While Black is lucky to have friends as skilled and giving as the Brewis brothers, he brings plenty to Slug, and though it's tempting to think that the Brewis brothers' participation is the main draw here, Black proves on Ripe that he's good enough to stand on his own.

If Lydon's decision to revive Public Image Ltd. seemed curious at first, with What the World Needs Now, the group has a firmly established new personality that suits its leader well, and finds him making strong and engaging music again after many fans wrote him off as a spent force.

Jackie Lynn feels like the audio equivalent of a gripping short story or film, and whether it's a cliffhanger or its own entity, it's an engaging, suspenseful tale.

Listeners who have managed to remain immune to the trio's idiosyncratic brand of "thespian rock" will no doubt find much of Enemy Mine unlistenable. That said, fans of manic melodies, bohemian pageantry, and synapse melting lyricism have no greater modern champions than Bejar, Krug, and Mercer.

A quietly compelling album, this will please not only fans of Hinson's other solo work, but those who were introduced to him through the Earlies and the Late Cord as well.

Overall, while a worthwhile inclusion in Gucci's catalog, Drop Top Wop is most likely to be appreciated primarily by the Wop faithful still hungry after a dizzying seven releases within one year.

Eternal Recurrence is a fine, thoughtful piece of ambient drone-folk that is as challenging as it is assuring.

Regardless of the tack she takes, Nes' music has the vulnerable freshness of winter thawing into spring--particularly on the lovely album-closer "Ruby Red"--and Opticks puts her in the very sweet spot between innocence and expertise.

Refreshingly introspective, stylish, and transparent.

She's in Control is dirty late-night fun simply because it has fun.

What comes across most effectively is the ease that both Roberts and Morrison have with one another. Their vocals settle in together comfortably. That feeling adds even more bubbling warmth to this already toasty disc.

Paranormal isn't the return to form one might have hoped for, but it's no embarrassment either, and Cooper appears to be having a grand time while giving his fans a good show for their dollar.

For those with more of an ear for intricate soundcraft and matchbox symphonies, The Camel's Back ends up being something far more satisfying and memorable.

Certain listeners might bemoan the shortage of uptempo belters here, but one attentive and thorough listen presents a clear justification.

In a Mood is an unassuming treat of an album, and Okely proves himself to be one of the top modern practitioners of this very old, very tired-in-the-wrong-hands sound. In his hands, it feels fresh and vital, as the album is as good as anything that came out in the first wave of soft rock.

Running a leisurely 75 minutes, Threads doesn't seem sequenced so much as unedited; it's as if instead of finishing the album, she decided to dump every track out into the marketplace. This makes for a somewhat somnolent record, but it's better to think of it as not a complete meal but rather a buffet that contains something to please every palette.

The whole set affirms the band's continued relevance with a clear sense that they're having a ball with their past and influences while linking with another cohort of homegrown talent.

Green Day have nothing more in mind than righting their ship, and that's precisely what they do.

Eisley's mix of old and new, and accessible and unexpected, makes their music utterly charming, and Combinations is a blend of bewitching contradictions.

Roadsinger is an utterly solid catalog entry under either his adopted spiritual name or his former one. Longtime fans will not be disappointed, and the rest of us should take note, too, because this kind of songcraft is seldom come by anymore.

This combination of fluidity and structure makes Frying On This Rock an absorbing, headphone-centric listen that only demands that the listener turn up the volume and hand over control.

In all, Cranekiss is a beautiful pop fantasia that finds Tamaryn expressing her music's passion and sensuality in exciting new ways.

This is a heartfelt, creative, and deeply inspired album that should appeal to fans of intelligent pop music.

There is not a single weak track on this album. It's an unusually moving and haunting document from one of the unsung heroes of American (and, oddly enough, Jamaican) roots music.

There's a paragraph of informative text for each track, along with sleeve and label scans, to place all of this enjoyable oddness into some kind of context.

Albums like these always have to strike a careful balance between mimicking the original and killing the spirit of the original, but it's a balance that The Flip Is Another Honey is able to find quite comfortably.

K2O plays like an extended groove, and while the addition of guest percussionists makes it feel more like a band jam than a bedroom recording, the instrumentation never flares up enough to break the listener from a trance. Instead, the setting-sun artwork sums up the vibe for an album that Price himself elegantly describes as "fuzzy lullabies."

Much like our ever expanding universe, Yellow Ostrich's Cosmos is an infinitely listenable album that holds up to repeated scrutiny.