It's not always hitting the mark, but over the course of eleven tracks and just under forty minutes, XX Teens certainly show they have some chops to keep an eye on.

If you can't get enough of Bejar, you'll obviously want to check this out, but most others will feel like they've been down this road before.

Their production is still top-notch, and as mentioned above the album still has some great sounds and moments, but it's not quite up to the level that they've done in the past.

While it doesn't work stunningly as a whole, there are places where the group comes together to create dark and blistering rock tracks that stand with the best work they've ever done.

While they have incorporated new sounds into their palette, the sonic experiments don't quite work all the time and the album suffers a bit in places because of that.

Human Animal certainly isn't something I'd want to pull out on a regular basis, but there's some beautiful evil I can appreciate on this one.

Despite her pushing slightly forward with her unique sound on this newest release, Son just doesn't engage me as much as I thought it would.

While there's nothing wrong with any of the disc, it just feels like tracks such as "Dahlem," "Basic," and "Cosimo" have already been done by the group before.

If you're a fan of the group through thick and thin, there will definitely be enough to love here. If you want to know the best place to start with Trans Am, that place is still Futureworld.

Free jazz fiends and fans of the first volume will find plenty to love here.

A weird little debut, this one has some promising moments.

The album is rather hit or miss. There are a handful of standout tracks, another handful of ones that are simply decent, and yet a couple more that don't really raise the pulse level at all.

An ambitious, if flawed new album that once again tries to include many different things on one release, but unfortunately stumbles in several places.

Sure, the group can rock out at moments, but the majority of the 11 tracks on this release just feel warmed-over. They feel like they've been reworked countless times to make them better (and they have), but instead of actually making the tracks better, the life and vitality was sucked out of them.

An overproduced, sapped-down album that sounds really nice but fails to stick.

The problem is that it's just not very engaging, treading the same cinematic-heavy soundscapes over and over again without much in the way of dynamics or anything new in terms of sound.

Great in moments and undecided in others, The Grand Archives show hints of promise here, but don't really have enough to set them apart.

If you're a fan of their older work, you'll probably find yourself a bit turned-off here, but if you're a fan of well-played rock music with an ocassional burst to make it stick out from the masses doing the same, Final Straw might be something to check out.

In terms of Wolf Parade side projects, this one is no more trying than Swan Lake or Frog Eyes, but it's obviously nowhere near as immediate as work from the main group.

Arriving somewhere between the newer work of Styrofoam (on Morr) and The Postal Service, Electric President mainly dabbles in melancholy-tinged tracks with a couple bursts distributed through the album for good measure.

I'm not sure if it's the lack of a clear-cut conceptual idea or something else, but the 11 songs on the release just seem to plow along through waters that the group has already rowed many times before.

While the beats and programming are done well, much of it simply seems like slight variations on tracks that he's already done.

While it's all produced and performed immaculately, it just feels like too many of the rough edges have been smoothed off.

C'Mon Let's Pretend overall is a passable album, but the riffs just aren't nearly as catchy, and the group doesn't quite seem to have a command on their sound yet.

It's a little cheesier than the average trance album, but will probably appeal to some of those who enjoy Paul Van Dyk or even ATB

The Snare works well at moments and at other times feels like a rather tepid trip-hop release from a band still developing their sound.

It's definitely about as disjointed as they come, and while that loose style seems to invigorate some tracks, it makes for a release that's downright hard to listen to in places.

Discombobulated and downright clunky, Made In The Dark is a bit of a step back for Hot Chip.