With Dark Side of the Mule, Haynes and company’s faithful recitations do little to breathe life into already tired songs for those new to the Mule.

Youth Is Only Ever Fun in Retrospect is a strong introduction to Sundara Karma, with some true high points and it will surely benefit from good radio coverage, a positive critical response and most importantly, strong public support that this young band can hopefully build on.

As it stands, Lemon Memory is an improvement upon their debut.

The Pace of the Passing is fine. It’s the sound of an artist getting his feet under him, a first step for Nash that doesn’t completely work but shows the potential for something really special.

As with every Maximo Park album since the underwhelming Quicken the Heart, Risk to Exist also has a nagging tendency to drastically change the template with underwhelming results. Sometimes it works.

Heartbreaker Please raises one's spirits by accepting the end as a new beginning. He sings about feeling "Brand New", and while his enthusiasm is suspect, there is a sense of relief present. Thompson's not wallowing; he's re-joining the world and out looking for love.

There’s nothing unexpected in the idea that she would release such a strong album right now. In another way, though, it’s just further evidence that magic always surprises.

Ultimately, My Other People feels like the work of a band in progress that hasn’t entirely figured out how they operate as an ensemble.

Magic Hour won't blow your mind but it conjures enough spectacle to highlight why Scissor Sisters remain one of pop's smartest, most entertaining bands.

Based solely on its musical sensibilities and lyricism one couldn’t say Radio Wars was a more mature effort than its predecessor. But given that it indicates its creators’ comfort in their being, it certainly sounds grown up.

As it is, it feels like there's a couple too many tracks.

In a highly concerted effort to create its moody, cinematic environment, Midnight Movies lacks a needed underbelly of substance.

It's uncomplicated, intense, and wearying. Still, it does immensely right by the late, great Jerry Fuchs, who defies the cliche of the 'new wave drum machine' by appearing more like a superstar than he ever has, singlehandedly launching his guys to the top of that pyramid against a blinding golden sun.

What originally seemed like a jumbled array of sonic explorations eventually found its place in the recesses of my brain, and I can now state full well that Garden of Arms is a steady piece of music.

Extended Vacation establishes itself well, creates a world both mysterious and inviting, but once you’re in the world its borders show themselves, and there’s little in the way of surprise.

She is singular in her ability to be among the most stylistically diverse contemporary artists of our time, without being flashy about it.

It's not that Ensemble has made an actively bad album. It's just that somber music which comes from abstract origins shouldn't be so vacuous and blank.

On Public Warning, Lady Sovereign explores the natural edges of her characteristic sound and emerges a more fully-realised artist.

Arguably the best Rosie Thomas record so far.

His music is unobtrusive without being boring, polite without being gutless.

Unfortunately, despite the tightness of this trio's musical interplay, 13.0.0.0.0 overall suffers from a homogenous sound.

These songs ebb and flow in an almost aqueous fashion, an ideal complement to the quality of the music itself. Unfortunately, even when Beacon does this well, which it does quite often, it doesn’t do a great deal to distinguish itself from its contemporaries.

Despite a minor quality slip two-thirds in, many will find solace in its sadness. It's a requiem for lost dreams, a 'melancholy dolly', but, crucially, Ruppert packs a killer knack for melody, too.

The overall vibe of the album is much richer, sonically. Honky-tonk pianos, lively Hammond organ, tambourines hitting all the right beats: Funk draws out the right sound for these songs and Craft sings his heart out on every track.

In the long run, a few duds in 90 minutes of material doesn't seem too high a sin, especially considering the same concession could easily be made for a release like the Beatles' White Album. Thus, with Scorpion, Drake makes a cohesive argument for broadening our attention spans and enjoying life's music, regardless of runtime.

This Is Acting, for all its backstory, rousing highlights, and questionable stylistic choices, actually feels like more of a placeholder than it was probably intended to be, continuing on the radio-ready success of 1000 Forms of Fear but doing very little to push her craft forward outside of exciting productions like “Move Your Body” and emotional breakthroughs like “Space Between”.

It is indeed an unrushed, introspective piece of work--not music for a bright sunny Sunday, but perfect for a Sunday during a meditation retreat in a haunted monastery.

Even taking into consideration his relentless tour schedule, which may be taking its toll on the 76-year-old’s vocals, certain performances sound like a man going through the motions.

A lush, hazy cloud of 12-string acoustic guitars, banjos, violins, and cellos raining down Rieger’s refreshing melodies, marred only by a bit of uncomfortable familiarity at times.

The 1975 is far from a perfect album. But in many ways, its flaws are part of its charm.

Sometimes dance pop with this much gloss and unabashed glee is relegated to the realms of guilty pleasure, but Aphrodite is that rare representation of perfect production that is just pleasure, pure and simple.

It is absolutely a success in creating a mood, but it is ephemeral, forgettable. Ideskog would do well to take what she learned on Siberia and apply it to an album where she gets to hold still for a minute.

Hamburg Demonstrations, for all its charm and cheeky wordplay and get-the-bar-to-its-feet swagger, doesn’t quite live up to the expectations that its forbear set for it. Nevertheless, this is millennial Brit-rock through and through.

Ultimately, Survival Skills does what its creators intended for it to do: to be resolute in its dedication to lyrical acumen and head nodding production. Had they also been more adventurous with the content, the album would have risen to another level.

Out of Exile finds Audioslave moving closer to finding their identity as a band; however they still have one or two more albums before they get there.

These songs are gaudy and daring, but they’re gaudy and daring in ways we heard 20 and 30 years ago.

What salvages the record from being an exercise in nostalgia, are the moments where Strange Wilds drop the mid-tempo grungy gloom for moments of pure hardcore bliss.

Angels & Ghosts is in many ways accomplished and often very pretty. But it’s pretty in the way of a postcard, and Gahan’s been around long enough and been through enough to warrant something deeper.

Almost all of the songs feel like they’re taking place within the confines of a dance floor--either meeting someone new or partying with old favorites.... However, some of the best moments in Luscious Jackson’s catalog came when the band slowed things down and found a groove.

By not moving further away from the sound that defined him, instead choosing to use that sound as a blanket, retreating within it rather than escaping, Lytle shows us that the commuter is still trying to find his way home.

Strange Weather is like a middling dance mix; its 10 tracks merging into a puddle of differing shades of grey that happens to have a kicking heartbeat.

Satisfyingly, Into the Wild is filled with the hallmarks of such solo detours: sparse, moody crooning, more rising and falling than he allows in Pearl Jam and a surprising amount of ukulele.

Most songs here seem to contain the DNA of a dozen other tracks, with Barns stitching them together Frankenstein-style. The results are occasionally brilliant, often frustrating, but always confounding.

In spite of the lack of original material, Scratch My Back is as rewarding an experience as a brand-new studio album could be, as it stands as a potent display of Gabriel’s power as a performer.

At its best, Coming on Strong sounds like a lukewarm Postal Service, and at its worst it sounds like Goldie Lookin' Chain.

Darwin Deez bobs along nicely and, although it's not an album to get particularly excited about, it's hard not to like it.

Continues in the GusGus tradition of decent, thinking-man's dance music.

Despite its flaws, Our Earthly Pleasures is a good record of mostly up-tempo UK indie rock.

Hypnotic Nights is a raucous, enjoyable fare of summertime fluff.

Under the Covers may not deliver any jarring surprises, but it’s a loving tribute to 15 unimpeachable songs, narrated by two skilled and knowledgeable tour guides.

¡Uno! is a grower.

While Six Organs of Admittance do an admirable job of crafting big walls of feedback and drones over which to jam, the tracks on Hexadic tend to meander and stumble around without really going anywhere.

The harmonies are more sophisticated, the sounds more complex, the music more fully realized.

While relatively restricted and one-note throughout, the homemade feel of the result--with its hazy mix of dirty, live drums and samples--preserves its originality.

If you’re looking for good, occasionally great, mature music about facing the end, The Ghost of the Mountain is a damn fine choice.

At times, Robertson can sound fresh and current while, other times, he can sound predictably dated.

Eyes Open is far from a horrible album. It’s easy to listen to, it’s melodic, and it’s well-read. But you’re a strong (or naïve) listener if you can get past the calculation, the number-crunching, the crassness with which Lightbody has taken aim at the MySpace demographic.

Mercury Rev haven’t quite mastered this new toolkit they’ve taken on, and their proggy/bombastic/unabashedly emotional side makes them hard to swallow for some.

While Major Key proves that DJ Khaled is not simply a meme, Khaled swings too hard and misses too often with each attempt at a radio hit.

With a new full album on tap for 2009, the advance four-song EP Festival Thyme seems to indicate the band may finally have found their footing again.

For the complete listening experience, I will return to this record more often than his last two full-lengths, but I think he still has some room to grow and avenues to explore.

Fans of his Sunny Day Real Estate and Fire Theft days should be satisfied here. However, those who cringe at spiritual lyrics that make multiple references to the powers that be (and not as an ironic allusion to the Joss Whedon-verse) may need to look elsewhere.

Like any compilation, Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella has its ups and downs. The good definitely outweighs the bad here, though, and is a worthwhile listen for any big fan of Folds.

The record provides songs as unpredictable as the one proceeding it, incorporating multi-layered doses of percussion, fat synths, and ritualistic chanting that sounds as if it was yelped by Animal Collective’s evil step-sister.

Looking backward lyrically while pushing forward musically, Fite's made a mature album that hasn't lost sense of either youthful energy or concern.

Move Through the Dawn sounds like the Coral are confident and pushes forward from Distance Inbetween. The album is a strong statement for a band that emerged amidst the guitar rock of the early 2000s and stubbornly built success and a career on retro interests and stylistic cues. That makes Move Through the Dawn enjoyable, even while its inconsistencies mark a stark difference from its predecessor or other Coral albums, like the overlooked Roots & Echoes (2007) or the lost The Curse of Love (2014).

It’s well worth the journey.

It’s a perfectly enjoyable record, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

A largely tepid and boring travelogue across a glacial and downtempo soundscape that offers little in variety or abstraction.

It's hard to see how The Promise could achieve some sort of musical relevancy.

Getting lost in the measured melancholy of Hard Believer doesn’t take much effort at all. And that’s the point--a point made repeatedly throughout the set. Just lie back and let Fink do all the work here.

Kintsugi is the sound of a group resting on its laurels.

The middle section of the album, with its long form tracks, just doesn’t hold the listener’s attention. Ambient and dance music fans may find this album more engaging than I did, but Moon Diagrams’ scattershot approach could also be off-putting to that same audience.

Four albums later, Fischerspooner have proven they are anything but a one-hit wonder. Only time will tell if those few dazzling tracks on Sir are an isolated accident or a foretaste of greater things to come.

Through the duration of the record, the producer presents a surreal cinematic vision fueled by his experimental ethos and influenced by diverse influences.

Living on the Other Side is a delightful slice of sunny, hazy, California rock, the perfect soundtrack to a lazy Sunday afternoon spent daydreaming.

Overall, Lion Babe's second album offers a plethora of mid-to-low tempo songs with a few upbeat movers interspersed throughout.

It's hard not to acknowledge that Share the Joy is Vivian Girls' best crafted, most cohesive effort yet.

Exempting a little predictability and some late-in-the-game tapering off, Mass Gothic is a stunning and invigorating record.

Diamond Hoo Ha is a city record through and through: fuzzy and raucous, lit up with neon guitars and drums as crowded as a main urban artery, seedy in thrill and immaculately clean in design.

In the end, the album has more good than bad, and is worth a listen for curious Hold Steady fans.

At its best, this proves a smart move, and elsewhere, it just shows that albums need only be as long as they can remain interesting.

How much you love Amelita all depends on how much you like the Dixie Chicks, and how you feel about two of the three band members recording something that sounds fairly in step with the band that they made their name.

Cheap Trick certainly aren’t innovating stylistically or challenging themselves here—they basically just stick to what works—but they still do an exceptional job delivering precisely what fans expect.

Green Language is by no means a bad album, but there are glimpses of an adrenaline shot of a record that could have been made.

Despite whatever success they may have had with their debut, The Darkness' return clearly signifies that the major problems underlying their style have come to the forefront, leaving the cheeky humor and catchy riffs that we all liked not too long ago in the dust.

The problem is that the band seems to have switched onto autopilot when writing these songs.

It's pure driving music, the type that's fun to listen to while blasting through a deserted stretch of prairie highway, but it's also something you wind up immediately forgetting the second you stop for a bathroom break.

Educated Guess explores new musical territory that is challenging enough to engage even the most folk-averse listeners while it maintains a unity of tone which yields a highly listenable work.

For every captivating thing here, like the chiming, excited "Dressed Sharply", there are far too many songs that are frozen at mid-tempo, leaving the album feeling too uniform to leave much of an impression, either in individual moments or as a whole.

Too often TKOL RMX 1234567 feels as calculated and mechanical as its soulless title.

Overall, the Fresh & Onlys have retained the standard of excellence established over the past half decade or so across a myriad releases for a number of well-regarded indie labels and crafted a solid release worthy of more in-depth consideration and late-night spins after everyone else has gone home and you’re left alone contemplating your own house of spirits.

Herren has created an album that manages to be both uniquely experimental and deeply personal, insular yet wide-open—one that derives great strength from what it doesn’t try to do.

Yorn will always have plenty to offer and be palatable at worst. However, his moments of genius are too soon abandoned for monotony.

The Element of Freedom is just really well-made elevator music. It's boring, soulless, and pretentious.

This is less country than it is music for the country, likely best enjoyed by those who like their music to be spacious and moody, rather than ferocious and threatening, like an album from a band named after a touchstone of the country-rock movement probably should be.

Maybe reaching a little further back into the past would have worked a little better--maybe finding a producer who doesn't try quite so hard to sand off all the rough edges would help too.

All in all, Danzig in the Moonlight is a startlingly average record.