Though its heart is eventually lost amidst the guiding elements of the genre, the Used's In Love and Death does make some impressive moves away from those very same tenets, showing some welcome restraint and even some rocktastic energy.

She may not yet have the set of skills, or the experience, to give a nuanced, textured performance -- one that feels truly lived-in, not just sung -- but she's a compelling singer and Mind, Body & Soul lives up to her promise.

Their best record in years.

A restrained lamentation, a controlled elegiac mediation on the death of a loved one.

Some moments are upbeat indie pop, but most of this is dreamy despite its slightly gloomy textures.

Like all Delgados records, it takes repeated drives along the city outskirts to sink in, but when it does there's no going back, and the listener is rewarded once again with something rich, happily overcast, and strangely intangible.

Morrison is challenging expectations and listeners by stretching his musical boundaries and defying people to come along for the ride through close listening.

A resounding success... She won't get the same press that Loretta Lynn got for her "comeback", but this may even be more impressive an accomplishment because it come out of nowhere.

At no point are they longwinded, and they keep the variations on their sound rolling throughout the closing track.

Couture, Couture, Couture is an uneven album, but it does tend to wear better than some other albums by '80s-inspired bands.

To the band's credit, the weaker songs aren't necessarily eating space for no reason -- their B-material here is more affecting than the average indie band's A-material. The problem is that, during those lesser moments, the band shows signs of attempting to cannibalize Turn on the Bright Lights' magnetic sulking, and their hearts don't seem to be as in it.

Knopfler fans and lovers of Chet Atkins, Gordon Lightfoot, and J.J. Cale, as well as late-night poker players and early risers with an acerbic streak, will find much to love here.

Infectious and hummable, to be sure, and a remarkably unified, irresistible piece of pop music, but no musical watershed on par with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Wilson's masterpiece, Pet Sounds.

It misses a little more than it hits.

If you like your pop a little left of center and found the Postal Service to be too cute and syrupy, your fix is here.

An uneven but promising debut album that suggests that the group may still create something distinctive.

Jean Grae continues to improve in every respect, but the negative aspect is that too many of the beats bleed into one another.

Thoughtful production, meatier music, and broader scope makes City worth hearing.

While most would classify this record under "folktronica," Memphis don't attempt to strip down the clicks and plucks. Instead, they go for the big pop sound of Burt Bacharach and George Martin to make something almost as ambitious as hiring a real horn section.

It never feels as urgent as his prime work, but it's at once his most accomplished and visceral record as a veteran rocker.

In its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of a masterpiece, and one of the few -- if not the only -- records of 2004 to convey what it feels like to live in the strange, bewildering America of the early 2000s.

K-Os doesn't necessarily pursue Rebellion's themes far enough. But give him a break -- it's only the cat's second album.

It's fitting that an album that truly deserves an expanded edition not only gets the deluxe edition it deserves, but one that makes a convincing argument that the sometimes ridiculous practice of expanded, multi-disc editions has a purpose after all.

Like its companion recording, Nino Rojo is about the shared delight of new encounters with music and language and is an adventure in the hearing.

They seem like a garden-variety hard rock band, one that would have been generic and forgettable in 1974, and one that is generic and forgettable in 2004.

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending will do little to convert those who winced at Orzabal and Smith's obtuse lyrics and over the top production the first time around, but loyal followers, fans of XTC's Apple Venus, Pt. 1, and lovers of intricately arranged and artfully executed pop music will find themselves delightfully consumed by this enigmatic group's final (?) chapter.

Like Richard Buckner, Zedek holds the amazing capacity to make the saddest stuff compelling, even heartening.

No one makes records that sound quite like this: a shambolic, atmospheric mixture of hushed tones, deadly distortion, tender poetry and rock and roll.

A really good record by a potentially great rock & roll band.

If you are unfamiliar with the band, there are at least six other records that should get your attention before this one; just the same, this is hardly a disposable piece of the band's puzzle.

[The songs are] all distinctly clubby and therefore get a little tiring after a while.

Hands down, In the World of Him is Timms' masterpiece.

Barely enough for five years of waiting and hardly up to the old standard.

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.

The Handler shows that Har Mar Superstar can also give new meaning to the term "trying too hard."

If Showtime isn't the equal artistic success of Boy in da Corner, it's slightly superior, stunning for the facts that it arrives so swiftly after the debut and is far from a retread.

So Jealous is the most satisfying album Tegan and Sara have yet made.

Some of these songs are familiar, but these arrangements are distinctly Weller's own, and it makes for an effective listen -- maybe not a major effort from the Modfather, but an enjoyable one all the same.

Butler sings like Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood used to play, like a lion-tamer whose whip grows shorter with each and every lash. He can barely contain himself, and when he lets loose it's both melodic and primal, like Berlin-era Bowie or British Sea Power.

Even though Wet from Birth occasionally gets tripped up on its own ambitions, it still has its share of enjoyable tracks.

This is a worthy return, qualitatively standing head and shoulders above most everything else in its class.

What I Do feels like one of Jackson's most assured and best albums, proof positive that he's the best mainstream country singer of this decade.

Stealing of a Nation is a slick, calculated record that misses its target on all accounts.

Fast Future Present is a self-assured and often fascinating collection of songs that artfully blend the standard elements of post-rock with unexpectedly melodic pop.

This is the Welsh iconoclast at his most elegant, energetic, and innovative.

It's hard not to walk away with the feeling he's capable of better than this.

The most exciting and best rock & roll record of 2004.

One of his most consistent and accomplished albums, sounding better with each repeated play.

With Getting Away With Murder, Papa Roach offer fans of this sound an appropriately hard punch in the face. But there's a hollow sound as the bones collapse, because all that's supporting it is expensive art direction and a big scaffold of clichés.

LL offers up "you rap for the thugs/I rap for the ladies" on the album, but there's some tough, near-"Mama Said Knock You Out"'s here, and from any hardcore thug's point of view, he's getting better at splitting the difference.

The Libertines is an accurate, sometimes uncomfortable reflection of the band at this point: more scattered and unstable than they were on Up the Bracket, but also more ambitious and more interesting.

Listening to the record makes you feel like it was 1993 again, in a good way. In a melodic, honest and jangly kind of way. In a way that makes you think "nobody makes records like this anymore".

The most challenging work of Björk's career.

What makes it great is excellent producer and guest rapper choices, a tight track list with nearly perfect flow, and the fresh G-Unit meets crunk and Lil Jon sound that dominates the album.

Favourite Colours is lovely and adventurous stuff that proves the Sadies are only getting better with each trip into the studio.

The album flows like sweet maple syrup from beginning to end, Kilgour's intimate croon caressing you like kind words from an old friend.

The whole record is wrong. Predictable, slick, soulless, and worst of all, boring, it meets the expectations of everyone who thought the band was foolish for working with the Matrix.

This may not be Mouse on Mars' most ambitious albums, but it's among the group's most successful -- it's not at all difficult to feel a connection to this truly intelligent dance music.

Radian created a record that listeners have to let envelope them slowly -- and, if patient enough, Juxtaposition will reveal treasures from an aural dig that are a wonderful, satisfying surprise.

Even though Half Smiles of the Decomposed sounds great, the band plays with impressive skill, and it represents one of Pollard's most successful attempts to balance his low-fi musical impulses against the demands of proper record production, it lacks the ineffable fire and energy that has always set their best work apart.

A definitive work of sorts since he's at the top of his game as both a craftsman and conman.

The least necessary Mase album, but half the tracks point to a future that is brighter than ever.

If it was pared down to its best tracks, Winchester Cathedral would make a solid EP. As it stands, it's far from bad, but it's a little boring, which is worse than bad from a band that has sounded so unique in the past.

The songs here often found their way into the group's tours for Blackberry Belle; this probably accounts for how much they resemble Twilight material, even as the original shape is maintained.

While Everyone Is Here lacks the brightness of much of Woodface, it's the Finn Brothers' strongest collection of songs since that masterpiece, and arguably their most emotionally resonant album to date.

Though their words suggest such weighty topics, the album remains sonically airy. It might get tense, but it's never dense.

Earle's polemics are much stronger than the work of your typical "protest" songwriter, and this is a better focused and more passionate work than Jerusalem.

The Drive-By Truckers are the best, smartest, and most soulful hard rock band to emerge in a very long time.

The young hell-raiser has grown to be one of modern country's most compelling and multidimensional artists.

Tambourine is a remarkably mature, confident, and commanding release that defines then rides its groove with no low points.

It all holds together in a way the Olivia Tremor Control often didn't.

That Rilo Kiley jump around so much stylistically could slow down More Adventurous' heat-seeker status.

Panders to unimaginative industry and genre posturing.

We Fight Til Death gets distracted easily; all of its ideas are great, but they don't always come to fruition.

This is the most enjoyable album of Warren's and Nate's careers to date, by a long shot, and it's among Snoop's most enjoyable as well.

There are occasional lapses in the lyrics department.

The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is not only a vital document of an important, groundbreaking band on their way up, it's one of their best albums, easily surpassing Stop Making Sense.

They've sounded stuck and overconfident before, but this old-school-styled, true hip-hop album finds the Mobb hungry again.

Few will ever refer to this as a classic, though even fewer will ever think of this as a poor showing.

The attention to detail in the production, the punchy melodies, and the sympathetic performances by the group -- along with Kasher's writing that is nothing less than gripping and often head-shakingly brilliant -- make this record an indispensable artifact for anyone who likes indie rock with a real emotional punch.

The dank emotional caverns of Bubblegum offer some territory well worth exploring for the strong-willed.

Despite its flaws, Forget Tomorrow has enough beauty and creativity to suggest that Macha's best music may still be ahead of the band.

Too much roam and wander for some, but Doom-heads looking for the perfect downer couldn't ask for much more.

Perhaps they should stick to singles.

[A] mesmerizing debut.

Of course, if you really care for Topley-Bird, you're going to want the full-length U.K. album. But if you just want a great album, Anything will not disappoint.

There are times when One Plus One Is One is simply too much, and the fresh spin that Gough brought to the British singer/songwriter tradition in his earlier work is missed, but he's still a fine addition to it.

With 33 tracks in 42 minutes (each averages around one minute), the four-piece is anarchic and weird, yet -- best of all -- still strangely maintains a certain charm.

This album just may signal the beginning of an exciting new era in rock music.

While they may have traded in some of their youthful punk rock spastic enthusiasm, they've replaced it with a world-wise wit and a smart approach to how a rock & roll record should be made in 2004.

While siblings Morgan and Mercedes Lander's songwriting has improved since 2001's Oracle, there's still an air of mediocrity to later tracks like "Loveless" and "Burning Bridges" that shows an adherence to formulaic modern metal clichés, and a lack of confidence on some of the vocal takes that makes some of the songs sound like demos.

Kiss & Tell comes off a bit contrived and lackluster in the beginning, but after a few spins you'll grasp (and thirst) for its sonic goodness.

Seems oddly lacking in passion.

M83 is a keyboard band of the best kind: one with nuance, tone, thrash, and color.

If you sort of liked the first record but wished it was more interesting, that it had more punch of both the sonic and emotional variety, then your wishes have come true.

As fun as all of this is (and the lip-smack glam of "Music Is the Victim" is very, very fun), the Sisters' revisionism can also get them in trouble.

Where You Want to Be is definitely a solid album -- especially considering that it was recorded so soon after half the band was replaced -- but crafting something a little more unique would take Taking Back Sunday's music that much farther.

After five years, the band has lost nothing, only gained.