The Veronicas are sassy and sexy, not trashy, and they show humor and heartbreak here, which helps elevate their debut to the top ranks of 2000s teen pop.

Overall very little distracts from the qualities that have made him the most durable talent in commercial yet traditional R&B music.

A moody, intense, dramatic, and orchestrated second full-length tour de force.

A smooth, delightful whole.

Mullins' most poignant, cohesive, and diverse album.

It's not a radical departure for Belle & Sebastian -- there are several intimate, folky numbers that would comfortably fit on their previous records. But having these tunes surrounded by songs that successfully stretch the group's sound gives The Life Pursuit an unexpected, wholly welcome vitality.

This is Electric Six's strongest work to date, and the fans who have stuck with them through their trials and tribulations won't be disappointed.

As artlessly lovely as a spring day, this is some of her simplest work, and simply some of her best, too.

A promising, satisfying debut.

If this is the relatively bummed-out Minus 5 album, it's still full of great songs played with genuine enthusiasm and imagination.

Every bit as compelling as contemporaneous efforts from likeminded electronic artists Daft Punk, Lemon Jelly, and the Orb.

The Prefuse of past years is replaced by plenty of airy distortion (reminiscent of his work with the Books and his side project, Savath + Savalas), and nods to the hip-hop beatwork of his early Warp records.

It may never fly in the conservatory, but the music of Clogs is sure to make the bar set feel a little more cultured.

More than a few productions provide the type of slick, West Coast grind that allows Aceyalone to play the Lothario but still sound like he's satirizing the lover-man archetype.

It is a more stripped-down affair compared to Broken Social Scene's more ambitious material.

Donuts just might be the one release that best reflects his personality.

There's nothing really new or earth-shattering about this album, but that's not a prerequisite for great rock & roll.

While Swearing at Motorists are clearly at ease in a variety of musical styles, it's tempting to yearn for fatter hooks, more fleshed-out arrangements, or just a cathartic chorus to sing along with at the top of your lungs -- which was what made the Replacements' similar tribulations ultimately so inviting.

The sound of For Me, It's You, is less strident than that of the band's previous offerings, but it's edgier and digs deeper into older musics and styles.

The album comes out as their most organic since 1998's Good Humor; even the tracks driven by programming are warm in comparison to vast chunks of both Sound of Water and Finisterre.

Generation's toughness rings hollow like a rerun.

For what it is, The Greatest is exceedingly well done, and people who have never heard of Cat Power before could very well love this album immediately. However, it might take a little more work for those who have loved her music from the beginning.

Clearlake got it right this time out. They have has never sounded as triumphant as they do on Amber.

The sunshiny pop of Sun, Sun, Sun is more magical in comparison to Me First. It features some of Sennett's most brilliant work to date, and the band's overall summery sound is much more cohesive here.

It's a moody, atmospheric listen that never gets quite as melancholy as it suggests and holds together better than any Rilo Kiley album to date.

Approach it as a slightly goofy one-off, and you won't be disappointed.

From a Compound Eye winds up standing apart from the pack of Pollard projects even if it doesn't stand that far apart.

For Screening Purposes is worth checking out for those who like their music prickly but with an undercurrent of pop to it, too.

This album is extraordinary. It is brave, difficult, and honest. It is utterly moving and beautiful. Because it so successfully marries all of her strengths as a songwriter, singer, and musician, Black Cadillac may be the crowning achievement of her career thus far.

A mature and workmanlike metal monster-piece.

Lights and Sounds' good songs are very good, and the album ends up being the band's most accomplished work yet.

A deeply satisfying hard rock record.

Film School isn't breathtakingly original, but it is well made.

What prevents the album from being on par with the likes of 21 & Over and Coast II Coast is that the MCs have slowed a little with age.

This is right up there with his best.

Generally good but occasionally uneven.

They are trying very hard to be a specific thing, realize that they can't quite take it all the way, and add the occasional coating of camp in order to look less silly.

Detrola is slightly more subdued than some of His Name Is Alive's previous albums, but it's still a reminder of how much their beautiful, strange, oddly moving music has been missed.

At 27 tracks, the whole affair could do with a sizable trimming, as much of the material tends to sound the same, but as far as collections go, Omnibus is the real deal, and a Decemberists' archivist's wet dream.

Another very interesting and beautiful album.

Morningwood still feels like calculated fluff, even if it's calculated fluff that's mildly fun.

We Are Scientists come off well in being both snide and playful. Finding that balance is what makes With Love and Squalor a solid debut.

The Strokes indulge their every whim, and the results are their weakest album yet.

It's the first time Adams has sounded completely worn out and spent, bereaved of either the craft or hucksterism at the core of his work.

One of her best studio albums.

Though he fits somewhere between R. Kelly and Ginuwine, Foxx has more than enough personality and talent to defend his music against accusations of opportunism.

If rap-metal were ever meant to evolve, See You on the Other Side is the record that does it.

While this makes for an album that's substantially more interesting and cohesive than the gaudy Speak, it doesn't necessarily mean that A Little More Personal (Raw) is a successful record, either.

Not so much a letdown as a comedown, One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back just shows that the giddy highs of Permission to Land aren't so easy to get the second time around.

Other artists may be bigger than Shakira while others may make more fully realized albums, but as of 2005, no other pop artist attempts as much and achieves as much as Shakira, as this often enthralling album proves.

This is endearing -- Hot Chip's sense of humor is as contagious as their knack for reinvention is obvious. But those traits can't make Coming on Strong sound any less unfinished or even tossed off at times.

System of a Down confound and irritate even as they rock.

The Mendoza Line have mined this kind of socio-political territory before, but never with so much fatalistic maturity.

While Amarantine will do nothing to win over the wrongly pegged new age artist's many detractors, longtime fans will find enough moments of serendipitous pleasure to hold them over for another five years.

If you haven't heard Jens Lekman yet, you're missing out on one of the true pop geniuses of the early 2000s.

The band is in top form, sounding every bit as fresh and relevant in 2005 as they did 15-years prior.

A debut that sounds a lot like New York urbanites the Rachel's and the Clogs, but a little more dangerous.

Country, garage rock, American poetic bile, and sheer venomous energy fuel this terrific set that ranks among Oldham's finest moments on record.

While she succeeds rather handsomely on those modest terms, it's more than a little odd to hear Madonna scaling back her ambition and settling for less rather than hungering for more.

Overall Ladd has made a divine album indeed.

Kicking Television is the best sort of live album -- a recording that doesn't merely retread a band's back catalog, but puts their songs in a new perspective.

Pair Akron/Family with Angels of Light and what you get, apologies to the label-sensitive, is Grade A art rock.

There's no pushing of the envelope because there doesn't need to be. Aerial is rooted in Kate Bush's oeuvre, with grace, flair, elegance, and an obsessive, stubborn attention to detail.

But if 12 Songs does occasionally come across as slightly affected in its intent and presentation, it also is inarguably Neil Diamond's best set of songs in a long, long time.

The problem with The Road and the Radio is that the songs just aren't very memorable.

Scab Dates is yet another intriguing window into the Mars Volta's world, instead of just a live album holdover.

While it's often an absorbing listen, it's hard to fathom this appealing to anyone but the terminally obsessed.

While the album's ambitions occasionally get the better of the actual music, For the Season's intermittent brilliance is worth digging and waiting for.

This is for all the listeners who liked Phish's good taste, eclectic nature, and Anastasio's playing, but never liked one of their albums.

A bland, friendly affair that disappears into the ether the moment it's finishing playing.

This is a gorgeous recording, one that in a very intimate way opens up an entire universe of possibility for understanding, integration, and brokenness. A fitting tribute indeed.

It's simply unlike anything else out there -- except perhaps Just Another Diamond Day.

The album cements the band as a love-them-or-hate-them proposition, but the Fiery Furnaces remain true to themselves.

With Descended Like Vultures, Rogue Wave have become just another indie rock band, one that has delivered a strong album without a weak song on it, but a real band just the same.

The group sounds freer than ever before, almost as though they've never bothered with rock in their lives, and have only happened upon a bare few LPs before beginning their recording career.

The Campfire Headphase lacks the transcendent grace that made Music Has the Right to Children and even Geogaddi classics in their field.

Like the best Depeche Mode, almost everything on the album will make an initial wowing impact while remaining layered enough in subtle details to surprise and thrill with repeated listens.

With this outing, Harvey establishes himself not only as a fine composer, but as a songwriter.

At its most chaotic, Hypermagic Mountain could tear open a wormhole into Comets on Fire's Blue Cathedral.

A uniquely powerful and moving set of songs.

No matter how hard Simpson tries, no matter how foreboding the surface, beneath it all she's still light and frivolous. But that doesn't mean, by any stretch, that this is bubblegum music, since that term implies that this music is frothy, fun, and, most important, hooky, and I Am Me is none of those things.

A Time to Love finds the two halves of Wonder's adult career finally coming to home to roost in peaceful harmony with one another, and it's one of the finest records he has done in decades.

The skimpy run time is noticeable and downright perplexing coming from an album that ambitiously delivers otherwise.

Somewhat more reminiscent of Rage Against the Machine than the Beastie Boys or Eminem, the group... is as good as any rap outfit at expressing anger; in fact, they're more eloquent than most.

Despite a few sleepy moments on the album's second half, Strange Geometry has more flair and movement than Violet Hour, and perfects the band's ability to be uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time.

Classic without being too traditional or contrived, Tournament of Hearts is the sound of the Constantines operating at the peak of their powers.

The best album of the year in the hip-hop underground.

Even though the manic intensity that characterized work like Reveille is missed a little here, The Runners Four is still a far cry from typical indie rock; in fact, it sounds more like one of Deerhoof's older albums played at half-speed than anything else.

This is the Dirty Three as you have never heard them before.

One thing that remains unchanged, to no surprise whatsoever, is the enduring vitality of the material.

There's no sense of storytelling or momentum to her performances: she starts the song in one place and stays there riding in circles until the end.

One of his more satisfying solo albums.

Since the beats are monotonous, since the songs are insipid and forgettable, since the girls not only can't sing but have no on-record charisma, since there's no sense of style and, most importantly, sense of fun to this whole enterprise, Dangerous and Moving is the worst kind of pop music: the kind that is better to theorize about than to listen to.

Even though there are no radical changes here, Gimmie Trouble sounds more like Adult. sharpening its edges than running in place.

There aren't many bands around that manage to create music as good as this out of such familiar and somewhat obvious sources.

Dios (Malos) emphasize their way with hooks and downplay the hazy sonics of Dios for an album of sunny, instead of smoggy, Californian pop.

Closing In is numbingly derivative, not just because it wears its influences like a bat in its mouth, but because there's nothing even remotely memorable or engaging about it.

Theatrical and heartfelt, Celebration is a fully realized debut that promises even better things to come.