A Christmas Album captures the essence of any early Bright Eyes album whilst putting a new twist on festive favourites.

With Common Courtesy...love it or hate it as you will...A Day To Remember is getting started all over again. And the album ensures that this band hasn't yet seen the peak of its popularity.

While his best songs may yet be scattered about the internet or buried in his friends DJ sets, Guilt Trips works better as a cohesive whole than anything which has come before, yet leaves you clamoring for more.

There’s a real dynamic arc here, not just for the album as a whole, but also within each and every individual song, and whether or not you’ve gravitated toward county music in the past, that unrivaled depth of passion makes this record an absolute essential.

It’s not going to be a new favorite album for anyone other than Avril Lavigne’s most ardent admirers, but a handful of great summer mixtape songs and a few other exercises in mindless pop fun are still enough to make Avril Lavigne the eponymous singer’s best record in nine years. That might not be saying much, but it's a step in the right direction.

Direct Hits is a solid, predictable, and wholly enjoyable look back at the Killers’ tumultuous first 10 years.

Often misty eyed and always misty, the sophomore album from Blood Orange makes a compelling argument that a stroll on the beach can be as affecting alone as it is alongside a partner.

Matangi can be looked at as a return to form, but it's more fitting to think of it as a "getting back on track" kind of record.

MMLP2 makes it more plain than ever that Eminem is among a growing number of rap superstars who are little more than vestigial pieces shoehorned onto radio by inertia alone. The main takeaway of MMLP2 is that Eminem fails to realize that the formulas that worked so well for him in 1999 are at best tired and tame today, and can't be saved by his lyrical dexterity.

Burials is an album you’ll want to replay, especially as the days get darker and the weather gets colder.

True to its name, this record is one of the finest debut pop-punk records of the last five years and easily among the top tier for the genre this year.

Save Your Breath have released one of the best albums in the genre this year and one of the only ones I think can truly be called a throwback to its golden age.

It's a very satisfying record, and it's the type of album where every song will probably be your favorite at some point, and you'll almost certainly have each of them stuck in your head at some point in the next week.

When it's all said and done, I have a feeling Jaar's solo career won't be the only thing he's known for, as Psychic has put Darkside up there with some of the best groups making music today.

An album with too many cooks in the kitchen and not enough good songs to recommend.

They’ve re-affirmed their place as one of the best bands in the world and have created an album that is insightful, emotional, fun and just damn amazing.

Into It. Over It. have become a group that show us that the innermost workings of one mind can represent so many. All different. All the same.

For a group of guys who are now 22 years on from their debut album and 15 years past their prime as one of the biggest and most important groups in rock ‘n’ roll, Lightning Bolt is a strikingly stellar set of songs that belies the band’s democratic nature.

It sprawls and can feel tenuous, even precipitously close to collapse under its own weight, but the moment of calamity never arrives. It stands instead as a monument not to the person who has erected it, but to the multitudinous influences that brought it into being.

Its a testament to the fact that Tim Hecker is one of the best artists making music today, constantly pushing his sound to new heights while keep his signature style at the core of it all.

My Name Is My Name is one of the best debut albums of the year, but since Pusha T is far from a new artist, he's got a leg-up on many of the newcomers to the genre.

It’s easily his most exhilarating and challenging record to date, keeping you on your toes throughout by juxtaposing subdued verses with huge, soaring choruses.

It is a testament to Devine’s self-awareness of his ability as a songwriter that Bulldozer is not bloated to compensate for its lighter fare, and he sticks the landing with aplomb.

Morrison’s occasional lyrical forays into cheeseball territory can detract from the record, but taken as a whole there’s more to like here than there is to hate.

John is still going strong and better than ever. A few listens to The Diving Board proves exactly that.

Bangerz is at times touching and at others a blast--but for a disappointingly large portion it’s as annoying as her detractors had hoped.

He still has an ear for production and his voice remains a pliable tool, but to keep himself tethered to an aesthetic he defined and completed within a year is to do himself and the listener a disservice.

Yours Truly is more tempered and less likely to put you in a beaming state of catatonia.