Devon Welsh, sole proprietor of spelling-challenged act Majical Cloudz, has a stunning voice. An emotive baritone, it soars above his minimal instrumentation, and is by far the most interesting element of his whisper-soft album.

Likely one of the few reader’s companions for a comic book, The From Hell Companion is an essential complement to From Hell, an ambitious investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders that’s dense enough to merit such an addendum.

Infinity Pool is just as deep and bottomless a record as its title suggests.

Admittedly, Wampire is probably not the best band name, bringing to mind a spelling-challenged Robert Pattinson being followed around by pre-pubescent teenage girls.

As a songwriter, Laura Marling has always gone toe-to-toe with her womanhood and its role in her relationships. Her latest effort, Once I Was An Eagle, sees her address this from two distinct aspects—first as a woman fractured and broken, later, with a confidence and conviction rebuilt.

Desperate Ground, the sixth studio release from The Thermals, is a collection of short, punchy songs that balance bright pop punk against appreciably darker lyrics, while doing little to carve out the emotional drama called for by the libretto.

When an artist releases an album after undergoing an affecting personal tragedy, it becomes all too easy for the reviewer to over-contextualize the record itself and condescend to the afflicted singer with sympathy points-out-of-ten.

Club 8 started out as a twee-pop outfit before gradually obscuring and veering towards electronics. On the duo’s eighth outing, Above the City, the electro-pop sound is very ‘now,’ but the Scandinavian indie-pop roots lend it distinctiveness thanks in part to Karolina Komstedt’s saccharine vocals.

By this time, you pretty much know what you’re going to get with a new album from The National. Lots of sad lyrics, dark humor, shimmering guitars, pensive strings, and a sneakily good rhythm section that ends up being the heartbeat of the whole affair.