With plenty of hiss and maxed levels, Live Forever is hardly perfect when it comes to sound quality, and the laid-back show doesn't stand up against Marley's live masterpiece Babylon by Bus, but fans who want their reggae party a little less "punky" will find this a great, chilled alternative.

Fortunately, it's a warm and fuzzy gloom that sounds just right all the time. You won't want to miss Secret Walls, another step in the band's progression.

Does fall just short at times of mimicking a brand of saccharine faux-post-big-band jazz that flourished in the '50s and early '60s, but Haden and his team are too masterful to allow their tribute to lose its stylishness.

At its best, the album is bracing, capable of winning over the cynics who are not particularly open-minded about crossover dance music.

Hieroglyphic Being's unrecognizable, incongruously mechanical mix of "Satellite Sniper" is the only real misstep (albeit a minor one), and all told this is one of the most rewarding remix albums in recent memory.

Fight Like Apes are neither catchy nor profound enough--romantic brooding and trashy partying are mutually exclusive--but that's exactly what makes this band genuine, because that problem, after all, has never stopped generations of teens from going for both moods at once, just as Fight Like Apes do here.

For those quick to claim that guitar music is dead, Cadenza is a sharp reminder that the genre still has plenty of life left in it yet.

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

Hospice may have been organic and fragile, but Burst Apart is sleek and self-assured, and the new image suits Silberman and the Antlers well.

While the album is a revolutionary object in that such fantastic filth was born and flourished outside the corporate--and even indie--music industry, production is about the only thing to be objective about, as everything else is polarizing and preaching to the converted.

While there are definite left-field aspects to Life Fantastic, fans of crossover-indie rock groups like Modest Mouse and Spoon should be able to get behind the angular pop of "Shameless" or the backwater bluegrass-rock of "Life Fantastic."

The songs and performances are strong enough, melodic enough, and fun enough that you can enjoy the album for what it is: 30 minutes of noisy, hooky pop that sounds better every time you listen to it.

Kane once again [after the Last Shadow Puppets] delves into the psychedelic era with a connoisseur's ear for detail and comes away with another similarly ambitious collection of bluesy psych- and folk-inflected rock.

Depending on your disposition, Earth Grid will be either a delightfully compelling listening experience or a maddeningly dull one. Either way, Osborne's uninterested.

Back once again with the ill behavior, Lonely Island's second effort is more of the same, which for many means that life is still worth living.

For returning Cam'ron and Diplomats fans who don't mind a little bumpy with their ride, Gunz n' Butta is the casual collaboration album done right.

A charmingly lush and wistful affair which proves that their unexpected Ivor Novello nominations were no fluke.

Darwin Deez is a guy who has clearly created a persona to deliver his material, but that doesn't disguise the fact he has a lot of talent and has a made an album that proves he's a 21st century indie pop prodigy with a promising future.

To his enormous credit, Laurie never sounds like a dilettante among this group; he holds his own, working his way into the marrow of the songs, playing credible piano throughout the record.

Lovingly detailed, atmospheric, and oozing the Technicolor glow of a smoke-stained '70s movie screen, Rome is awfully hard not to cheer for, even when it's stuck on autopilot, as rarely do pet projects feel this alive and sumptuous.

Although the musicians ... play often furious hard rock, the mix allows a few of singer John Falls' lyrics to be lost.

Their music is generic, competently played, but breaking absolutely no new ground. Only someone utterly obsessed with hearing every pop-punk album ever, by anyone, should pick this up.

The Moonlight Butterfly is yet another effortlessly charming work from The Sea and Cake.

Unfortunately, by tailoring their sound to the stage, they sacrificed some of the beautiful flow and elegant dynamics that made their self-titled effort so effortlessly brilliant.

Brilliant! Tragic! is a little uneven in its mix of new and familiar ideas, but for a band as clearly defined -- and sometimes confined -- by its approach as Art Brut is, to start changing the formula is a big step forward.

Luckily, there's enough genuine melody at the core of these songs to warrant their arrangements.

Losing his religion doesn't mean he's lost his gift for indie rock songwriting, though, and fans who're willing to indulge Bazan's soul-searching will find Strange Negotiations similar to Pedro the Lion's catalog, with a familiar mix of minor-key starkness and lush, guitar-fueled rock songs.

If you're already familiar with Flogging Molly, then Speed of Darkness isn't going to disappoint, and if you're not a fan yet, there's no better time to jump on the wagon than today.