It is simple, winding, hypnotic and beautiful, and it makes being human bearable for a while -- without in any way detracting from its essential tragedy.

A strong contender for album of the year, Shaking the Sheets is a masterpiece of fucked-up mod pop: political but not preachy, insistent yet never twitchy, respectful but never blatant.

Welcome Interstate Managers is a watershed accomplishment, surpassing the band's debut in terms of whimsical pop songcraft, lyrical astuteness and blind melodic ambition.

Dangerous Magical Noise is rock and roll at its pure, shaggy best. If you're tired of that, you're tired of life.

It's achingly beautiful without relying on maudlin sentimentality to win the listener over. Genius.

The Notwist can sculpt more emotional sounds and music into a compact and cutting four minutes than most can do in a career.

The Stills have always shown promise, but Logic Will Break Your Heart ascends far beyond anyone's wildest expectations.

Source Tags and Codes is phenomenal. It's one of those albums that starts the listener on a seeminlgly unsustainable high note, and uses that as a launching point.

Absolutely essential!... It’s a coming-out party on the level of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless.

Every track on Hate surpasses the high standards set by its predecessor. Go buy it right now.

I defy you to find a more elegantly shambolic, soulfully homespun and, indeed, heartfelt album than this.

The sheer scope of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is so utterly breathtaking that repeat airings only reinforce its stunning songcraft and otherworldly sonic splendor.

A perfect synthesis of modern studio manipulation and old-time pop craftsmanship, shattering all notions of what pop music can, or for that matter, should be.

It's simply wonderful -- bristling with pop masterpieces large and small, and reassuringly unburdened by Smith's deep-seated malaise.

Separation Sunday stands a chance of being one of 2005's true classics.

Totally brilliant, mind-meltingly good, and as different from Secret Wars as possible, except that both of these albums could change your life.

This is a wonderful album, full of heart, skill and intelligence, and sure to be recognized as a classic.

Double Figure is as instantly memorable, not to mention listenable an IDM record as you are likely to hear this year.

One of the few discs I've encountered that not only attempts to be something more than a simple album, but succeeds.

An album of rich melodies, aggressive percussive breaks and richly textured atmospheres that intelligently synthesize the whole of electronic music history.

Pole is the sound of a restless musical talent and intellect seeking out like-minded collaborators, expanding their horizons, and producing an otherwise impossible synthesis.

Taken alone, each of these songs sounds exciting and raw. Taken together, Low Kick and Hard Bop is further proof, if any was necessary, that this is a woman posessed of a singular talent and an even more singular vision.

This is a record in which Warren has fused elements of dance, rock, trance and folk to create exquisite pieces of crystalline future-leaning pop.

Without a doubt one of Callahan’s most inspired collection of songs to date.

Skimskitta is a beautiful album. It is warm and enveloping. It is full of shadows but flashes with brilliance. It is oblique, yet often familiar. It is intelligent, inventive and inspiring. And it is very hard to put into words.

She Has No Strings Apollo is, if anything, a portrait of one of the most passionate bands you'll ever hear, at a time when they've fine-tuned their improvisational telepathy.

If you like smart, complicated rock and roll that nevertheless puts on a show, they are as good as it gets.

After you've listened to Rock Action for the first time, you may be hard pressed to believe that Mogwai merely wrote these songs; you'll feel as if they created these symphonies out of thin air, pulling gorgeous sounds from within the deepest recesses of the human soul. Eventually you'll come back down to earth and realize that Rock Action is by no means divine...but it is very, very good.