Those cameos [Elton john & Stephen Fry] aren't exactly intrusive, but they do weigh down an album that's otherwise content to drift as gently as the snow in question.

A new Paul Simon record is predictable in the most comforting of ways: gentle world music affiliations, keen narrative, righteous guitar work, effortless vibe. Though his voice retains its coy, boyish charm from 40 years ago, Simon's gift for melody has now been superseded by a knack for rich texture and complex rhythm.

Portishead's methods are hardly frozen in time. And that evolution is what makes these elaborately layered tracks such a knotty, mesmerizing listen.

Ultimately, Stay Positive achieves the admirable feat of being a record you can listen closely to or rock out to, equally adaptable to late-night wallowing and the party at the water tower.

There may not be any moments of dramatic catharsis to compete with “Sea of Love” or “Mr. November,” but the band’s gift for slow, sad beauties (“Nobody Else Will Be There,” “Carin at the Liquor Store”) remains undiminished. Even as they tinker with their style, The National can’t help but sound like themselves.

Fleet Foxes mostly seem content to plug away at the atmosphere established on their debut. The big question on "Helplessness Blues'' isn't where the songs will go, but how much distanced reverb will be featured on any given cut.

Far from a compilation of rough mixes and rejects, any of the songs on this disc -- as spare in sound as they are elegant in form -- would have fit beautifully on a mid-'90s Elliott Smith album.

The result is a brand of soul music that's less susceptible to the revivalist tag than anything else coming out of the Daptone studios.

In other words, classic Guy Clark.

Much like a riveting movie keeps you in your seat, you’ll want to pay close attention to Joanna Newsom’s astonishing new album for fear of missing too much of the plot.

Easily the band's most engrossing and dense album yet, Veckatimest subsumes the listener in dreamy washes of colliding instrumentation and symphonic crescendos.

Phosphorescent’s Muchacho is the kind of album that will take two listens to decide you hate it and then another three to realize how much you actually love it.

Even now, more than four decades after being recorded, it still catches your ear as one of the most wholly original sounds in pop music.

Revolution is the sound of Miranda Lambert coming into her own.

Tomorrow’s Harvest is as strong a return to form as it is stunning an update, with the Scottish duo refining their blend of nostalgic sonics and futuristic sheen.

What’s surprising isn’t that the band takes such leaps, but that it nails its landings so surely.

Welch and Rawlings weren't in a hurry to make this album, and you hear their patience in its unhurried grace. As usual, the beauty lies in the fluid interplay between the duo.

The results might qualify Live From Alabama as something more than a way station between Isbell's last studio record and his next one.

The National continues to impress as songwriters of specificity, too, telling tales that feel granular in detail, whether they're about romances dashed or paranoid minds blown.

Even better is “Round and Round,’’ with its jagged interludes and echoes of Arthur Russell. A metaphor for life as a merry-go-round, the song eventually comes into focus and ramps up into a wild roller-coaster ride. The same could be said of this exhilarating album.

The band does not so much make this record as keep it from flying apart. The intoxicating sound is matched with incisive word play, with the Felices using quirky laments and dark, urban poetry to bridge hillbilly and hipster.

Like a lot of current R&B, there is a sense of anonymity in some of the tracks. Any one of the above singers [James "Jimmy Jam" Harris, Terry Lewis, and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds] could be subbed in to achieve the same result. But given his place as a forebear, DeBarge definitely deserves these redemption songs.

An album rooted in the low end of the emotional spectrum is a risk, but through fastidious instrumental detailing and lyrics that evince sympathy even when they’re at their most cutting, Mann crafts a melancholic atmosphere that is worth repeated listens, whether as a means for catharsis or as a well-crafted cloud to ease the punishing brightness of a too-sunny day.

If you’re looking for alternatives to mainstream country, Clark is still providing one with Big Day in a Small Town--you just have to keep listening beyond the first two tracks to find it.

This is Americana in its purest form, where gospel, folk, blues, soul, and Celtic melodies all make sense on the same album when interpreted by a dexterous vocalist and multi-instrumentalist of Giddens’s caliber.

Lightning Bolt’s subversive sense of songcraft flourishes in these new recording environs, creating their most accessible record yet from tones and concepts as challenging as any in their catalog.

Helm blends the secular and gospel worlds with an almost seamless precision. Fans of the Band will love this.

That feeling of perpetual potential is apparent in even the bleakest of Bush’s years-old songs, which are shot through with clear devotion to constant development of her craft.