Benjamin Booker has a great ability to make retro appreciation sound very modern. On his second album -- filled with brightly lit, rocking blues, soul, and gospel-inspired tunes -- Booker clearly is brimming over with new ideas and thoughts about the world we occupy.

Built on a theme of an imaginary, idealized Italy, Phoenix's sixth full-length, 'Ti Amo,' is an album that creates a mood. It envelops you in a state of nostalgia and longing for a better time and place, even if it only exists in your mind.

Lorde's second album is a clear statement of who she wants to be, and it showcases her distinctive mezzo-soprano range and her affinity for minimal beats informed by contemporary rap music. The outcome is alternative-pop perfected.

'Relaxer,' the third album from alt-J, is our Album of the Week. The new release 'proves to be a compelling record with plenty of intriguing rewards,' writes Mac Wilson.

'To listen to Chastity Brown,' writes Andrea Swensson, 'is to lose yourself completely in the sorrow, joy, yearning and wonderment of a hopeful voice that never stops searching; a voice so enormous and evocative that it seeps down past your skin and bones and settles right down into your soul.'

Harry Styles's authentically produced solo debut is likely to distance him from his former bandmates and could enable him to establish a credible, viable, long-term career as an artist who is both popular and critically important.

Future Islands' lead singer Samuel T. Herring has called his band's fifth full-length release 'a driving album.' That description seems to fit in a couple of ways, with its road-inspired themes and Herring's affected singing style adding intensity and drama to the forward-pulsating beats.

The fifth album by Gorillaz may best be described as a mixtape, consisting as it does of 20 tracks tied together by a common theme determined by project leader Damon Albarn.

Equal parts history lesson, autobiography and love letter, 'All The Beauty In This Whole Life' delivers Brother Ali's bone-cracking messages while maintaining a beautiful amount of gratitude.

After a six-year hiatus from writing and recording, Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist has returned with an album that brings forward Feist's voice, lyrics, and guitar playing unlike her previous releases.