Olsen transcends ephemeral charm at every turn.

It's a heroic effort all around.

Devotchka's captured the sound of a new world order.

Descended from the kings of the region, Sidi Toure, not unlike regional innovator Ali Farka Toure, boasts liquid picking and plucking in this series of duets cut at his sister's home.

Now in his 50s, Bob Mould returns not as the forefather of modern indie rock, but as a vital contemporary.

Lifted soundtracks the scaling of mountains, both geographic and internal.

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.

Indian throws a temper tantrum on From All Purity that goes beyond petulance and into an appropriately pure state of sanity-stomping anguish, purging the demons with sulfuric acid and a nail-studded baseball bat.

Like Lucinda Williams, every blessed bon mot Hubbard drawls sounds lowdown--and eternal.

No one song stands apart, but Burn Something Beautiful hangs together as one of Escovedo's most entrancing works.

Bruce Springsteen's fifth release proved a cardinal development in his storytelling, and The Ties That Bind: The River Collection dissects it across four CDs, a 2-DVD concert from the same year in Arizona, and an hourlong documentary on a third DVD, plus over 200 coffee-table-ready photos.

There's sex, drugs, crab cakes, and people you've never met and never will, including James Gandolfini and the children of Newtown, Conn., but their presence devastates nonetheless.

The 6-disc set witnesses the studio process as it unfolded 50 years ago, particularly the CD unfolding the complete session for "Like a Rolling Stone."... Experience history in real time.

A pair of trad-style instrumentals, "Snake Chapman's Tune" and "Pacific Slope," underlines Fulks' sublime stylistic mastery.

With support from Geffen Records waning, Young retaliated with a crack country outfit in the International Harvesters and dug his boots into the outlaw sound with conviction.

The Walkmen have solidified their place among our memories.

Confident, crunchy, and catchy as hell.

Gifted a falsetto reminiscent of famed Kentucky balladeer John Jacob Niles (1892-1980), his voice soars along rural Americana and across desolate plains ("Where I'm Calling From"). Through the tense, starry twilight of "Outlands," tranquil, meandering rivers and sprawling juniper trees ("Juniper Arms") outline a rocky terrain wherein "Some Beast Will Find You by Name." To that topography, add Adam Torres.

The songs spring from a warm hearth, upping the ante from their well-received sophomore LP, 2003's Heart.

Cultists are now treated to the best-recorded live VU documentation ever.

At times on Small Town Heroes, Segarra echoes them [Karen Dalton, Lucinda Williams, or Gillian Welch] precisely, taking what they do best and making it her own. That's a rung many have reached for but most have never grasped.

The Life Pursuit is certainly nothing new in the pop lexicon, but Murdoch's keen observational eye gives these songs vivid life.

Empathetic and hopeful, By the Way rivals breakout The Story as Carlile's best.

Spare, swirling keyboards and gently urgent guitar pluckings anchor this minimalist masterpiece, allowing Romy Madley Croft's plaintive, laudanumlike vocals to tentatively soar above the albumwide ache that is her and Oliver Sim's (e)vocation.

The Costello formula takes over: minimalist but experimental instrumentation, eternally durable vocals, and literate punk-wave bittersweetening.

Boldest album to date, Freedom highlights "Miki Dora" and "Skipping School" grapple with masculinity and its illusions. "Satudarah" offers stoned-eye hallucinogens.

Following in the paths of American jazz counterparts Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington, UK jazz savants Yussef Kamaal weave a fabric of the genre steering free of up-nosed traditionalist conventions in pursuit of exploratory grooves and improvisation on Black Focus.

Made In California's hefty price tag won't endear it to serious fans, but it's the first release to encompass the Beach Boys' entire inspiring, frustrating, contradiction-laden tale.