Most of the blame for Neighborhood Watch has to go to the previously invincible Alchemist, whose productions are front-loaded on the record. Unfortunately, his beats aren't rugged or hooky, just astonishingly weak.

The music isn't as serious: splashy and silly though it may be, at least it gets the basic sound right, even if it's way too polished and precise.

Following up the their well-received 2006 effort, "Nice and Nicely Done," Delaware indie rockers Spinto Band deliver more angular, rambunctiously creative pop on 2008's Moonwink.

David Gray doesn't really purport to be anything other than a contemporary folk-pop singer, and Foundling finds him doing what he does best.

The mood album implied by the title is really a mood EP waiting to be extracted, but approach it as a normal Kaskade effort with a bit more risk and a bit more richer music and the rewards will follow suit.

While it's not necessarily Dead Meadow's masterwork, it shows a band growing into its sound and mellowing nicely without sacrificing any of its radiance by exploring less extreme territories.

Given the dominance of slow material, the album is a bit stifling; Glover loosens up a little for only "In the Middle," co-written by Fantasia Barrino with a touch of "Ting-a-Ling," yet even that has some heartache.

In the right circumstances, the Bohicas seem perfectly capable of putting it all together, but overall, this debut could use a little more spark and a little less label-purchased leather jacket.

Cobbled together in the style of a compilation rather than a cohesive album, it's a wonky, slightly disappointing collection that provides diamonds and duds in equal measure.

At times, Rave Age feels like it's missing some of the spark of Vitalic's previous work, but Arbez manages to pull off a lot of changes on this album while retaining enough of his playful atmosphere and kinetic rhythms to keep fans engaged.

More than anything else, In Pieces is a strong showcase for Chlöe as a vocal dynamo, as much of the material is hollow, lacking distinction.

Yeat's creative drive is admirable, but unfortunately 2093 just doesn't live up to its lofty concept.

Only "Pot of Gold" falls short of being a winner because honestly, no one on earth can make sub-Starship '80s rock sound good. The rest is darn good though, and shows that Rado has more ideas than one band can hold, and also the skills to turn them into little nuggets of weirdo pop gold.

Even if it lives up to the bewilderment in its title now and then, Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied is the kind of playful, unpredictable set a band can make once it reaches its fourth album.

Shine On is a good album that avoids the sophomore slump, but has enough moments of rote rocking to make the next record a worrisome prospect.

He’s coasting here, no doubt about it, but no one can coast like he can

The album comes up short in the song department and doesn't quite get by on its abundance of free-love signifiers.

Everybody’s got to miss sometime, and on Haywire, Turner does by a mile, despite his no doubt good intentions in taking some of the slickness off the contemporary country sound.

Two albums in and Mumford & Sons still sound like a talented outfit fused to the starting block, paralyzed by the thought of having to truly race for their lives.

Banshee is a smart and impressive piece of work that speaks to the mind and the soul with similar clarity.

Though it may not be quite as consistent as Forget or Confess, Eclipse still reflects Twin Shadow's dedication to atmosphere and hooks in engaging ways.

Arguably, it fares better as a decent Frank Black album than an anticlimactic Pixies album, and fans who can appreciate that these songs don't diminish the legacy of the band's previous music will probably enjoy it the most.

In addition to proving once and for all that Hughes can stand on his own as a rock & roller, Honkey Kong meets the main requirement of all of the previous albums Hughes has appeared on. It's a rockin' good time.

Overall a tweaked follow-up that's likely to bring along existing fans, Trials & Truths is like a puffy chair with a window view; it doesn't demand attention but offers thoughtful escape.

This is an understated and promising first step from an unpredictable and distinctive talent.

The results are bustling, pastoral, indie pop that is often strangely outdoorsy and subtle--parts of Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know feel like one long song. Of course, there are standouts.

In sum, Live at the Aragon is a mixed bag aurally and visually, though the Crack the Skye movie is killer.

With A Wrenched Virile Lore, they offer a set of reworkings that are more cohesive than their previous collection, while still taking the songs from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will in notably different directions from their origins and from each other.

Unfortunately, their third album Fragments of Freedom scraps most of their signature sound for half-baked experiments in R&B, acid jazz, and hip-hop.

Many of the songs sound like they're just on the verge of achieving liftoff, never quite reaching their potential.

Granted, Nelly's rapping here is more restrained and insubstantial than ever, but when you have a cast of collaborators like this, the actual rapping is beside the point -- these are fun songs, plain and simple, and wonderfully catchy to boot.

This is much more melodic and poppy than most dance fodder sharing similar beats...

Cryptomnesia is a tough, rugged, and wildly ambitious set of far-reaching--sometimes overly so--compositions reflecting the rapid growth of one of the new century's most genuinely talented and visionary musicians.

The result is a muddled album that gets even farther away from Hot Hot Heat's former glory even as it tries to recapture it.

While a few tracks sound too similar to each other, How Does It Feel's best moments deliver pop accessibility without sacrificing any of MS MR's identity.

Her flow is rock-solid but nimble and complex and apparently effortless despite the weird and shifting beats.

Before I Self Destruct is still a fantastic juggernaut of a 50 album if you exit early, and a very good one even if you don't.

Ibifornia comes with enough funk and cool from guest vocalist Cat Power that it could be the spiritual sequel to the Tom Tom Club's debut album, plus all the faux exotica, busy soundscapes, and chugging basslines suggest the Swiss duo Yello.

Success has always been Jones' revenge, and while his ringleader ways allow this autobiographical album to sometimes go wildly off concept, it's clearly his most inspired set of songs to date.

Sitting through the entirety of The Last Slimeto is bound to be an exhausting experience to anyone but YoungBoy's many devout fans, but even if it seems to function more as a playlist than an album, it's definitely not monotonous, and the rapper's dedication to the game is unquestioned.

Oskar Tennis Champion would surely please most Momus fans, though it does not match up to his best albums.

Built From Scratch is a sharp ode to old school hip-hop that focuses on the roll of the turntable rather than the vocals of an MC.

There's just no getting around how much stronger Sparta are than so many of their peers.

Emotive falls flat and fails to raise the bar set so high by the quality of their previous two releases.

Harking back to the glory days of late-'80s acid-house, it's heavy on dark club jams that work around a simplistic sample with diva theatrics and rapper freestyles. As such, most of these tracks work much better on the dancefloor than the living room.

The stylistic similarities are pretty undeniable, and not necessarily to Josiah's advantage--but the elder Wolf has enough of a distinct voice (and enough to say with it) that Why?'s fans will definitely want to give it a listen--and those who find Yoni a bit too dizzyingly cerebral might take more kindly to Josiah's sincerity and directness.

The Dream isn't just produced well but also programmed well, only slowing down after 73 minutes to a gradual halt on the dreamy underwater backbeats of 'Codes' and the beatless closer 'Orbisonia.'

Her Loss is scattered, flowing more like a mixtape than a well-designed album, but there are plenty of highlights to balance out the less fully formed inclusions.

London is far more charming when he's given some space and sings, as he does very sweetly in the chorus of "Why Even Try," featuring Tegan & Sara's Sara Quin. Those moments are scant.

For now, this album is a very bland, quite anonymous-sounding disappointment.

While one can always sense the pain and joy in the mere sound of Stone's voice, some of the songs' lines provoke head scratching rather than knowing nods. Through deep, repeated listening, the album increasingly resembles ragtag emoting. Heard passively, it's all pleasant summertime listening.

Of Montreal grow less accessible with Paralytic Stalks, but it's respectable how unconcerned Barnes seems with anything besides staying true to his freakily fractured vision.

There's a cohesiveness issue that keeps this one off their top shelf, but Erasure have settled nicely into that groove that the best veteran bands often do.

All told, the number of memorable hooks on display here is surprising.

In Your Dreams winds up capturing the essence of Stevie Nicks, which -- as her previous three decades of solo albums prove -- is no easy feat.

The arrangements are much tighter than ever and cover up whatever lyrical deficiencies the charismatic, freewheeling attitude of the band doesn't.

The unsurprisingly inconsistent R.O.O.T.S. is hip-hop like Nas never happened, a flash or fodder album owing more to Lady GaGa than to Public Enemy.

As someone whose success has come mostly as a singles artist, Jay Sean fails to deliver anything quite as charismatic as any of his greatest hits on Neon, leaving the album feeling largely flat.

The Best Little Secrets Are Kept is loaded with a raft of inspired songs that burst out of your speakers like they were on fire, mixing the sparkle of the best glam rock, the low-down crunch of the best of classic rock bands like the Stones, and the direct lyrical approach of poets like David Lee Roth or... Bon Scott.

So while Free Somehow can't quite rival the energy of a Widespread show, it still offers something that those concerts cannot, making the album a worthwhile purchase for most dedicated fans.

Seapony is one of the best pop bands of 2011.

Definitely track down 'Meet Me in the Garden' as it stands head and shoulders above the rest of the album, but give the rest a chance too.

The overall mood is casual, laidback, and relaxed.

For all the sludge and fuzz on the album, Do Rabbits Wonder? never becomes muddy; the grit and gristle of Whirlwind Heat's abrasive repertoire of sounds remains clearly defined even at its most crazed.

Slicker Than Your Average is stronger than the average sophomore effort, and it proves that Craig David's abilities are innate.

Alternately too predictable and too quirky, Panic Movement reveals the Hiss as an ambitious band that can't always deliver on its goals.

Nickelback can now afford a little more time in the studio and a little more time to indulge themselves, and they turn out the same record, only slicker, which only highlights just how oppressively and needlessly sullen this group is.

Beg for Mercy doesn't measure up to Get Rich or Die Tryin', but then, how many rap albums do?

Oh Land's international debut is an eclectic, nocturnal mix of club music, dance, and electro-pop.

The Bravery are an easy target -- after all, they were often seen as also-rans even when their kind of music was the hot new thing -- but, unfortunately, The Sun and the Moon's hesitant, unfocused feel doesn't do much to dissuade that notion.

Most won't have the skills to follow his playbook, either on or off the field, but Cube's utterly unique I Am the West shows the younger generation how to cross 40 while retaining their freedom and baller status.

Tomorrow proves Kingston can provide a whole album's worth of pool-side entertainment even without the 'Beautiful Girls'-sized single.

Those speedy songs ["You and Me" and "Go Away My Lover"] are the exception on this album, not the rule, but they're still the highlight, balancing Ziman's ruminations on a love gone wrong with something much brighter.

Yes! is not a record fueled by the heady rush of love at first sight; it's an album designed to soundtrack a long getaway weekend for a couple already in love.

Surfer Blood have regained their freedom with 1000 Palms; next time, they need to do something interesting with it.

Blame It on Baby is pretty evenly divided between strong songs and duds.

Draw the Line is essentially another cog in the folksy wheel he's been spinning since "New Day at Midnight."

Kravitz knows how to sculpt not just sounds but a cohesive LP, and that kind of pro assurance when combined with his earnest hippie beliefs, make Raise Vibration a sunny, affirming listen.

Do Things is a cool treat of a record, filled with catchy and sweet songs that have a relaxed and easygoing happiness that is impossible to resist.

Set aside this inclination toward sneering solipsism, which not only characterizes but enlivens nearly every song, and I Am Not a Dog on a Chain is one of the better latter-day Morrissey records: the sense of musical daring reveals how placid and complacent he's been for the better part of a decade.

Hieroglyphic Being's unrecognizable, incongruously mechanical mix of "Satellite Sniper" is the only real misstep (albeit a minor one), and all told this is one of the most rewarding remix albums in recent memory.

While it may be a bit of a pre-2013 tour advert/cash grab, like all Folds-related products, it's certainly not without its charms.

As the first offering of a new stage in her career, Love + Fear not only reveals its creator as newly hopeful, but it also gives hope that future efforts might be carved in a similar fashion. Marina's Electra heart still beats, it's just pumping smoother and with a confidence born from a renewed and mature perspective.

These are not songs for the parents, nor are these tunes meant to educate or even entertain: these are the kinds of songs that kids chant in the backseat when they mean to annoy their parents.

Though the focus on range and experimentation is fascinating for those who've already heard Squarepusher doing the standard drill'n'bass rigamarole, the randomness evident on productions like "Kill Robok" makes the LP about as infectious as a surgical bandage.

Surely one of the rap game's most insightful voices.... The beats offer plenty of fresh surprises and the lyrics reflect DMX's increasing focus on introspection.

So, even if it's wrapped in new clothing, this is essentially a return to basics, and it's a welcome one, since it's melodic, stately, and somber.

A sharp, versatile modern pop record, showcasing her voice, to be sure, but being much better than expectations, much better than the scores of flop diva records that cluttered the pop landscape in late 2002.

The preponderance of funky synthetic (and real) horns, fat grooves, and African and Eastern polyrhythms make Someday World an excellent exercise in beat-conscious, electronic art pop.

Artistically, she's still coming into her own.

When a band decides to go with an eponymously titled release several albums into an established career, it often works as a statement about reclaiming their identity, or making a new creative start. If that's the case here, the Neighbourhood have done both with their own cool aplomb.

While not every song is a rousing success, Blood feels fresh and alive--and underscores that Franz Ferdinand should take chances like this more often.

At times, Chapman seems in danger of being too earnest or letting his ambitions get the better of him, but Turning the Mind ends up being a significant step forward for Maps' music.

Ultimately, Thick as Thieves plays like a heartfelt love letter to Temper Trap's fans who have stuck with them since Conditions.

Despite the missteps, well over half of Robotique Majestique is terrifically entertaining; it just seems like the hit-to-miss ratio could have been so much higher without much more effort.

It's another epic statement rife with troubled beauty, presented from a slightly different angle but true to the spirit of longing and restless wonder that has defined the Smashing Pumpkins for over 30 years.

Those attracted to the collaboration's premise will very likely appreciate its results.

This is too unfinished and uneven to call a masterpiece, but Kaufman's loyal fan base should still check out this insightful and wonderfully weird experiment.