The album doesn't seek any big answers to make sense of a pointless death, but profoundly chronicles Saba's jagged path through the heartache as life continues.

The fine track list, together with the rarity value, should make this a high priority on the purchase list of Neil Young fans or, indeed, rock fans.

As for this being a Shelby Lynne record, its quality and confidence is unassailable.

Although it shares superficial sonic similarities with his other records, 22 Dreams is really unlike any of Weller's other albums, as it's rich in sound and feeling, possessing a shimmering dreamy quality. It's an album to get lost in.

All the selections on this best-of compilation focus on the high-energy side of the music, but that's no bad thing, and it's enough to make a listener sweat just from the speed and breakneck precision of it all -- it's not just father and son who are outstanding, it's the whole band.

But Here We Are keeps its focus on human connection, a distinction that separates it from other Foo Fighters albums.

What sets Start Walkin' 1965-1976 apart from earlier comps from Rhino and Raven is that it's not strictly a hits collection. ... Instead, Start Walkin' 1965-1976 focuses on the stranger numbers within Sinatra's catalog -- hazy, symphonic psych-pop written and produced by Hazlewood. ... They help make for a convincing portrait of Nancy Sinatra as an idiosyncratic artist happily working within the confines of L.A.'s lushest studios.

What really puts the album over the top as something else is not just its ideas-stuffed brevity (46 minutes in its original form), but its material not made explicitly for the club.

It's a resolutely lively and slightly dazed exploration of misshapen pop forms.

Over half of the album's songs are filled with Robinson's bittersweet longing, brilliantly paired with some of Martin's most detailed, creative, and accessible production work.

Whether she's writing original material or covering traditional tunes... the effect is the same. It's intimate, like a secret told readily.

Disarmingly subtle yet flush with enough confectionary touches and left-field presence (not to mention pure craftsmanship) to warrant cult status among smart-pop aficionados, Niagara goes down so easy that most listeners will need more than a few spins to realize how rich of a tonic it is.

Porcupine Tree makes a triumphant return to experimental, non-linear style with 2007's Fear of a Blank Planet.

Eric Clapton has never sounded so relaxed on record, either as a singer - he is supple and casually authoritative, a far cry from the tentative lead vocalist of his earliest solo records - or a band leader, sounding at peace with his past yet harboring no desire to recycle it, even if he's reaching back far beyond the blues that initially sparked his interest in music.

Joni Mitchell's powers as a songwriter and creative spirit are unparalleled at every step of her journey, but her output in the '70s was on a higher plane, even for her. Archives, Vol. 3 reflects this with behind-the-scenes material just as storied and worthy as the music that Mitchell was making during one of her finest hours.

The word "Akokán" means "from the heart," and the playing here underscores the translation. While the recording was meant as an homage, the innovations in both charts and performance make it simultaneously modern and timeless.

Racism and its side effects, from theft of culture and land to willful distortions and ignorance of black achievement, weigh heaviest on Woods' mind, yet her voice maintains a sweetness, unfurling like ribbon over the rhythms.

Not only was the wait worth it, Archives feels like it was 20 years in the making. It's an extraordinary work that redefines what an autobiography can be.

Equally soothing and exciting, heartfelt and innovative, Ecstatic Arrow is Virginia Wing's finest work yet.

As on Grey Area, there are no dry spells or dips in quality, just a master class in modern songwriting with heaps of poise and a beating, soulful heart.

My Favorite Picture of You is simply a wonderful, balanced gem of an album from a masterful songwriter.

The way these splashes of color and invention intertwine with the carefully sculpted ballads result in a testament to Gallagher's enduring craft that's unusually satisfying.

In the Orbit of Ra is close to essential for fans and a pretty good place to start for the curious Sun Ra novice. He really was writing music for the 21st century.

Who Is William Onyeabor? may not answer many biographical questions, but it does paint a superb portrait of the musician as a highly original creator and pioneer; it adds depth and dimension to the picture we have of African music during the era.

It's a lean, tight record that takes its time but doesn't dawdle, it has the easy confidence of a pro who knows that he's working at the top of his game.

While this would be a step backward for anyone else, the band has a talent for effortlessly making the unpolished seem charming as it bashes its way through tracks like "Nostalgia" and "The Worst Has Yet to Come."

Journal for Plague Lovers winds up being The Holy Bible in reverse: every moment of despair is a reason to keep on living instead of an excuse to pack it all in.

It sounds exactly how an underground sensation's breakthrough album should: bigger and tighter than their earlier material, but not so polished that it will scare away longtime fans.