It's a challenging album in both substance and aesthetics, layered and looping sounds colliding with themes of black liberation and environmental justice, all unfolding at a hyper-mellow pace.

Unsurprisingly, Policy is a much smaller affair than his primary band's titanic statements on death, God, and 21st century malaise.

Lyrically, the LP lacks the wit of past work like the clever "Supermodel," but stylistically, the Bostonians haven't missed a step.

There's still enough of the Libertines' Arcadian ideal across tracks like "Summer in the Trenches" and the title track to hold old fans firm, but unlike Dirty Pretty Things, Barat's initial post-Libs' effort, he may have finally given the Albion his personal touch.

Her proper debut full-length follows suit, but honed with more power.

A stellar supporting cast matching his vision, Walker produces one of the year's most exciting releases.

Marling's fingerpicking still marvels, but the low blues of "Howl" and the title track's aggressive drone shade with bleaker hues.

By coming back down to terra firma to detail her disconnection with love, Björk reconnects with the people of Earth.

Mostly this is the unadorned sound of Willie and Bobbie essaying surprises from the Great American Songbook.

Dour, divine, depressed, the Liverpudlian of The Apple Years 1968-75 wears many moods between Krishna rock and "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" roll.

VU arrived in Los Angeles with new bass player Doug Yule to track its third and final LP for MGM Records, here excavated as a 6-CD set. Bassist/keyboardist/viola virtuoso Cale's absence proved sonically profound.

Nearly a half-century after the sometimes haphazard creation, this music retains every bit of its intimacy, mystery, and resonance, and The Basement Tapes Complete boxes it up with the respect and insight it demands.

What Alpha Mike Foxtrot lacks is equally significant: meandering guitar solos from recent recordings and zero footholds for "dad-rock" puns. Rather, AMF communicates Wilco's career innovation, maintained while increasing popularity--the rarest of feats.

Three albums isn't especially encompassing, but if you're invested in deciphering the legend of Captain Beefheart, Sun Zoom Spark boxes up more vitals.

As Matthew Gallaway's extensive accompanying history recounts, Bedhead intentionally recorded over potential alternative takes and variations. Thus, the final disc collects the band's equally requisite EPs along with singles, but no revelatory outtakes or even live tracks save for the unreleased "Intents and Purposes" and a cover of the Stranglers' "Golden Brown."

There are a few 10-second temper tantrums--chief among them the heartfelt "Your Kid's an Asshole"--but Iron Reagan's genius remains injecting angel dust into songs you'll sing along to even after they whip your ass.

If there's a thread connecting TOD's discography, it's cinematic ambition, a musical grandeur grounding both the post-punk of 2002's Source Tags & Codes and the lush art pop of 2005's Worlds Apart, career milestones the pair. IX evolves that tradition, though it surfaces through different channels.

The hammer comes down. Hard.

An introspective piano ballad about a lover's never-ending faith, keeps Into the Wide earthbound and proves Delta Spirit to be a band of significant depth.

Lyrically, Complètement Fou--Completely Crazy--remains in the Frenchies' native tongue, but this third offering's primary language is pop.

Tremors ultimately flourishes as a dazzling set of pop tracks.

The Physical World proves that not only is 2004 just far back enough to merit nostalgia, but that this return opens our first portal back.

Alt-J could come off as pretentiously obfuscating but for the overt playfulness within the experimental.

What makes the seventh Wovenhand LP such a refreshing departure [is] Refractory Obdurate is the unabashed electric rock LP the Colorado fourpiece has hinted at in its last two releases.

∞ (Infinity) is ambitious and experimental, not so much songs as scored moods and sketches of dreams.

The mechanics are here, but Worth remains most memorable for its enthusiasm.

Neko Case-sung standout "Champions Of Red Wine" levels the otherwise upbeat 13-track disc, before Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar's "War on the East Coast" returns momentum upward.

Their Laurel Canyon harmonies still beguile, and Stay Gold strikes a wide, thick vein of polish and confidence.