It might be an altogether superfluous release but when the music is as expertly crafted to begin with, it's a solid sensation for anyone to notice.

It goes to show, scuzzy hooks will always be a way to make engaging music, even if the genre is well-worn. So, do yourselves a favor and check out We Are the Champions, an endlessly rewarding firecracker of an album.

If well-crafted folk-pop leaves you feeling lukewarm, by all means join the naysayers; otherwise, I'll be on the side of those dancing and singing along.

While the design is a bit different, the result is still another awesome album to add to Arctic Monkeys' arsenal.

The eighteen tracks and eighty minutes presented here don't hold a candle to 2008′s The Chemistry of Common Life but I truly admire the tenacity of this outfit to push on toward such a lofty venture.

Allowing their music to be filled with the goodness they inevitably churn out, My Morning Jacket has embraced the electrical currents that connect their music.

Ultimately, this album is about Tyler and we cannot dictate how somebody chooses to express themselves, so the best thing to do is sit back and let him open himself up. warts and all… So yes, I highly recommend the album.

It's not entirely clear yet whether Loud Planes Fly Low will be the Rosebuds' swan song or simply a restatement of purpose, but either way, the band has delivered one of the most arresting breakup albums since Beck's Sea Change.

Although Smother isn't as suffocating as perhaps it should be, it's still an interesting venture for Wild Beasts to have taken and definitely, a worthy follow-up to Two Dancers. And so while there isn't anything as wildly inventive as maybe "Hooting & Howling" anywhere to be found, there is a great deal of lingering new sounds to get lost in.

Four albums in, the music continues to embellish and luckily, entertain for Junior Boys. Even though It's All True might not be the resounding return of earlier albums, the transitions the duo has embarked on have found them crafting sound into brand new revelations.

Goodbye Bread is a fitting development on an impeccable path. The depth accomplished through five albums is obviously grand and it's definitely as if Segall is purely improving with every passing year.

It certainly lacks the ambition and scope of Transatlanticism, but given the group's recent personal and professional triumphs, it's encouraging to hear them produce a piece of work reflective of their situation.

Often Lange is able to transform songs into something worldly and like the title implies, there is a mysterious glean to it. So while Lange continues to flex his many weapons, the black ice cream he's created continues to flourish.

Demolished Thoughts, for what it is - a collection of evocative but slow-moving songs - makes its mark through the repeated exploration of a theme.

With all of that said and there was plenty said this album is not only highly recommended I would have to say for me at least it is one of the better efforts of 2011 and will more than likely end up on an end of the year round up.

Like the music, there is always a vast amount of territory enclosed and in that same sense, Alpers covers a lot of ground with careful trepidation. The meticulous feel of the album stems from its creator and the calmness of the music is a sheer result of it.

Though Eye Contact represents another exhilarating turn from one of modern music's most enterprising groups, many people will likely be turned off by the sound of Bougatsos' helium shriek; that voice may be initially challenging to the ears, but those who arrive with the awareness that this isn't exactly the stuff of sing-along melodies, honeyed vocals, and verse/chorus/verse gratification will be pleased they stuck around.

As a stand-alone, six-set album, it compares just fine to last year's eight-set Pigeons and in many ways, is a detached piece on its own. With songs that are as refined and delicately composed as this, Here We Go Magic have already presented a strong catalog to take notice of.

Whilst the modus operandi suggests something rather derivative, somehow the album achieves more than fan-boy indulgence; managing to be stylish and atmospheric without being too slick or insubstantial.

Two years later, the five-piece returns with Simple Math – a concept album which, according to Hull himself, examines perennial hot button topics like marriage, love, religion, and sex. Again, not exactly revelatory material, but Hull has a gift with prose that turns even the most banal observations into striking reflections.

The feel of the piece is all, and its what carries the player, and the listener, through. In that respect, these records are essential listening for anyone who plays a guitar: invigorating, exciting and sometimes frustrating--but above all liberating music of the highest quality.

Terra is in no hurry to hook you, but once its charms become evident, it's hard not to be bewitched. It cleans up all of the more histrionic and clunky aspects of Lynch's previous work, and conjures a neat little self-contained world.

This is heavy and intense music that I find difficult to call pop. She deserves better.

Mountains had found a way to work in an area which was unexplored and undefined, successfully fashioning their own esthetic. This new direction is taking Mountains away from that specialness and closer to the average.

It's best to purely take in the dissimilarity of this exceptional new album in contrast to Hospice--it's downright astonishing on its very own.

The Moonlight Butterfly won't allow The Sea And Cake to set the world on fire but with its reviving studio craftsmanship and exploratory attitude, it should happily smoulder in the ears of those who needed the band to deliver something just a little to the left of a self-defined centre.

Collectively the nine songs that make up False Beats And True Hearts don't stray demonstratively from the path that Damon & Naomi have followed near-religiously since being coaxed into cutting More Sad Hits, but its subtly refreshed vocal shifts, balmy inviting arrangements, blur of rural-meets-urban asthetics and a clutch of mesmeric moments make it a record that could one day be considered as a true keeper in the couple's discography.

Yet with such a superb back catalog and a stellar new record to boot, the question now becomes how – or if – Okkervil River will be able to top itself the next time around.