Over the course of this album, you may laugh, frown, cry, cover your ears, or reach for the remote to fast-forward. But then you'll want to listen to it again.

The album is arguably better than the group's much-heralded debut, if by "better" we just mean more sonically impressive overall.

It has so many promising moments, so few -- and I would say hardly any -- flaws, that I just can't help but think, "what if he saw it through?"

Rachel's has produced one hell of a gorgeous concept album - a sort of Dark Side Of The Moon for the Debussy set.

There is no doubt in my mind -- and in this I seem to have a lot of company -- that Transatlanticism is Death Cab For Cutie's best album so far.

Flaws aside, Speakerboxxx more than lives up to its billing.... The Love Below, however, is a revelation.

While the songs aren't that different from "classic" Spiritualized, the method in which they were recorded presents a whole new set of sonic possibilities.

Not unlike Wilco’s Being There, Show Me Your Tears gives classic rock lovers a new album to celebrate -- an album to drink by while mourning the fact that most aging rock icons rarely supply anything this raucous anymore.

Rouse pushes the envelope in a completely different direction, and with modest, although not total, success, he delivers an album that will rival the New Pornographers' Electric Version as the -- for lack of a better word -- most fun album of the year.

Yet another shining psychedelic opus.

As impressive as the early singles were, the material on The Violet Hour is often commensurate, sometimes superior.

This is fun, fun, fun stuff -- one of the year’s best albums, no doubt.

In a way, this could be Blur's best record.

To long-time Jayhawks fans, the new album -- almost entirely acoustic -- is a welcome return to form.

Somehow The Ugly Organ has enough pop appeal and pseudo-uplifting sentiment to make it listenable.

While not quite as satisfying as Wilco's 1998 collaboration with Billy Bragg, Mermaid Avenue, the new record is a great document of two groups that enjoy experimenting and pushing the musical envelope.

This mixture of revealing honesty and defiant self-confidence pervades the majority of You Are Free, an affecting and unforced 14-track album that stands as arguably her most diverse and rewarding effort to date.

Once again, the enthusiasm of the delivery and the fun of being absorbed into the music belies the fact that the group's four members are amazingly talented at what they do.

Hearts Of Oak is one of those albums on which each song has the power to get you thinking, and the hooks to resonate inside your head long after it's through playing.

Tweedy, O'Rourke and Kotche push each other in exciting directions, with songs building on the contributions of each.

Although some aspects of the group's live show threaten to turn the entire thing into an ironic joke, the excellent music here betrays no such mixed messages.

Amazingly, the entire package coalesces without sounding tacky, no matter how funhouse-quirky the instrumentation gets.

Blacklisted is certainly a high-water mark for Case; a statement, if you will.

BLD is arguably Black's most straightforward rock album; his sound is becoming more and more "classic rock" with each passing record.

Devil's Workshop is the most compact realization of the group's aesthetic, and it contributes 11 solid songs to Frank's ever-expanding canon.

A maddeningly ambitious album, Lifted fits into the pantheon of the great concept records of the past few years, joining the likes of The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, and Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

It almost sounds like Pirner is born again, and as anyone who's heard some of Soul Asylum's earlier records -- especially Hangtime and And The Horse They Rode In On -- knows, that's a good thing.

The Rising somewhat falters in its middle third, as Springsteen struggles to make this a cohesive record.