The sad thing about Waves are Universal is that there are many songs that just don't cut it.

Ejstes crafts songs where throwback psych-pop melts effortlessly into cascading soundscapes, jazz interludes, and epic instrumentation.

What sets The Real New Fall LP apart, however, is the consistency of its greatness. Every Fall album has had a bum track or two since 1984, but this new record really doesn’t.

Hot Fuss is a multi-faceted, consistently interesting and enjoyable synth-rock album with strengths across the songwriting, singing, and playing fields.

Whilst Moore’s meandering stops Sonic Nurse from going that much needed extra mile, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo are on reassuringly good form.

Chock-full of catchy songs, off-kilter melodies, and A.C. Newman’s clever lyricism.

Brother is to Son is a genuine pop triumph, the perfect execution of conceptual complexity and musical audacity, tied together with the timeless expression of one man measuring the motions of his soul.

Twisted, mangled, and deeply submerged under the layers of bewitching muck are brilliant melodies with sonorous strings hidden between double-tracked guitars and gigantic, mesmerizing choruses.

What elevates the music of Love and Distance are the unexpected combinations that make this latest Sub Pop release a cut above the duo's former albums.

While not every song on Glass Floor is a gem, the best ones here are so good, I can only assume Maritime will be a step forward even for these artists’ illustrious careers.

A great album from a fantastic band.

There’s so much going on here that you have to listen close. And still, it’s a fun album, catchy and wild and full of exuberance.

Nothing here is horrible, but nothing here is great.

You've heard all these elements before, but never quite this way.

It’s not much of a pop record, but it’s very catchy in spots. It’s not experimental in the least, but it does have it’s own specific sound and feel. When it welcomes you in, Hotel Morgen can start to impress you.

For all the energetic, dark, brooding noise of Howling...It Grows and Grows, the Catheters are missing one thing: variety.

Although most of the songs are good individually, the record is fairly monochromatic, and it can get a bit tiresome listening to it from start to finish.

The Secret Machines’ Now Here is Nowhere seamlessly fuses nine tracks and crafts a brilliant and sometimes trippy path colored with a tapestry of melodic motives and fragments of reverbed guitar.

It’s hard not to like The Thermals, and Fuckin A, while maybe a bit less lo-fi than its predecessor, is a stellar album.

Alternating between sounding like a gremlin and sounding like a baby, the vocals don't so much haunt as distract.

The great beauty of the record, though, is how repeated listenings peel back once-unheard layers, how Phillips’ voice develops a deeper resonance with each spin, and how the deceptive simplicity of the recording gradually fades to reveal carefully scripted movements and moments.

A rich, rewarding showcase for a woman whose voice, spirit, and energy have not faded.

Inches is not just a great concept; it’s a legitimately great rock record in most every facet, and it's Les Savy Fav’s best release outside of Rome (Written Upside Down).

All in all this is a rock-solid debut from a group of veteran musicians who aren't necessarily out to reinvent the wheel but whose fiery passion rings through on every note.

Faking the Books is one of the best albums to come out so far this year.

It’s the sheen and almost reflexive attentiveness to commercial accessibility that’s placed on a good handful of the songs that can make them sometimes fail or falter or seem weaker than they truly are.

The music is consistently fresh, fascinating, and evocative... the band’s best album to date.

The worst thing you can say about On My Way is that it isn't as good as Sha Sha.