The songs generally sound as tuneful and well-crafted as her earlier work, but Stupid Love sounds curiously chicken-hearted when it reaches for its pop gestures, a shame since the songs where she pushes hardest in that direction are the ones that succeed the most.

The trio dives even deeper into the grooves that drive their music, expanding them and streamlining them into something challenging yet fresh and immediate.

It's a joy to hear, and it's comforting that Sainte-Marie is still writing amazing songs, taking firm social and political stands, performing with spirit, joy, and passion, and pretty much doing what she's always done.

Their music is solid, Southern-style meat-and-potatoes rock at its best; it's a formula they've mastered over the years, and Lean Forward shows it's still delivering soul-satisfying results more than a decade and a half on.

Love and Curses features 14 songs driven by soul, strength and fierce belief, and with a voice as strong as Greg Cartwright fronting a band this tight and effective, Reigning Sound are just about unbeatable; they're one of America's great bands and they're firing on all cylinders with Love and Curses.

Call it sloppy pop (or poppy slop), but even with the raw aesthetic and tinny resonance, the songs are entirely sweet and hummable, sometimes to the point of being unshakable.

Well-chosen guests like Fatman Scoop and Pharoahe Monch increase the thug appeal while earthshaking productions from the Alchemist, DJ Khalil, and Mr. Porter seal the deal.

They're innocent, they're simple, and they're filled with blindingly good hooks. It's all thrown together with a superb sense of knowing what works.

Sometimes, this approach is entirely too slick, particularly when the rhythms are pounding too hard on 'Wild at Heart' and 'You Said,' but at their best, Gloriana can evoke the forgotten charms of '70s studio-centric soft rock in both its mellow and rocking incarnations.

While Interpol is far from a simplistic band, more often than not Julian Plenti Is Skyscraper takes the scenic route, and it pays off with an intimate, subtle set of songs that are strong in their own right.

Tribute To remains reverent despite those unique touches, however, and Jim James (or Yim Yames, or whatever he's calling himself nowadays) sounds fairly fantastic throughout.

The singing may be subdued and the playing quiet, but everything here packs an emotional wallop.

Unfortunately, despite a few great tracks and plenty of pounding productions, Blank hits a lot of familiar notes.

The Ruminant Band is generally a happy affair, though, and cameo appearances by Califone's Tim Rutili and Jim Becker help chart the Fruit Bats' migration from bedroom side project to full-fledged band.

Creaturesque's subtler pleasures may require more time to sink in than the impulsive skinny-dip plunge of its predecessor, but fans of classic-styled melodic indie rock will find it every bit as summery and inviting as the backyard swimming pool on the cover, and well worth the wade.

The bottom line is Troubled, Shaken Etc is an album: paced, sequenced, structured, and produced as such. It's utterly lovely, feminine, and subtly adventurous.

Anjulie is quite impressive as an opening salvo from a talented musical collagist whose minor flurry of hype is well-warranted.

Infinite Light shows that Lightning Dust haven't lost any momentum since the release of their self-titled debut.

Nurses proceed to provide exactly what is expected of them and what their audience presumably expects.

It's not essential Pernice by any stretch, but as a soundtrack to the novel, it works just fine, and its relaxed charm makes it worth hearing even if you don't read the book and are just a fan of the man's music.

Radio Wars demands its listeners heed that siren song, and it's truthfully hard to resist.

Kleerup can certainly be accused of repeating the same tricks over and over, but at least he has some remarkably effective (if not immensely distinctive) tricks — essentially, moderately paced and genially thumping robo-disco beats wedded to majestically buoyant chord progressions, played on synths that somehow manage to sound lush and punchy at the same time, with some bonus keyboard flutters for icing.

Not everything works--Tisdale isn't convincing when she tries to deal in either pain or carnality, but when she sticks to the surface, she makes sure that Guilty Pleasure lives up to its title.

Add it all up and this not-so-conceptual-after-all album points out both the rapper's limitations and his strengths. Call it a draw.

while Midlife could have used a heavier dose of this side of Blur, there's not a bad track here, and the set also brings their glorious, epoch-creating single 'Popscene' back into circulation.

Though her voice has yet to fully develop and lacks the uniqueness running through her bloodline, it's clear she landed a major-label contract on the basis of her talent.

A handful of ballads do add variety to the album's pace, but Owl City is largely a vehicle for the one song Adam Young knows how to make.

Because the sound is of paramount importance, this does succeed as pure radio-ready product, which is enough for Sparks to sustain her momentum if not enough to give her some kind of identity to build a career upon.