Outside Closer is maddeningly indirect, and the diminishing returns of its final minutes might make you wonder why you invested the time in the first place. But honestly, how many albums can claim to have so palpable an effect?

Other than the last three songs, Everybody Wants to Know is an album you should know about.

Menomena is a wickedly creative band.

A pretty and meticulously-crafted collection of songs.

Remove "Girls" and "Wonder Woman" from Blowback and you'd have a solid album.

Though it might be a difficult listen in spots (especially for the rave-ier set), the disc definitely shows Jenkinson stretching his musical limbs, and it's a fascinating sight.

If you like it fast and rough and dirty, this one's for you

If Tall Dark and Handcuffed was Cex's Slim Shady LP then Being Ridden is most-assuredly his Marshall Mathers LP -- the point at which the protagonistic and absurd becomes personal and nihilistic.

American Idiot isn't so much meticulously crafted as it is unflinchingly audacious.

It shakes the foundations of our music-consuming habits and plays with our genre expectations; it fucks with our minds a bit, just for kicks, and, more importantly, liberates us from the pernicious tyranny of monotony.

Unlike many live albums, which edit out or otherwise correct artists' less than studio-perfect moments, this album offers Hayden at face value. It captures his faults, but it also captures his strengths.

This music sounds a lot like something Edward Scissorhands might compose if he could just play the damn piano.

Though A Colores is rather uneven, it's a compelling-- and more than competent-- effort.

Hefner are at their best when they stick to their primary theme, which is love that's been confused, bruised and downright disappointed.

Sure, Hersh could be your mom, but only if your mom routinely blows out big stacks of Marshall amps.

The album is gorgeous and richly textured, but it seems as if McKay can't decide whether he wants to focus on groovy, downtempo space-pop or more experimental, melodramatic soundscapes.

The music is fantastic, but the sinking suspicion that there's something else going on that you can't possibly fathom becomes pervasive by album's end.

A charming, if often bewildering, set of psychedelic junk-folk ditties.

Does little to sully their reputation as one of the "great white hopes" of the indie dance nation.

Perhaps their sloshing disintegration, whiplashing folk-crunch, honeyed melancholy and deliquescent time-lapse... never quite settle into a stable Gestalt, but the music hints at the presence of more looming somewhere behind it.

How Animals Move is a strange and uneven but ultimately captivating effort by a talented musician/composer.

Ultimately, the album's even-handed mix of [vocalists Helen] Marnie and [Mira] Aroyo makes Light & Magic a tasty cocktail of fiery sensuality and icy perfection.

There's probably nothing here you haven't heard before, but it's all wrapped up in a particularly appetizing package and garnished with lots of artful discord.

EMOH is a bit rambling, and could stand to lose a song or two so as to not detract from the its power, but considering Barlow's sometimes egregious prolificacy, these 14 songs are about as polished as he gets.

The Silent League weave lush musical tapestries with a real humility at heart, preventing themselves from ever taking this orchestral deal too seriously, while remaining focused just enough to produce an album of stunning sonic quality.

You will love some or all of these ten tracks, but for reasons you don't quite understand, you may never love the album as a whole.

A gleefully cohesive miasma of sound.

Surgery is quite an impressive effort, sporting just the right combination of nods to their influences and carefully balanced instrumental execution.