A series of expertly produced, expertly recorded adult pop tunes.

To Ze's credit, the concept never overshadows the songs which, at their heart, are pop songs.

They are rock songwriters whose lyrics are guitar lines sung, shrieked, and wailed to the accompaniment of a masterful rhythm section. Mono are a rock band -- and a damn fine one -- and they only get better with time.

With Some Echoes, Aloha craft an imaginative amalgam of all of their favorite musical fruit.

The music presented with such care here is lovely, soothing, and seductively beguiling; taken in enough times, it becomes utterly magical.

Wasif tries too hard to make lines interesting and profound, and they end up sounding awkward and a bit forced.

Sound the Alarm is ultimately just another good Saves the Day record.

Green's past albums have all been enjoyable affairs. This one, however, is a masterpiece.

Full of quietly vibrant moments.

The way that Mystics bounces back and forth between its ethereal and zany moments gives it a disjointed, uneven feel that makes the album a shade less satisfying than either Yoshimi or Soft Bulletin.

It's hard not to shake the suspicion that this album is the closest he's ever been to forgettable.

This is the third album in a row where she's thrown a curve ball, confounding expectations by delivering a record that's wilder, stronger, and better than the last.

Meds is as bare and honest as Placebo has ever been.

Vision Valley might be a little predictable, but at least the Vines sound like they're back in control of their lives and music again.

There's a great amount of flash and polish, all wrapped up in a tight package.

Fans of Badly Drawn Boy's Have You Fed the Fish? and Doves' Some Cities should understand Adventures in the Underground Journey to the Stars.

This is a very good album.

Those who missed these gems the first time around would be hard-pressed to find another dance disc in 2006 that rivals the level of quality found here.

A rich, exciting, and emotionally deep sounding album that carries on the freewheeling spirit and sound of the Unicorns as well as that of the Elephant 6 bands of the late '90s.

At this point it seems that Rainer Maria are much more modern rock than emo, but that doesn't mean that Catastrophe Keeps Us Together isn't a good album.

Demons is well worth checking out for those who like a sense of the unexpected in their pop.

Each song is snappy, playful, and stylish, and that's what makes Dancing with Daggers work so well.

The Loon is crafted like a true album; even if all the songs don't quite reach the level of its highlights, it all hangs together well.

Though obviously unconcerned with finding a place in the mainstream, this release just as cool and catchy as anything by Evanescence.

A true alternative potpourri -- quite refreshing in a day and age where more often than not, rock bands stick closely to a single style/approach.

Unfortunately, though, too much of Show Your Bones just isn't that interesting, even if it was born from genuine heartache instead of sass and attitude.

The scenarios he recounts are as detailed and off-the-wall as ever, elaborate screenplays laid out with a vocal style that's ceaselessly fluid and never abrasive.

T.I.'s fourth album isn't the leap forward he's been threatening to make, but it does carry the best set of productions he has been given to work with, and it guarantees that he won't be leaving the singles charts any time soon.

This New Day is an excellent companion to Out of Nothing, with only a slight drop-off in quality.

Alternative rock hasn't seen anything like this since the release of Turn on the Bright Lights. The catch: not only is The Back Room better, it holds promise for even better things in the future.

Not terribly different [from 'Human Conditions'], though certainly more pastoral and perhaps more middle of the road.

A stunning comeback that will alternately horrify, thrill, and satisfy fans of Television Personalities, as well as fans of honest, real, and truly independent indie rock.

Drum's Not Dead is undeniably interesting, but somehow unsatisfying.

Fans of Gelb's have to be excited about this because it's perfect, a career high.

If in Both Sides of the Gun Harper is trying to show his audience what a wide variety of music he can cover, he certainly accomplishes that. But if he's trying to create an album that is really about him, he doesn't quite deliver. Ben Harper is in there, don't worry, but he can be a little hard to find.

Once you reconcile yourself to the idea that Lerche has made a jazz-pop record, the songcraft, laid-back approach and Lerche's sweet vocals might just win you over.

It's more of a proper album than Loose Fur itself was, but having fun making music together still sounds like the main priority on Born Again, which, once again, also makes it a lot of fun for Wilco and O'Rourke fans.

The duo... have actually improved, and the album sports stronger songs, a fuller sound, more emotional weight, and an exuberant soul that spills out of the speakers like milk and cake at a kid's birthday party.

This disc has been rendered with creativity and panache, and it features hooky songwriting so compelling that it's easy to listen to the mere 35 minutes of material (divided into 11 three-minute long, radio-friendly songs) on a continuous loop.

Rouse sounds perfectly at ease, as if he were just playing for fun with no tapes rolling.

Yeah, sometimes Quasi get a little too carried away with themselves and the album seems a bit directionless, but that's only when they move away from the grit and into the prettier, synth-based tunes.

Maybe he's no longer breaking new ground, but his eccentricities are now an attribute, not a curse, which goes a long way in making his trademark blend of funk, pop, soul, and rock sound nearly as dazzling as it did at his popular and creative peak in the '80s.

It gets a little long in the tooth in places and samey-sounding.

A good album that should please fans of any type of hip-hop.

Cannibal Sea is the equal of anything the Ladybug Transistor have released (which is saying a whole lot), and is better than just about any indie pop or rock circa 2006.

It's all done with skill and to great effect, and the album is good for mood-setting background or forefront reflection, or for some combination of the two.

A very detailed, though still utterly bewildering, glimpse into the producer's musical thought process.

At first, the album seems slightly anticlimactic and even perplexing, but upon repeated listens, All at Once shows that Young People remain fascinating.

Although the uniformly sweet pop songs on Kicking the National Habit sound influenced by the likes of the Police, Men at Work, Duran Duran, and the rest of the more commercial side of the early MTV era, the arrangements are more electronic in nature.

More so than on Kamakiriad, or on the tight Everything Must Go, there is a sense of genuine band interplay on this record, which helps give it both consistency and heart -- something appropriate for an album that is Fagen's most personal song cycle since The Nightfly, and quite possibly his best album since then.

Hard-Fi's desire to create something solid enjoyable in the midst of everyday monotony is what makes Stars of CCTV an enjoyable first effort.

Some will be left wondering just what the hell Merritt is up to -- those poor sad kids who hung on every post-rock word of the Magnetic Fields records as if Merritt's abandoned them. And then, of course, there are the rest of you who will be delighted, puzzled, and intrigued by the sheer originality of this recording.

Unlike Dunger's previous albums, which tended to have a specific musical theme, there's a kind of scattered, everywhere at once quality to Here's My Song.

Coxon's ambitions on Love Travels at Illegal Speeds may not be grand -- he has simply made a punky pop album (which is different than punk-pop) -- but his execution is exceptional, which makes this a very appealing album.

Cuts Across the Land is a strong, self-assured debut, even if the Duke Spirit needs to work a little harder to escape the long shadow of their forebears.

As delightfully stylish and immediate as Supernature is, it's still hard to escape the nagging feeling that Goldfrapp could make its ethereal sensuality and pop leanings into something even more compelling.

Though there are hooks galore to be found on Flat-Pack Philosophy, the tempos have eased up a bit so that Diggle's and Shelley's guitar parts have more room to interact with one another.

The set ends on a gentle note in "Where We Start" -- so much so that it may make some scratch their heads and wonder where the cranky, diffident Gilmour has wandered off to, but others will be drawn into this seductive, romantic new place where musical subtlety, spacious textures, and quietly lyrical optimism hold sway.

Just about any of the album's selections would have fit perfectly on a vintage 120 Minutes episode.

Even more than Margerine Eclipse, Fab Four Suture sounds like Stereolab has adapted -- if not fully healed -- from the loss of Mary Hansen.

Under a Billion Suns is one of the hardest and tightest albums this band has ever made.

Immediate without sounding dumbed-down, Mr. Beast shows the band at the peak of their powers.

Ballad of the Broken Seas is a superbly crafted bit of late-night introspection that brings out the best in both Lanegan and Campbell.

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood is a rich, mature and deeply satisfying piece of music that deserves and demands attention -- if this isn't Album of the Year material, it's hard to say what is.

Kristofferson is dead-on here, razor-sharp, economical in his language, and to the bone in his insight.

Maybe this isn't a major record, but it's thoroughly likeable record that doesn't lose its charm on repeated plays.

Pay The Devil is at the crossroads of country, blues and soul. In his voice is the authority to bring them together.

A set of tracks that sound akin to an amalgamation of John Frusciante's early solo work and the great Skip Spence.

Close to a full mélange of all the band's various sounds thus far over the years.

One gets the sense that this is an album recorded with white gloves, and the calculation behind the tunes is nearly tangible.

The inclusion of guest vocalists... keeps Etiquette from engaging on the kind of one-on-one basis that made Pocket Symphonies for Lonely Subway Cars and Twinkle Echo such selfish pleasures.

This volume is a success and points the way toward new and compelling -- if still amorphous -- territory between rhythmic and electronic improvisation.

As with past NoW releases, In a Space Outta Sound boasts an emphasis on sound architecture that requires expensive stereo equipment (or bucket loads of narcotics) to fully appreciate.

Though some of the production is a bit too reminiscent of 1990s indie rock, the songs are strong enough and the attitude addictive enough to position Figurines as more than an also-ran.

Doom metal fans will certainly approve of Witch's self-titled debut.

While it is obviously a showcase for Kotche's admirable skills as a drummer, more importantly it reveals his considerable abilities as a composer, too.

The Invisible Deck is often dark and scattered, and doesn't provide the rush of instant gratification that Three Fingers and Purely Evil do, but its growth and promise are more exciting in their own right.

The Believer may be a formula recording, but it still satisfies, for the most part, on the level of what it is: a finely crafted pop/rock album.

Soft Money has a firm foundation, with SP-1200 fetishism being just one small sliver of its appeal.

The outfit's three-axe attack coupled with the distinctive pipes of J.T. Woodruff find Hawthorne Heights able to go where peers like Fall Out Boy just can't.

Even if Precious Memories winds up as something slightly underwhelming, there's no denying that this is precisely the album Jackson wanted to make, one that's consistent in tone and exact in its vision.

OK Cowboy is a full-fledged album, with a satisfying ebb and flow that shows that Arbez's sound has several sides to it.

Leaders of the Free World is a bit more rock & roll than not, with guts and heart, because Elbow have finally embraced their powerful, surrounding space this time out.

If his band had either a stronger musical viewpoint or more kinetic energy, or if their songs didn't play like a heap of riffs, such provincial shortcomings would be transcended by the sheer force of the music. But the music, while good, is not great.

The bottom line on Hello Waveforms is that it may seem dated to terminal hipsters, but for everyone else it is small yet exceptionally well crafted.

[Moffat] exposes a seething rage that was only occasionally revealed on the earlier albums. In the minds of some Arab Strap fans, this is a breakthrough; others, sadly, hear a betrayal.

By pulling back on the "wow" factor and demanding less from the listener, Coldcut have delivered their first album that will be listened to twice as much as it's talked about.

It's proof that while many try to emulate him, there's no substitute for the crankiest, funniest songwriter in pop.

An amalgam of Streethawk: A Seduction's glam rock posturing, This Night's guitar-heavy psychedelia, and Your Blues' apocalyptic wordplay.

While 20/20 might be a shade too unambitious for casual listeners expecting another Expansion Team, DP heads looking to kick back and listen get plenty of pure underground to devour.

Another quirky and eclectic Lilys set.

Most of this stuff is just too damn weird for all but the most experimental music listener.

Highly recommended.

Definitely the sound of a band indie lovers need to check out immediately.

This is a document -- nothing more, nothing less -- and as such it's charming, beautiful, ragged, and honest.

It doesn't rate with the best of Clem Snide, but Bitter Honey is a pleasant diversion and a nice way to fill the space between the group's releases.

Even within the album's murkiness, however, hints of the promise and intermittent brilliance Doherty had in the Libertines can still be heard.

It's much more stripped-down and loose compared to the glossy polish of The Joy of Sing-Sing.