Our Nature is too long and just not unique enough to really stand out among all the artists treading similar ground.

Thoroughly enjoyable and high in replay value, this will be most valuable for younger listeners for whom H&LA functioned as a point of entry into house music.

O.N.I.F.C. lands somewhere between the growing pains of an artist forced to develop more quickly than he's ready to and material simply less inspired than the hungrier, more excited sounds that came before.

This is how a hip-hop group reaches middle age: by placing themselves as part of a tradition, never lingering in the past but never desperately riding trends.

If you don't listen closely, it goes down easy, but listening with just a slightly critical ear reveals those similarities [to Dave Matthews] as near farcical.

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.

While this collection obviously isn't the best place for newcomers to cut their teeth, From the Vaults, Vol. 1 is a collection that will give longtime fans a taste of what could have been in some kind of alternate time line, making the album essential listening for Kylesa diehards.

Still, as the Kasabian-sized choruses stick in the head like the most delicious, stately fluff, The Evolution of Man winds up the dancefloor confessional done right, fist pumping and throwing fits as if it had karma to burn.

This time around Murs delves into even more of a funk sound, and tracks like "Troublemaker" and "Hey You Beautiful" bring to mind the sound of such similarly inclined contemporaries as Maroon 5 and the Wanted.

While a good background album it may be, it's not exactly gripping. The songs are too multifaceted to feel cohesive, yet they never seem strikingly experimental.

With Bish Bosch, Walker creates a kind of Möbius Strip: by virtue of creating a less physical sonic landscape, he provides a way into his great trilogy on his way out of it.

It's a wall-to-wall party for the freaks, burnouts, outcasts, and misfits and if you don't get it that's your fault, not hers.

Artistically, she's still coming into her own.

While a more focused production ethic might have made for a more consistent album, Pale Fire still goes places the last album never dreamed and hopefully opens doors for even more drastic developments to come.

She's best when playing it kinetic and in complete violation of good taste, so whittle this one down by half for the ultimate in bird-flipping, rave-rapping, and repercussion-free living.

Cole has yet to release a dud, but this is among her best work--somewhere between The Way It Is and Just Like You in terms of quality.

In A World Out of Time, ET have given listeners a near perfect balance of precision and exploration that walks the tightrope between organic live playing and focused studio attention.

The incense smoke and blacklight posters might be a little too heavy-handed for some listeners, but the more experienced stoner rock connoisseurs will recognize that Golden Void is singing it like they're living it.

There's also plenty of dubstep and neo-soul (note the very fine vocal cameo from Greg Blackman on "I'm Feeling U"), and unfortunately, there are also some de rigueur sketches and waste-of-time spoken word interludes, but not too many of them.

If conviction and quality are the measure of a songwriter and musician, the songs and performances on Brother Sinner & the Whale are the very measure of both.

Everything feels just that much more "on", for lack of a better term, with more focus and individuality.

Ultimately, if there's any disappointment to be had with this near-perfect album, it's that it still towers above subsequent efforts as the unequivocal climax of Rage Against the Machine's vision. As such, it remains absolutely essential.

Flaunting both their range and their tremendously evocative productions, Massive Attack recorded one of the best dance albums of all time.

While longtime JLS fans may be satisfied with Evolution, those looking for either a smart reappropriation of sounds from the past or a daring creative leap forward will find themselves at a disappointing dead end.

Working Girl's Guitar shows that Rosie Flores is still earning her keep as a musician the old-fashioned way, and she sounds like she's loving every minute of it--and when the music's this good, there no reason she shouldn't.

This is an album that can easily be enjoyed for the songs alone, so while you don't necessarily need to sit down with the liner notes (which include an accompanying story written Corey Taylor) to enjoy the album, it does add an extra layer of narrative action that reveals House of Gold & Bones to be an album of surprising depth.

Even though they don't quite have the fire that they used to, this more fully realized sound shouldn't have much trouble keeping their fans happy.

Take the Crown features Robbie doing what Robbie does best--writing and performing effortless pop music--but not at his best.