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.

A mature, thoughtful comeback.

The songwriting is strong enough and the arrangements appealing enough that We the Vehicles has a quiet pop charm all its own.

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.

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

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.

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 album's press sheet draws comparisons to Prince's Dirty Mind and Too Short, and while that's not inaccurate, the references could just as easily be Digital Underground, Paris, Above the Law, E-40, late-'70s Parliament/Funkadelic, any previous Coup album, or just about any other funk-steeped rap album that has come from the West Coast.

The two couldn't be more at odds vocally, but Knopfler's laconic drawl is like an easy chair for Harris' fluid pipes.

Drowaton pulses with ideas and energy, and there doesn't seem to be a musical style beyond the Mints' grasp.

Even if Louder Now brings the mosh-pit fun ready to be embraced by new and old fans alike, an attempt to push themselves further would be more than welcomed.

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.

Around is a bit spotty but when it works, it really works well.

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

[The songs] manage to be unified in a way that Young wanted Greendale to be but didn't quite pull off, yet they also stand on their own and are, overall, more memorable than those on Prairie Wind.

The bare-bone production combined with the relentless march of songs gives Stadium Arcadium the undeniable feel of wading through the demos for a promising project instead of a sprawling statement of purpose; there's not enough purpose here for it to be a statement.

Without Feathers may lack its predecessor's apocalyptic vision, but it's a new direction for a group that was heading down an awfully familiar -- and extremely congested -- road.

It's brief and even a little slight, but it's almost as much fun to listen to as it must have been to make.

If you haven't discovered Stereophonics' live show yet, Live from Dakota is a good place to start.

The musical portion of her songs... takes a distant second place to her lyrics. Which is fine, because her words are so engaging, but it wouldn't hurt her to experiment a little more with chord progressions or keys.

Ignore the clunky lyrics... and Gulag Orkestar is an infinitely more appealing album.

Even though Be Your Own Pet were more consistent, or maybe just easier to keep up with, on their EPs, there's still plenty of hyperactive fun (or rather, fuuuuuun) to be found here.

The work would not have been out of place on a more skeletal version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

Unlike his early classics, Laugh Now stumbles occasionally and fails to keep the momentum going through the whole fourth quarter.

It's like listening to early New Order records for the first time, waiting for the next one with a little bit of excited anticipation to see what's going to happen next with every new song.

He makes his tracks entertaining, but he occasionally falls prey to a common trap -- educating the listeners but not enlightening them.

Listened to with an open mind, it's a refreshingly retro rock & roll album that uses its waste-oid imagination in capturing every fantasy that entered Bobby Gillespie's teenage mind.