For as good as the majority of the tunes here are, the grandiose scope of Highly Evolved turns out to be a bit more than the young quartet could chew.

Today Is the Day! is much better than most between-albums rehashes.

This might be the most varied record they've ever made.

The jazz leanings and fascination with electronic music remain, and are sometimes imprudently indulged, but in general the band seems to have a renewed awareness of the needs of the people on the other side of the speakers.

Compared to similar but more extroverted acts like Capitol K and Manitoba, Clue to Kalo lacks the jagged pop edges that stick in the listener's memory.

A few missteps into the mainstream aside, Log 22 shows Bettie Serveert entering their second decade of recording with grace and winning humility.

It's blink-and-you’ll-miss-it running time and rather hefty price tag are the album’s only real drawbacks, proving that even after five years away, these kids can still write tunes that get stuck in your head for days.

The first thing that really jumps out at you about Two Way Monologue is that it lacks its predecessor's exuberant, puddle-jumping panache. But when you stop and look at things closely, you realize that the progressions Lerche has made on the songwriting front more than atone for any zeal he's trimmed off the back end.

Peopled with starry-eyed lovers and draped in wistful melancholy, it brilliantly captures that lonely netherworld between love and loss.

His machinegun flow is as cerebral as ever, but too much of the album's production slides by in a dignified haze of twinkling clips and clacks, devoid of real grime or grizzled substance.

This isn't really one of those cases where bands like Wire or Mission of Burma or Vashti Bunyan come back years later with stuff that ranks among their best, but it isn't bad, either -- not bad at all.

For a fractured album that spent several years in limbo, Amber Headlights does two things very well: it's an impressive introduction to Dulli's far-reaching musical talent, and a spiritual cleansing for the wry vocalist himself.

For the most part, words and music are woven together in interesting and convincing ways.

Some listeners may find the results to be a little bland for their tastes.

As you might expect, the sheer number of tracks means there's a sizeable dollop of filler.

These new stylistic change-ups give Of Montreal a contemporary edge, but dull the pastoral chaos that made them so charming to start with.

Even though Mississauga Goddamn isn't completely without flaw -- some of Gibb's lyrical and compositional choices are pretty obvious, for one thing -- it allows you, for a little while, at least, to escape from the everyday world.

Annie has delivered a solid pop record that does a lot of things well, but -- and this is the important thing -- that's what we should expect from all of our pop records.... Anniemal isn't a high-water mark; it's a benchmark.

They might not have the lyrical substance necessary to be the new Manics, but Gay Dad's unpretentious take on modern glam makes snorting coke while wearing striped hot-pants and sprinkling stardust on passers by sound like a hell of a lot of fun.

You won't necessarily encounter anything substantially removed from their prior work, but you will witness the duo allowing new voices to assume a greater role in rocketing each song to some bright red futon in a distant region of the cosmos.

The danger that Ladybug Transistor faces in working within this retro-country-folk-pop oeuvre -- above and beyond the fact that most people are conditioned not to listen to it -- is that it's difficult to rise above the level of pastiche.

I Com proves that this talented singer/producer is as adept at making her own music as she is playing around with others'.

Soft pop isn't everyone's favorite genre, and there are those who will find Soft Commands too sweet for comfort Still, even at its most pop-friendly moments, there's enough muscle and intelligence here to keep the album from cloying.

As gentle, elegant end-of-the-summer albums go, Frozen Orange scores top marks. As a David Kilgour record, it's more subjective; some listeners will love the polish, while others will consider it surplus to requirements.

There's an intermittent psychedelia here that lifts even the most deadpan tracks into sunny pop territory, as sweeping, swooning So-Cal melodies erupt from its cavernous grooves.

Gimmie Trouble reminds us that Adult. don't sound like anyone else... Not even themselves.

Origin Vol. I rocks pretty hard without asking much of listeners; it's difficult to be disappointed in a record that's so clearly joyful and energetic.