There are points during the disc when you wish the rollercoaster would relent, but that is beside the point: Fol Chen are pop experimentalists, deft song-writers and immaculate producers who have a lot to say – so hang on!

It’s a strong, deliberate album that is both unsettling and riveting, and absolutely convincing in asserting Crystal Castles’ relevance, and talent.

You would think that all this grandiose genre-juggling would play out like a collection of songs, but it all works well together and plays like a cohesive album.

Unlike the first record, which relied on Temple alone to fill out the layers of the songs, Pigeons utilizes the full band, and improves because of it. The songs are better composed, and more interesting: the experimental bits, which were a bit of a distraction, are more focused and purposeful.

A track like "Grape Juice City" indeed showcases the duo's tendency to prance upon unique wavelengths and make them their own but, a little extemporaneous head-butting between the sounds would keep Ratatat atop the sonic badlands they created.

Regardless of how the totality of Splazsh sounds to you--whether it's five tracks and 15 minutes too long, or a perfect hour-or-so long piece of programmed paradise, there's a lot to respect about Actress' confidence as a producer.

Their second-full length record is an earthy, brazen affair simultaneously speaking to the romantic idealist and weary traveler.

In it’s complete scope, the album contains all the master works we’re usually too scared to expect from a full-length these days.

Everything fits in place to up the game of something else, and no part of these finely made blues and soul creations gets a pass on pulling its weight. That’s just how it works for Brothers.

Although Compass is certainly different from his other albums, it’s also just as certainly distinctly Jamie Lidell, and just the latest step in an ever-growingly impressive career.

Either allow this the dignity of being played through a quality sound system or go invest in a pair of Beats by Dres. This is far less an album than a cinematic experience.

There are no absolute standouts as on past albums, but that is okay. Where Did The Night Falls is less concerned with purity of individual songs, and more focused on the audible aesthetics produced by its eerie experiments in sound. And for that, UNKLE has another winner on its hands.

The sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady plus a few guests (jazz pianist Gael Rakotondrabe, Argentine drummer Bolsa) improvise another trek through their active imaginations, doing whatever makes sense (or not) to them that day.

While his past two Anti-/Epitaph releases showed a heavy punk influence, Li(f)e is a groundbreaking amalgamation of folk, indie rock and hip hop.

Omni doesn't reach the same dizzying heights that some of their past releases have attained, but it's a solid piece of work. Definitely something to keep blasting in the car for the upcoming summer months.

More! is filled with playful, soft and dynamic production, but instead of having a fluid album format, it feels a little inconsistent. And an unnecessary and dated vocal feature from Yello on "Divine," weakens the whole flow and picture.

With Swim Snaith finds success focusing his most complex notions and freeing his most straightforward ideas.

By the time things conclude with mannerly closer "The Great Estates" it's been made perfectly clear that this is a band ready and able to create visions with enveloping scope and delightful articulation.

The whole album is a spacey trip, and it acquires several listenings to be on their side. They're definitely not stagnant, but it's still a step back from their debut--not in time, but in appeal.

Tommy excels because there is no one correct way to describe the music. Using everything from Afrobeat to IDM, Dosh does it all; yet, he manages to find a way to make the entire project cohesive.

While filled with warm analog electronics and is borderline ambient, Thomas manages to execute it in a tasteful way.

This is an album loosely forged in all those places where pop, rock, funk and soul congregate and it's hard to imagine it all coming together much better.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are back with their fourth album I Learned the Hard Way. It’s another authentic, heart-felt album filled with heartache and daily struggles.

After five full-length albums, Shame, Shame finds Dr. Dog far from having exhausted their creativity, sounding more passionate and frenzied than ever on what is a lasting testament to their showmanship and remarkably consistent songwriting.

Javelin know what they're good at, where they stand, and they aren't trying to shove their knowledge and musical interests in their listeners faces. Instead, they let them find it for themselves by picking up on bits and pieces and carrying them forward, focusing on what interests them without having to worry about what they don't.

Whereas past Wu albums have been scorned for their filler, Meth, Ghost and Rae leave plenty on the chopping block this time around, only allowing the best of the best to make the cut on Wu-Massacre.

So while the music on this disc might not inspire a wave of followers and imitators like his Pixies days, Thompson is clearly having a lot of fun cranking out his latest batch of rock ‘n roll surrealism.

The record is a winning release, if not entirely novel, and the sound of a likable band honing their sound while refusing, somewhat obstinately, to alter it.

It doesn’t always make for a relaxed listen, although it is certainly capable of settling in as a moody background or standing in the forefront captivating rapt ears. The swarms of noise can be both comforting and disconcerting, but each finds a place of its own as this duo continues their run of impressively novel music making.

Simon Green stands with a select group of musicians who have been consistent in both quantity/quality output of this type of introspective music. Bonobo's Black Sands is an album that should not be missed and is undoubtedly one of the most superior releases of this year.

The lyrics are largely uncomplicated musings about disastrous love and lust but the band manages to broaden its musical style without compromising its core identity. A solid next step in the band's evolution and not a bad listen either.

Standing on Top of Utopia is a strong album, but utopia also means “an illusion”–a non-existent place–and sometimes it sounds like too many moods under one cover.

Wolf’s elastic compositions straddle the line between a multitude of genres without making it sound forced. Widely respected as one of the best drummers on the indie scene for years, Josiah Wolf has deftly proven he has the chops to stand on his own.

Distracting at times is Thomas’s voice--he seems to take pride in being purposefully off key--but breezy opener “Girls FM” and later the low key “Eyes Music” calm his shrieking affinity and keep him just where he needs to be; melodic.

Every moment on Broken Bells is necessary. James Mercer and Brian Burton, in this highly personal project, have nurtured a carefully multilayered array of pleasant sound with slow-moving vocals that capture the best of the worlds of both these talented artists.

With a brand new sound, rich production, and a palpable sense of growth, graduation has come, and Kidz in the Hall have officially earned their degree in unadulterated artistry.

A transportive offering in a record full of them--strangely relatable, hauntingly beautiful and in the truest sense, exquisite.

If you are a serious Groove Armada fan you will love it or hate it, I doubt there will be an in between. If you are just a music lover who is really digging the way electro and indie sounds have come into their own in the last few years than this is definitely for you.

But for all the labels and feelings the album conjures and provokes, Fight Softly ends up sounding like a bunch of beats and blips gesticulating wildly instead of a cohesive body of melodies and songs.

There’s an intriguing, never pandering, blend of genres on Be Brave–from soul to blues to modern day indie rock-packaged as Texas blues–making the record a more interesting listen each time around.

From the get-go the album announces itself through insidious emotive aural effects, which through a blistering barrage of time-travel sounds, encompass the listener in a feeling that although intense, evaporates rather instantly.

While it’s commendable, if unnecessary, that Whitney and Votolato are exploring new musical areas, there’s no denying the fact that if Take Me to the Sea ever ran into Hologram Jams in a dark alley, Hologram would be down for the count.

With Similes, he has re-grounded himself using surprisingly un-ambient means: plaintive vocal turns, steady human percussion, traditional and discernible instrumentation

Even though the “fast forward button” will be needed here and there, The Stimulus Package is still a solid release that is easily the top hip-hop release so far this year.

Don’t be expecting any Texas harsh, desert-crusted psychedelia–this is more fields and forest music, lush electronica crafted with some awesome, mutant pop songwriting.

Mathematics’ more traditional drumwork keeps this distinct from a RZA production and provides a surprisingly snappy cohesion to the whole affair.

While it almost goes without staying that every band’s aspiration is to ingeniously pique the interest of their listeners by reinventing old elements and coupling them with new and creative tones, it seems this record’s goal is not necessarily to go without saying, but say it all in the fewest possible breaths.

A band/sound that could easily have been a flash in the synth-pop revival pan has actually proven itself worthy of revisit , over and over again.

While this record may have cast the veil of melancholy over a chunk of its tracks, the noticeable difference should be welcome to fans old and new.

Muldrow’s wonderfully flighty reverberations allow the listener to grow, to mature with her, to continually learn and blossom and thrive through the music.

Earthology, like its title suggests, is a study of the Earth, -ology, derived from the Greek logos, meaning branch of knowledge-and as such, is an informative journey with countless layers that serve to educate its listeners who pay attention, unwinding its knots to reveal its (in recent memory) unmatched complexity and depth.

Her rhyming ability is versatile yet non-braggadocios. And it is these ingredients that gives the music world a fresh yet veteran voice.

With the release of this new album, There Is Love In You, he's shown his versatility in dancefloor culture while remaining true to his own soundscapes. The result of this new venture may be the most satisfying Four Tet experience since 2003's release of "Rounds."

There is a certain rhythm that begins to form with constantly being pulled along and feeling as though this will be the moment everything crescendos. Prepare yourself To Realize presents a Sisyphus-esque journey that can be exhausting.

Prefuse 73 lent a huge hand as far as the production on the EP and (not surprisingly) they are on to something with this music stuff.

At times self-indulgent, The Colossus contains enough of the parts that made RJD2 relevant in the past to reignite interest in both this album and his vast (and growing due to unreleased material) back catalogue of work.

The Norwegian maestro of disco, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, teams up again with Christabelle (also known as Solale), and together they craft a masterful 10-song pop album.

Contra is cohesive and concise; it may have the effervescence of California, but it is over in a New York minute.

The album overall shines with Martin’s production, with chills provided by filters, reverberation and the sense of shaken souls crying out each track in the album.

Matching catchy pop songs and good production to hip-hop's most wanted, it all comes full circle in Straight No Chaser.

Ethiopium is an instant classic that reveals its true essence after every listen, and as such, will only reward those who prove worthy.

While the new songs don't reach that across-the-board crossover appeal, there are some synthed-out gems that get a proper unveiling. [Nov/Dec 2008, p.86]

Thanks to collaborations with Richard X, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos and Xenomania’s Brian Higgins, Annie’s cross-genre “pop with strange edges” still comes together with plenty of bang.

It’s far from perfect, sloppy and trance-like, but feels suffused with a blast of inspiration the musicians simply had to get out.

Clocking in at 21 tracks, Felt 3 has room for just about everything: a bunch of skits, battle-rap anthems, story-telling (dark and lighthearted alike), and, somehow, the energy of a young Rosie Perez is maintained throughout.

The production offers great instrumentation and paints moods very well for Wale and his expertly-picked guest appearances.

It’s enjoyable as easy-listening, but there’s nothing about Climb Up that truly grips you. For that, APSE will have to exist in electro-rock mediocrity for the time being.

Everything here–like his entire songbook pretty much–is delivered with presence and vigor.

Tarot Sport goes far beyond it's sonically daunting reaches and succeeds at being a deeply emotional experience.

While his work with Deerhunter remains impressive, Cox allows himself the most freedom while writing as Atlas Sound, and on Logos his risks are all rewarded.

While CrownsDown is a damn fine album that comes off as a more mature, refined rendition of Them, only time will tell if Themselves have created their own classic. Still, it should silence the cynics.

Love Is Not Pop is many things; a comeback of sorts, a refreshing hybrid of exquisite production and emotional intimacy--but most immediately, it stands as an essential mood piece for these crisp air days, light fading early into dark.

Although this album is an improvement from his previous work, to fully understand this album (and his work overall), you must see him live.

Light a Candle is a rhythmic and refreshing soundtrack to adventures through tropical and summery locales.

It stands out as a piece that’s refreshing, bold in musicality, and still defiant as ever--just the way we like our Gossip.

From the preparation to the club to the dreaded hangover, Weekend takes you all over and in between, and is sure to leave you asking for more.

Love 2 is a pleasurable and satisfactory record, one where every track provides just what’s needed and sets the stage for a new composition to step in and carry the beats to their finale.

Exploding Head is a movement deftly capturing atmospheric exuberance.

It is rare to come across an album encapsulating various musical stylings and still boasts coherence and a pleasurable pop listening experience. The Portland-based quartet Hockey achieves that balance on its debut studio album, Mind Chaos.

Is Dead Man's Bones' record necessarily as accomplished as either of the aforementioned? Maybe not. But when one half of your band is splitting his vocations by also brandishing his face onto big studio pieces of celluloid, it's still a mightily impressive debut.

We're given a deeper record than some may've anticipated -- sonically, for sure--but more so The Very Best's debut stands up higher as document of seamless (and shameless) cultural convergence.

La Roux’s selft-titled debut doesn’t disappoint, pulling obvious influences from the Human League and Depeche Mode.

While they have been slowly inching in the direction of a purer pop record post-"Simple Things," Binns and Hardaker seem to have finally found their stride.

Their sound has life, culture and tiny details that could only be developed from a wide variation of instruments and worldly inspirations.

Noisettes have stepped outside their comfort zone and into new musical territory. As a result, they have produced an album that accurately reflects their energy and personality.

If you’re wondering what electronic music is missing, look no further: Scars should serve as a reminder (if you needed one) that Basement Jaxx are an essential piece of the puzzle.

Love her or hate her, Between My Head And The Sky isn't terrible. Yoko Ono is still in the game, and if it's possible to find a deeper meaning to lyrics like "Why is [the elephant] so big/ He says because you're small honey," then more power to her.

Truelove’s Gutter is a winner for his fans.

A couple tracks may become short-lived flings, but for the most part, the pleasure to be had from Temporary Pleasure will not be short-lived.

Milky Ways is a simple yet multilayered album that fires on all cylinders.

Everything Goes Wrong is not a brazenly experimental album, nor is it rootless and shifting for cohesion.

It's a promising thought to know there are musicians this deft and so easily able to push themselves through so many sonic boundaries at once--but in the end, the overt and ultimately, stifling seriousness surrounding it proves to be the largest boundary BLK JKS stand before.

HEALTH will still be written off as noise, but for fans, it sounds like the quartet tapped into its groove.

His timing, precision, and craftsmanship in regards to everything having to do with this project has been impeccable. It's not a classic. But it's damn close.

At worst, A Strange Arrangement has a couple lulls; at best, it’s one of the most enjoyable records of the summer. Highly recommended.

The guys seem like they want to prove they are not just a regular dance band, and in that way they succeed, even including a spoken word piece about one’s concern of the great unknown ('Fear of Death').

Take the jokes for what they are and discover that Felix's style-shifting is refreshing at album length. It may even make He Was Kings the finest full-length effort he's ever created.

With a handful of good moments, and one standout track, this sophomore effort by one Sally Shapiro and her producer Johan Agebjörn, is mediocre.