This album is a trippy, spooky delight.

Most impressive about The Wack Album is that The Lonely Island manage to get their jokes across without feeling like they're making fun of rap which, given how much material they'd have by making fun of themselves, would really be a last resort.

As the value of Cole's witticisms, and the intellect required to decrypt full meaning of his verses, continues to be debated, the increased strength in his clear-cut writing evinces promise of greater work ahead.

Complain that they're stuck in a rut or praise that they're still able to do it convincingly, because this album gives up evidence to support either argument.

Don't even let the bittersweet-bearing haters know that Posner and Kweli's great freedom overspill is sweetly delivered over a beat from the late J Dilla, but when the other key tracks come from tearing down fear of the Illuminati ("Wormhole") and the almost always iffy category of rap-rock ("Demonology" with Big K.R.I.T. and Gary Clark, Jr. stomps and groans like a Led Zeppelin song), Gravitas becomes an album where anything can happen and often does, as long as it's genuine.

Total 15 demonstrates Kompakt's reliability as well as its unpredictability.

Part singer/songwriter folk, part 19th century chamber song (one track is called "Tone Pome"), and part ambient score, the album arguably climaxes with the theatrical "Wash It Away," which most dramatically combines all of the above -- although the elegant, tonic-shifting, harp-accented closer, "Maya, Please," also does little to readjust listeners to the material world.

It's clear that Superorganism know exactly what they are doing at all times, slicing and dicing like master chefs, then reassembling the bits and bobs of pop ephemera into a concoction that has a sugary kick sweeter and fizzier than an ice-cold cola.

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.

Summer in Abaddon is an album of small, but hardly insignificant pleasures, and it may be Pinback's finest work yet.

It's refined and focused, but also sexy and intimate.

There's every chance that Laura Marling will get lost in the shuffle as the unexpected commercial success of Feist's The Reminder leads major labels to unleash hordes of similarly talented female singer/songwriters, but Alas I Cannot Swim is far better than the average coffee house-endorsed girly pop.

Nash Kato and Eddie "King" Roeser are taking everything dead seriously, playing for the sake of music itself, giving Rock & Roll Submarine an unexpected soul and heart that makes it a rousing comeback.

Kinsella's lyrical wit is still affecting, displayed in both song titles ("Howdy Pardoner") and his always honest, direct lyrics about relationships ("Let's cut each other's strings/Give me a hand if you understand").

Volcanic Sunlight, despite its sharp contrast from Niggy Tardust, is an absolutely fitting follow-up; it's Williams once more wriggling out of preconceived notions by subverting them entirely.

We'll Be the Moon doesn't always hit the mark, but it's an encouraging first offering proving that Fixers can walk the walk as well as they talk the talk.

Since he's not a world-class performer, most classical fans won't find music of interest here, but Solo Piano II is an engaging record with a personality all its own.

All told, Innocence finds Pontiak in a place both refined and vividly experimental, reining in their unhinged psychedelic guitar blasts and mind-melting production with some of their most nuanced songwriting to date.

Together, these two Unplugged Sessions--which, in this incarnation, include 11 performances not featured on either broadcast--make for a bit of a treat for hardcore R.E.M. fans, a document when the group was near the peak of their powers.

As a whole, The High Country is satisfying fare that anyone who found SSLYBY's previous works a little too light in texture will certainly want to give a spin.

With his steady touring lineup of guitarist/keyboardist James Doviak, bass player Iwan Gronow (the Mutineers, Haven), and drummer Jack Mitchell (Haven, Bad Lieutenant), he showcases his rhythmic, textured guitar playing and reinforces the fact that he's not a bad vocalist, either.

This effort lacks the element of surprise that enlivened their previous album and the songs aren't all quite at the same level, but for sheer smart-punk action, Dumb are clearly still something special. Club Nites suggests they have plenty more albums worth hearing left in them, and this album deserves a spin on your listening device of choice.

It's divisive, danceable, and more than a little bit myopic, but it bears the creative mark of an artist whose acumen for pop craftsmanship is uncontested.

With Sad Hunk, Jurvanen has crafted an album about reaching the age where you don't care about being cool anymore, yet he somehow manages to find ever more nuanced and inspired levels of cool musical insight in the process.

"All These Days" is an atmospheric skyscraper that recalls '80s indie even if it has a shimmering modern sheen, and "Ariel" offers a slight sense of sweetness to close out an EP that functions as a good teaser for the full album while also working well as its own mini-LP.

There's a lot to like among these ten tracks that offer a fairly wide tonal range while still adhering to a central vibe of cool grooves and big melodies.

Belong rides the line between dreamy songs and noisy nightmares expertly throughout the album. Most of the band's records are best experienced in full, front to back, and Realistic IX is the same but in a different way.

Conceptual conceits aside, Simple Math is a fairly passionate and rocking affair filled with sprawling, if still tightly wound anthemic pop.