In Brief

“Everyone goes on and on,” sings guitarist Doug Martsch in the gentle “You Are.” But on the band’s third major-label studio album, he doesn’t do that at all--no extended workouts, just compact, layered rock. He still references classic rock (dreamy John Lennon, flurrying Who, pensive Neil Young, obsessive Lindsay Buckingham), but true to their spirit, he stakes out idiosyncratic territory, but now not at the expense of discipline.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.