Overall then, Whatever, My Love is a mixed affair. Die-hard lovers of Become What You Are will have few real complaints but might perhaps overdose a touch on déjà vu. For the less pre-devoted, a cherry-picked yet economically-unviable EP selection from the album might have served this reunion better artistically.

Aside from its title track, most of Kings and Queens of the Underground sounds a lot like primetime 80s Idol, untouched by the ravages of time, lifestyle, changes in musical fashions or anything else.

There are a number of ear-worthy gems on the album but it’s difficult to muster up enthusiasm for a band that doesn’t seemingly have much enthusiasm themselves.

Come Home to Mama is lyrically stiff on top of instrumental complexity. The lyrics need to be pulled way back. What does work are the opening beats and rhythms awash in a mix of sonic, ambient environments.

It is both a timid musical experiment and a relatively directionless one at that.

Many of the songs feel like incomplete character sketches that simply gesture at yearning and crisis.... Salad Days is, nevertheless, an interesting piece of work.

The album feels like a grab-bag of the band’s process, but not a cohesive expression of their craft.

Despite the overall melange approach being a little uneven, there are some genuine delights to be found within.

Tookah is a frustrating album because there are a couple examples of something fantastic happening in Torrini’s musical mind but it doesn’t quite deliver in the end.

At each fork in the road, instead of going one way or another, Lerner takes the fork.

It’s a multi-layered album constantly shifting in mood and sound offering the listener much to explore.... The band struggle, however, to distinguish themselves from their influences and constantly fall under the shadow of Can, Pink Floyd and The Flaming Lips.

Brokeback And The Black Rock reveals itself as a flawed yet still sporadically rewarding long-player.

The guitars and drums machines and electronic selections are a bit unlistenable. There are some redeeming qualities, however, with a solid groove-ridden guitar fashion show with "I'll Sue You" and an eccentric but extremely tasteful European guitar ballad in "Lisbon".

While tuneful and solid, [In Time To Voices] is not as spectacularly primal as their initial offering Box Of Secrets.

The final impression The Seer left me with is that of a sprawling, lacking in cohesion and over indulgent album that fails as often as it succeeds.

The North continues to show off their skill and while nothing earth-shattering will be found here, it's something to fully bask in.

This synth pop rhythm and blues album is nothing out of the ordinary. I do believe, however, that there are some clever twists throughout the album but unfortunately it all becomes a bit repetitive both musically and lyrically.

Though true that the album lacks the fervent surge of nearly every other Sigur Rós record, it's far from a snoozer. The conspicuous beauty and flummoxing eccentricity of the past haven't gone anywhere – they've just had their edges softened.

While there's certainly something to be said for BestCoast's paeans to the utopian side of life near the Pacific, the subtle shifts in Cosentino's songwriting are best experienced when the rays of sunshine are muted.

Ultimately, the peaks and troughs of Grinderman 2 RMX come from magnifying both the good and the so-so qualities of the original source material and from finding the most imaginative or laziest ways to refashion them.

This is a solid, sonically beautiful album.... [Yet] the problem with her quicker stuff is that, while pretty, it tends to sound all the same; you end up desperate for the chorus, so that you can tell one song from another.

It's this robust fervor and subject matter that fire up and lift up many of the songs on Ceremonials, but the constant exhortation comes at a price. Listener fatigue sets in as the relentless, up-tempo pace and sharply exclamatory vocal tone overwhelms over the course of the album.

Eternal Turn of the Wheel just seems to pack too much of an antiquated, overused style into it without any new innovation and I just can't get behind this album.

This is an unwieldy yet infectious compendium that will satisfy those who need it most.

It's hard not to listen to this album and to think that they've mined this territory already in 69 Love Songs.

An unquestionable oblique listen by mainstream standards, but compared to Of Montreal's previous offerings, Paralytic Stalks demonstrates an intimacy and immediacy which Barnes would do well to repeat.

The songs here seldom rise above the level of being really cute.

Feel the Sound is such a consistent, and consistently smooth, pop album, that it might put you to sleep, or at least a musically-induced coma.

Still Living is undoubtedly a clear step in the right direction for this Sacramento trio displaying exponential growth while maintaining their penchant for infectious rock n' roll grooves.

Drums Between the Bells is by no means an embarrassment, but don't look for it to be lumped into the upper echelon of Eno's output either, where triumphs like Discreet Music or Another Green World reside.

Our Blood doesn't leave me wanting more, it doesn't leave me drooling over another listen, and it sure doesn't leave me interested in more of Richard Buckner's work. But on the same measure, it doesn't leave me sick or angry.

With a few shining moments, the band seems like they've given up. Rather than pine over an album full of memorable hits, Damnesia falls short in many ways.

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.

Each track is filled with indelible melodies and hooks sure to have you keeping time with your leg or tapping your toes. But with music like this, singing along is the ultimate litmus test, and unfortunately the non-descriptness of the vocals leaves this album lacking a bit of personality and memorability.

Ultimately, the hushed tones of the contemplative indie-twee The Caribbean weave on Discontinued Perfume is moderately pleasing yet unspectacular.

Bardo Pond is not necessarily Avant-garde, but neither is it easy listening. It does however, defy categorization and perhaps with a little less unguided frenzy and a little more tempered structure would allow this reviewer to recommend it.

Sure, sometimes, House makes for an enjoyable listen--but when those little electronic beats come in, and when autotuned vocals slip into the picture, it becomes increasingly more apparent that Le Concorde--or at least House--isn't special, but it sure thinks it is.

There is a solid amount of quirkiness to realize and I Was A King surely have a knack for turning out strong songs but maybe next time a 'less equals more' approach would be more fitting.

Violet Cries, one of the more anticipated debut albums of the year, isn't a let down, but it's a difficult album to get a grasp on.

Kaputt is filled with light, sprightly textures, all pleasant and groovy, but the album still seems to lumber along with breezy but basic sequencer rhythms, indistinct melodies, and sax blowing similarly all the way through.

Picking through Blurry Blue Mountain in stages, there is evidently a decent fistful of individually strong moments but taken as a whole its meandering, undemonstrative nature does make it feel like a somewhat makeweight collection; one that will appeal to few people beyond the existing Giant Howe fanbase.

It lacks the consistency and unique feel that the original had in abundance, and lacks the quality hooks that defined his debut.

Codename: Rondo showcases a softer sounding group and it's one that sounds neither confident, nor too amusing.

If you're an old, die-hard Kings Of Leon fan Come Around Sundown will upset you. Keep what you love about this band close to your heart and ignore this album, you'll thank yourself in the end.

While it feels great to have some undiluted Avey Tare material, he seems a little creatively restless here.

Four long players into their career, you can't help but wonder if Interpol is just trying too hard to recapture some of that Turn On the Bright Lights magic. Either that, or the creative juices have been stifled by a rough turn of events.

7th Symphony feels like an album that's 60% true artistic vision and 40% simply borrowed from the mainstream to fill out the track listing. If Apocalyptica can craft songwriting that's unique, mature and deep, they should include it on the next album. If not, they should just stick to the instrumentals.

He over-thought most of the tracks, failing to maintain focus on or fully develop any particular theme. Various elements drop in and out at terse intervals, presenting an idea for just enough time to intern it before moving on. But El-P has always had a theatrical flair, creating music that transports you to another place and time, and several tracks here do suck you into his demonic hip-hop underworld.

It's hard to dislike this album because it is capably performed and the sounds and voices work up a dreamy headspace, but it's also difficult to be really enthusiastic about it.

Sea of Cowards, for all its snarkiness and caustic overtones, is ultimately a fun record, but it’s likely the band had way more fun playing it than I did listening to it.

On the whole, Grey Oceans seems to be the same old thing. I wouldn't recommend this to a first time listener of the band.

While Trans-Continental Hustle isn't exactly a disappointment, it isn't the thoroughly solid album it could (and should have) been.

There are nine tracks of somewhat forgettable spacey-psych 70's songs that are packed with confusion from start to finish. It sounds as if the band skipped a few pages, assuming that their immediate debut success would carry over with the risks they took for this one.

Year of the Black Rainbow is not a bad album. It has its moments, but it is a far, far cry from the greatness Coheed & Cambria possessed on all four previous albums, especially the masterpiece of melody, dynamics, musicianship and continuity that was "Good Apollo I."

Hippies is hardly song focused, the record's 16 tracks tend to mesh together into a blurry, tape-fueled haze--there aren't any obvious highlights here.

Surprisingly enough, it lacks a strong sense of focus (something the creative basking of Sea Lion honed in on) and for all of its elements of sweeping grandiosity, they never seem to have much of a purpose.

Based on the simple songwriting and the nauseating lyrical content, This Addiction is sad, and to the die-hard Alkaline Trio fans such as myself, it will greatly disappoint.

Constellations is only remarkable when it is given your absolute attention, but it doesn’t come up with enough ideas to keep it on its own, lulling the listener with too many serviceably dramatic but non-descript piano-led pieces.

A shock in the uttermost worst way because Wale has suffered from the over-production, guest-crammed, lack-of-ideas style that usually follows with a major label release.

Over all the album is pretty decent and enjoyable in its context. When it feels mediocre, it’s because the ideas, which once made this band and many post-metal bands so ahead of their time, have been caught up to.

It worries me that cheesy metal riffs have made their way onto a Converge record, making it sound like it might be accepted on tour with Mastodon. It’s not a matter of breaking apart but experimentation that might not always go right.

The tracks with fuller arrangements are the more interesting and surprising tracks here, and they suggest Vile would do well to seek out other strong personalities to write and record with.

It’s the latter comradely pursuits that this new 2CD compilation attempts to put into a comfortable package for those who just can’t get enough from the twosome, or need a roadmap to understand where it leads into their better-known works; which it just about succeeds in doing.

It’s not that the album suffers too much from being stuck in traction that it won’t still be appealing to fans of the first album. It’s just that, in terms of expectations, it isn’t the game changer that many of us were expecting.

The way that Howling Bells constructed Radio Wars relies on strong melodies, hooks, songs, songs that aren’t really there, ideas not quite developed.

Hometowns may not be the amazing album some had hoped for but it is an honest debut on many levels: sometimes great, most of the time decent and a good while just being there.

Overall, there is sufficient sun-kissed pleasure on Varshons to extend the patience of Evan Dando-devotees a little bit longer but not enough to surpass past makeover masterstrokes.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings is, obviously, a mixed bag from Dream Theater. Fans like myself will enjoy it, but again, you can’t deny how familiar it all feels.

Remind Me ... has the feel of two albums compressed into one, and a slightly more minimal approach to instrumentation would have given some of the slower numbers added gravitas.

Ultimately, it’s the combination of thwarted ambition and lack of proper recognition, which is apparent, that prevents Beware from ever fully taking flight as a listening experience.

Through all of the missteps along the way, Face Control is a good album that with some more attention and ingenuity could have been so much better.

Simply put, it's a decent album. There are a handful of great tracks and handful of tankers. The rest is just kind of there.

Temper, an album that stays the course in terms of facade but for the most part lacks the great songwriting that elevated "Précis" above other singer-songwriters.

As a release for anyone else, this would be a well received and respected release. But for Ben Folds, whose first two solo outings were both phenomenal, he simply hasn’t lived up to expectations.

Overall Snowflake Midnight isn’t quite the disaster that the disillusioned might have expected.

To sustain her muse beyond short-term thrill-seeking, a little more focus, restraint and better pacing is certainly required. That said, Acid Tongue is still-peppered with acts of greatness, which will no doubt grow further in stature through successive spins.

Barrett combines his best strengths to deliver one of the album’s few shining spots; it’s just a shame there aren’t more of them on here.

Overall, though, there's a lack of memorability tarring this CD. Very few of the songs sound familiar even after repeated listenings.

Lo-fi recording and lackluster production force the songs to rely on the comforting characteristics of the understated indie-twee-folk, of which there are too little to make it real appealing.

All in all, this is pretty good album and it is by no means horrible.

This isn’t a horrible album by any means, but it also isn’t very good. Sitek has done an astounding job of creating misty atmospheres and it’s these small touches that aid the album in becoming an interesting listen.

Blue Lambency Downward is best played in the background of your day. When it becomes interesting (and it will many times), your ears will perk up and you’ll be impressed. For the slow and boring intervals in between, feel free to focus on something else.

These songs sound more like parts of songs that have been extracted from something bigger and more fully realized.

Street Horrrsing is a solid if still flawed album full of enough cool moments to satisfy anyone who might be interested in checking it out.

There is just too much hit and miss on this album.

Evangelicals certainly have the potential to push through and make amazing music--it’s just too much hit and miss here.

The question then arises whether this double album is “necessary” in the overall scheme of Sigur Ros’s work.... When listening to Hvarf, the answer is decidedly “yes” for sustaining their known output, but on the Heim side of things, with its stripped down, string-focused, acoustic sound, the answer leans towards “no”.

A collection that’s muddled but peppered with gems.

Load Blown, superficially, is more of the same; sample some 30 second clips online or in your local record store and it's believable that this is a continuation of what they've been doing the past few albums. The entirety, however, exhibits otherwise, and isn't nearly as fulfilling.

It's not that so many of these disparate sections sound bad--on the contrary, they're generally quite listenable and often feel like excellent mini-songs--but that they seem to willfully distract from a far more worthwhile mantle that Akron/Family are more than capable of taking up.

When the band operates under more traditional songwriting styles they can be quite catchy, but the more wandering, abstract moments can sometimes wander a little too far into non-structured noise.

Arthur & Yu's inconsistently brewed blend of neo-psychedelic indie-folk is definitely an acquired taste and the home-recorded, lo-fi production along with uninspired songwriting renders In Camera incapable of being a worthwhile investment of your listening time.

Dumb Luck has [its] share of intriguing moments, on a few shining tracks.

Strangelet may not be Grant-Lee Phillips’ most stirring collection of songs, but it’s certainly no catastrophe.

It’s not quite the doom-laden disaster that provisional plays suggest but neither is it an easy-to-recommend addition to the Low catalogue.

Even the better tracks fall a little flat.

Jesse Sykes and company have fashioned an alternative country-rock album that is both decent and reflective.

Roadkillovercoat, though possessing several arresting and infinitely entertaining moments, lacks the overall effect and a certain cohesion to render it an instant classic.