Jordanian remains pleasantly understated as a frontman, letting his voice and knack for raw melodies take the focus.

Melodic, dark and captivating.

Throughout the tunes, you can hear that McCartney loves the language of the old songs. He enjoys the phraseology, tickles and teases each lyrical phrase. You can hear that he's waited forever to do as much such as this.

Thomas' honesty, as much as any performance herein, is the commanding factor overall, making it easy, and in fact, all but unavoidable, to fall in love With Love.

This album is just a few hairs (a couple of tracks and/or segues) short of being a transcendent gem, or masterpiece.

The Black Session is a fitting testament to the current state of one of the English underground's most unshakable acts.

Their often-dark songs have a triumphant dimension.

The 5 songs in 16 minutes breeze by, barely after you've had a chance to absorb them, leave you hungering for more.

Not all of the songs are hits ("Met Before" falls way short as a flat, unmemorable filler), but it's much more cohesive and really helps Chairlift establish a more recognizable sound.

Points in a direction that he'd almost certainly be wise to follow on future projects.

Wallop[s] you upside the head with an acid-induced mash-up of rollicking glam, gunky metal and ghetto-fabulous art rock.

Born to Die has more hits than misses and more solidly strange fabulously femme fatale interludes than naff ones.

Leonard Cohen has made the best full album of his career (song for song, sound for sound, lyrical point for point; yes, this is true) and most certainly the best album of 2012.

No one could have predicted that they'd get to Attack on Memory's savage impact so quickly, or indeed, at all. No telling where they'll go from here.

It may seem a somewhat unassuming entry, but regardless, We Love Our Country creates a favorable first impression.

Ultimately, Old Mad Joy may not signal the breakthrough that this outfit deserves, but by rekindling the savvy sound techniques that have taken them this far, hopefully the rest of the world will catch up soon enough.

One Man Mutiny isn't perfect, but it's a highly listenable album from a man who's seen it all.

He delivers a stirring counterpoint to Quartet with an atmospheric combination of organic and digital feels that offers a stirring dual portrait of the landscape of his motherland.

He delivers a drastic shift in style that anyone enrapt with the gauzy pop euphoria of the first two Crayon Fields classics never saw coming.

She is better than you would expect, flexing a style that exists between Woody Guthrie and Def Jux as she calls out hypocritical hippies, turtle burning oil companies and the overdose that nearly killed her with effortless wit and grace.

Hospitality's debut is a sugar-rush of an album, albeit one given acerbic snap by Papini's delivery.

With Feel The Sound, it's only the music that matters and the urge to enjoy it couldn't be more compelling.

This is more adventurous fare but never forgoes its footing in melody land--well, with the exception of the off-putting "Rolling," a short track that unfortunately opens the record and sounds like a symphony warm-up with six instruments headed in different directions.

There's plenty more good and bad.

Urick is a remarkable electronic musician who pushes mainstream music to its outer limits, and as the listener explores those outer limits, expect goose bumps to appear on the skin.

Despite being together for more than 35 years, their sound is tight and refined without sounding tired.

It could easily pass for one of the group's previous efforts. Anyone familiar with the Weakerthans' catalog will realize immediately that's a good thing.

He and his group put everything they could into every track--or at least the every one collected here.