Anger can be power, and the musical and emotional furor of Shade is a powerful and much-needed weapon in a chaotic time.

An album that's an uneasy mix of a band that's fully in control of their sound, making some good choices as they expand, but also occasionally toppling over as they overreach. It's worth checking out for the songs that work -- the group certainly haven't lost their touch when it comes to uptempo gloomy synth pop -- and the less successful moments aren't enough to sink the album entirely.

Arranged with a sense of brevity, Ca$ino is limited to just eleven songs, making each of its entries feel both more unique unto themselves and more significant as part of a larger statement than the usual overstuffed commercial rap record.

Like Hermits on Holiday, it's first-rate experimental rock made by two musicians with interesting, complicated ideas and the skills to bring them to life.

Merritt doesn't deviate from his signature lo-fi synth pop and brooding vocals, but he certainly sounds like he's having a whole lot of fun.

The London Sessions just happens to have her best round of songs, productions, and performances since The Breakthrough.

They aren't necessarily breaking new barriers here, but that's not really what Alter Bridge are looking for. For longtime fans, there's enough heft and craft here to satisfy, while new listeners will find a solid entry point into the band's growing canon.

Much like 1999, 2000 is a showcase of musically rich throwback production, with jazz-flecked instrumentals and smooth boom-bap beats backdropping Joey's controlled bars and lyrics of New York City life.

More gutsy, more aggressive, and more dynamic than B.R.M.C.

The band surely meant for this to be a stopgap until their next album, but rather than giving this a spin it would be more rewarding to go back to Con Todo el Mundo and enjoy its many charms instead. The ways they explore the outer reaches of dub on that album are truly exciting, while this comes off like a school assignment in comparison.

Even if it's not as traffic-stopping as her debut, this album suggests that she can keep her music interesting for the long haul.

This is easily the best-sounding album Doherty has been involved with, neither self-consciously "raw" nor overly polished; it lets the music be as simple or as elaborate as it needs to be.

Luckily, the majority of Gracious Tide, Take Me Home plays to the band's beautifully swooning strengths, and in doing so, produces one of the most majestic debuts from a British act this year.

If You're Dreaming definitely isn't as immediate as Quit the Curse, and while it isn't a demanding album, it requires a bit more concentration in order to understand it better.

Creep On Creepin' On is the sound of Timber Timbre fully coming into its own, with romance and strangeness to spare.

Overall, Marks to Prove It feels a bit anxious, but that's not necessarily to its detriment, and four LPs in, the Maccabees are still making smart and sophisticated Brit guitar rock.

Dear God, I Hate Myself is also the band’s most overtly electronic album in some time, with several songs composed on a Nintendo DS that gives the darkness of “Apple for a Brain” and “Secret Motel” an unpretentious, somehow friendly feel.

Not surprisingly, Trampin' is a largely political album, but it is far from a didactic one.

On their stunning debut, the Richmond, VA, foursome can sound as crisp and ethereal as Portishead, as otherworldly as Tom Waits, and as atmospheric as Radiohead.

Califone takes familiar elements and often combines them in unfamiliar ways without sounding unfamiliar or ever losing sight of the song.

Life on Other Planets is a smashing return to form, an album giddy with the sheer pleasure of making music.

Hotline holds together remarkably well as an album, due to good track selection and intelligent segueing; in fact, some of the songs actually run together quite smoothly, with no break between songs. Rarely does a rock band forge such a strong identity so early in their career.

If you're looking for irony, you're out of luck; if you want to hear a rock band confront the blues with soul, muscle, and respect, then thickfreakness is right up your alley.

Forget the easy Gibbard/Tamborello comparisons and look here if you seek more mope with your Moog.

There are occasional missteps, of course, with Becky Stark’s spoken interlude in “Cradle”--a spot-on vintage ballad that dissolves into pure camp--being the worst offender. But the vocals rarely disappoint, and vocals are Love to Live’s bread and butter, anyway.

Saying The Grand Theatre, Vol. 1 is a return to form unnecessarily belittles the last few Old 97's albums that came before it, but calling it their best album since Fight Songs is just about right.

The Baseball Project doesn't do fluff songs on the subject, though, and the songs on this second outing, like they were on the first, are intelligently written and arranged, running the full spectrum of emotions that baseball can inspire in a fan, and in so doing, the best of the songs rise above novelty to grapple with the passions and difficulties of life itself.

What the Obits do reasonably but not remarkably well isn't as important as where they excel on Moody, Standard and Poor, and when the pieces mesh just right, this band does guitar back-and-forth as well as anyone since Television, and rocks a whole lot harder to boot.