin Tray", you are aware of two things. One is that this is a year-end top 10 album, and two, that she is getting better with age.

It’s never derivative and always manages to sound fresh and new.

American Kid successfully recaptures Griffin’s acoustic roots in haunting and moving fashion.

The band has never sounded stronger on record as they do here.

As displayed in Loving You, Amanda Shires and Bobbie Nelson shared a profound connection. The result is a tribute to the artists’ talents and essential listening for piano-based country music fans and Americana listeners.

What Ode to Sunshine really boils down to is excellent songwriting. And it only helps that the album’s pacing is fantastic and hardly ever drags.

Prequelle is particularly special. It subverts metal clichés; it has a strong sense of history, but at the same time it searches for new ideas within that framework. Underneath the catchy melodies and snazzy artwork, Forge and his band have created one of the cleverest heavy metal records in recent memory.

Songs You Make at Night serves to place Tunng as spiritual kin to peak Moody Blues or Rotary Connection. Musically, though, Tunng remains in a class of its own.

The anguish a parent feels for losing their child is harrowing and Ghosteen masterfully captures Cave's grief and spiraling rumination on mortality.

While the majority of the songs on the album are lush ballads, a playfulness shines through here like never before.

This is a brilliant album created by a music virtuoso that will cement Tyler’s solo reputation earned from his 2010 debut, Behold the Spirit.

Not only has the band wrapped up the themes of the record with impeachable, spotless playing and production, but the man at the center of it all hasn’t lost his penchant for writing quality tunes either, as nearly anything you blind-spot off This Is Happening will prove.

It’s hard to see anyone besting Settle for the title in 2013, and it’s just as hard to argue we need much more from a record than the unadulterated joy pulsing through every beat here.

Any Other Way is an essential document of a revolutionary talent who should have been much bigger than she ultimately ended up being and now, with any luck and a little help from the fine folks at Numero Group, she’ll finally get her due.

The results are less like a rarities collection and more like an unlikely greatest hits album.