Wavves - V: An improvement over an already-great Afraid of Heights.

Pentimento - I, No Longer: Barely noticeable from their early days.

Joanna Newsom - Divers: One of the most compelling voices in music.

Mountain Man - Rumination: Progressing towards a bigger sound.

Modern Baseball - The Perfect Cast: A little teaser to more.

Libertines - Anthems for Doomed Youth: No longer lightning in a bottle.

Front Bottoms - Back on Top: More of exactly the things to love about them.

Foundation - Turncoat: Sad to see them go.

Craig Finn - Faith in the Future: Odd production choices become a distraction.

Dylan, Bob - Bootleg, Vol 12: 18 discs of fly-on-the-wall greatness is worth listening to.

Dungen - Allas Sak: Ta Det Lungt was such a triumph I will have to pretend this album does not exist.

The Decemberists - florasongs: Need more.

Blitzen Trapper - All Across This Land: Such consistency begins to lose its impact.

Black Breath - Slaves Beyond Death: A step forward towards mixed outcomes.

Adele - 25: A few great singles, but not as consistent as 19 or 21.

Neil Young - The Monsanto Years: Love (most of) the message, but the delivery is better-than-mediocre.

Worriers - Imaginary Life: Chorus-less and fantastic.

Wonder Years - No Closer To Heaven: Great pop-punk.

Wire - Wire: Settling into the complacency. Or finding themselves in textures.

Wilco - Star Wars: Might be my favorite of theirs.

Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues: I struggle with blues after Robert Johnson.

Weatherbox - Flies In All Directions: Not enough to bring me back for more.

Wavves X Cloud Nothings - No Life For Me: Sonic Youth an obvious inspiration for a compelling-enough collaboration.

Various - Ramallah/Sinners And Saints: More from each, please.

Various - Ciao My Shining Star: Come for the stars, stay for the songs. Frank Turner steals the show.

Various - Curse Of The Seven Jackals: E6 diehards only.

Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy: Album of the year.

Coheed And Cambria - The Color Before The Sun: Concept or not, when the songs are there the songs are there. The songs are there.

Tame Impala - Currents: Too much dance rock for me.

Tallest Man on Earth - Dark Bird Is Home: Can we get yearly, or monthly, releases?

Slayer - Reign in Blood: Not as good as I was hoping for.

Royal Trux - Accelerator: Meh, but the hype will have me revisit.

Jeff Rosenstock - We Cool: Much more cohesive and listenable.

Jeff Rosenstock - I Look Like Shit: Do you like Reggie? Meet Jeff.

Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks: Classical I can get behind.

Ike Reilly - Born On Fire: Sounds like he is having so much fun.

Refused - Freedom: Still do not get the adoration.

H2O - Use Your Voice: Still killing it after all these years.